Where is your Church

A few weeks ago, Dustin, a missionary that is serving along side of us for a six-month term, organized a beach service. Dustin loves to surf, and began going to a local surf beach where he started to meet the local surfers, several of whom work as surf instructors at the beach. He began to build friendships with them, and several of the Christians in that group mentioned a desire to spend time together, and spend time in the word, so Dustin met with a few of them and provided a very simple time of fellowship and bible study right there at the beach. There were days that the surf was good, and they couldn’t meet at the originally set time, because the guys needed to be out while the tourists were there, so they would simply wait until the surf died down, the tourists left, and a small group could get together. So, he planned the beach service as a time to get a larger group together, invite people that hadn’t been joining the small group, and just get to know more of the local surf community. Even though I’m not a surfer, I was invited. It was a really great time. One of the great things I got from the event is that church doesn’t have to happen in a building, God says very clearly, “If two or more people are gathered in my name, I am there.” This means, that the smallest common denominator, the minimum number of people necessary for a church service is two. I read a very interesting book Organic Church by Neil Cole, and it details a church planting movement built on the premise of going to places where people already congregate, and bring church services to those places, not with amplifiers, speakers, an microphones, just a small gathering of people sharing what is happening in their lives, and encouraging one another on this journey of life. A small group of men from our English-speaking church meet for breakfast on Saturday morning. Now, there are a lot of good restaurants in Sosúa, after all, half of the community caters to tourists, but we chose a comfortable little hole-in-the-wall that is one of those places full of regulars. We show up for breakfast to encourage one another, but also for opportunities to build relationships with the other people in the restaurants. So, my question is where is your Church? Sunday mornings are a great training ground, but I’d like to encourage you to find an informal church, maybe at work during a break time, a local coffee shop, a parking lot, a park, wherever you find a few minutes with a small group, even if it is just a group of two. I’ve had some great church moments just talking with a friend over a cup of coffee. You, know it sort of reminds me of this guy I read about once, he used to meet with people in homes, at local watering holes, down at the boat docks, on the side of a hill, on top of a mountain, in parks, and in gardens. He went where people were living their lives, and was able to introduce them to a loving God that the new very well. After all, he was His son.