{"id":366,"date":"2005-08-03T23:10:33","date_gmt":"2005-08-03T23:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:46:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:46:49","slug":"this_is_what_i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml","title":{"rendered":"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick at Tent Pegs<\/a> writes today<\/a> about the Elders’ vision of hat their church should be. Made me want to move back to Michigan. OK, not really but it’s a vision of what I’d like to see my church become. An excerpt:<\/p>\n

These eleven men of God have traveled farther down a hard road than any group I have ever worked with before. When they saw that holding on to our traditions as if they were “thus saith the Lord” and keeping the church locked down in the building would not be effective in changing the world, they said, “enough.”
\nIt is the eldership here that said we will put no more money into the ground. We built our building and remodeled it as fast as we could, but we are still having three morning services to get the folk in (and to serve different groups). Some have said we need to sell this building and build bigger, like those other megachurches in town. Our elders said no. They are willing to put money into off-site churches in coffee bars or empty storefronts, happy to pour money into mission works in Michigan, Canada, and six or seven countries overseas, and thrilled to maintain a massive warehouse of clothes and food that serves between 30-90 families a week (good stuff, not hominy and hand-me-downs). But no more money for church buildings. Why?
\nThey want the church to escape the building. They want us to go out and bring in the lost. They want us to find those who are different from us, care for them, love them, and, should they wish to worship with us, welcome them. So… what was an upper-income white church is rapidly becoming something else. A large percentage of our congregation has no background in the restoration movement and some worship services have 30-35% minority representation now. The poor, the punks, and the pierced sit beside old ladies with blue rinsed hair, people who came down the hall from their AA or NA meetings and found a worship going on, black, white, asian, and an amazing assortment of financial situations and emotional histories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you read that line in the last paragraph? It said and should<\/strong> they wish to worship with us<\/em>! Not when, should. How refreshing to hear of a church focused on loving people, whether they want to place membership \/ study the Bible \/ be baptized \/ become “true disciples” or not.
\nNow I’m not saying that we’re still practicing the old way of the stat sheet, like some<\/a> seem to be (at least in part). I’m just longing for a broader, deeper, more Christ like vision of a healthy church. It’s just that the shortsighted, “Are we growing? Are we baptizing?” vision of church health is all we know. It would be so easy to slide back into, I’m afraid we’re going to end up there.
\nI want something more than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick at Tent Pegs writes today about the Elders’ vision of hat their church should be. Made me want to move back to Michigan. OK, not really but it’s aRead More This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Is What I Want My Church To Look Like - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patrick at Tent Pegs writes today about the Elders’ vision of hat their church should be. Made me want to move back to Michigan. OK, not really but it’s aRead More This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-08-03T23:10:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-29T02:46:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Doug Schaefer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@salguod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doug Schaefer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml\",\"name\":\"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like - salguod.net\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-08-03T23:10:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-29T02:46:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"salguod.net\",\"description\":\"Stuff I Think Up\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f\",\"name\":\"Doug Schaefer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Doug Schaefer\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/salguod.net\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/salguod\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/author\/salguod\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like - salguod.net","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like - salguod.net","og_description":"Patrick at Tent Pegs writes today about the Elders’ vision of hat their church should be. Made me want to move back to Michigan. OK, not really but it’s aRead More This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like","og_url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml","og_site_name":"salguod.net","article_published_time":"2005-08-03T23:10:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-29T02:46:49+00:00","author":"Doug Schaefer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@salguod","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Doug Schaefer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml","url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml","name":"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like - salguod.net","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-08-03T23:10:33+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-29T02:46:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/08\/this_is_what_i.shtml#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Is What I Want My Church To Look Like"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/","name":"salguod.net","description":"Stuff I Think Up","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2237e297e41300051087d8791343043f","name":"Doug Schaefer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d8dde291ac4514740353f4bb9cbd9418?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Doug Schaefer"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/salguod.net","https:\/\/twitter.com\/salguod"],"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/author\/salguod"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":449,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/02\/be_like_angie.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":366,"position":0},"title":"Be Like Angie","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Angie is one of our teen leaders, working with the teen girls. A year or two ago, we only had one girl disciple in our teen ministry. There were other teen girls, but only one had yet made the decision to follow Christ. Last year, through much prayer, faith, love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":496,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/05\/midweek_lesson.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":366,"position":1},"title":"Midweek Lesson – Dreams & Personal Vision","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been leading our house church for a few months now. I've meant to post my notes on our midweek lessons each week, but have forgotten to. We have our midweek lessons in our house churches (just smaller groups, arranged mostly by geography) most weeks, meeting as a churhc once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles, papers and lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Articles, papers and lessons","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/articles-papers-and-lessons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":156,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/06\/echurch.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":366,"position":2},"title":"E-Church","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"June 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Justin at Radical Congruency had a post the other day about 'E-mail church'. He addresses the idea that church is more than a building and a schedule of meetings. Do we really need to meet to have 'church'? Isn't it church when we gather for dinner, meet to pray, just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":238,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/12\/church_developm.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":366,"position":3},"title":"Church Developments","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"December 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had this written for a few days now, but I've been hesitant to post it. I know at least two members of my church read this blog regularly, and I fear both hurting their faith and, to be honest, a potential backlash at me for publicizing these thoughts and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":198,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/09\/missing_the_poi.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":366,"position":4},"title":"Missing the Point","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've mentioned before, the church I'm a part of is an offshoot of the Churches of Christ. One of the things that attracted me to this church was it's passion for thestandards and misson of God and for the restoration of first century Christianity. They were determined to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":816,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/05\/my_brother_in_l.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":366,"position":5},"title":"My Brother In Law’s Story","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been wanting to post this here for a while now, but I wanted my Brother In Law to type it up so the facts were straight. He recently put it on our family website. It's an amazing story, here it is ... 2007 brought a lot of change in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Family and Friends","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/family-and-friends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}