What time does your service start?

When people find out that I am a pastor, there is usually a series of questions that they ask me: “What is the name of your church?” “Where is it located?” “What time does your service start?” Most of the time I will answer those questions directly with the proper responses, but there are other times I may insert some broader answers that make them stop and question my answers. They may ask: “Where is your church? And I will say, “right here”. Or they may ask: “What time does your service start?” And then I will say, “what time is it now?” Yes these answers are meant to a little sarcastic and confusing, but they usually help people understand that church is more than just an event, or a time, or location. The church is a movement. A movement that was never supposed to be constrained and constricted to a finite place and time. The church is a continuum that can function in any variable. The reason why my sarcastic answers confuse people, it because we have adopted traditions that are contrary to the first century church.  

Look at John 4:4-21

Jesus had a conversation with a woman about where people should go and worship. Jesus was taking a break at a well, and he met a woman there. Now the woman was at the well at an unusual time. She did this because she was ashamed of who she was, and what she had done, so she didn’t want people to see her. But she ran into Jesus.(of all people to run into right) After a pretty confrontational conversation, she recognizes that not only is Jesus Jewish, but he was a Jewish Prophet. This opened up a whole new world of questions for the woman. As a Samaritan she had a totally different religious background than Jesus. It was even decreed that Jews and Samaritans where not even allowed to be associated with each other, not only sitting at a well, in a common area discussing faith. But the woman liked what Jesus was saying and wanted to be a part of the freedom that He was offering.

So the woman asked Jesus the deepest theological question that she could think of: Where should I go worship? She said,” Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.(vs. 20). I love the response that Jesus gives her; Jesus tells her that there will be a time where none of that matters. Essentially Jesus tells the woman, you go worship wherever, and whenever you want to. If you want to have worship at this well, you are more that welcome to do so. Jesus set her free in thinking that the power of God that we experience can tied down to a location. God is bigger than a location. God is bigger than an event. God is bigger than our religious traditions. We cannot trap God and expect to control Him by our own religious experiences.

Jesus would be confused with our modern day church model. Jesus only used the word “church” only twice in the gospels. Jesus said more about circumcision than HE did about church. This was on purpose, because His favorite word was kingdom and His focus was disciples. Church is simply an extension of the kingdom of God with His people, where ever they are. This is what the “gospel” is all about. The “gospel” is made of people. The gospel has its power because people propel it.  We need to release God’s people and not retain them to an attraction.  We don’t need them in our churches, we need them in God’s world.“No empire building, No control, No Glory.”

This is the church that God is calling us to. This is the church that I want to be a part of. This is the church that you should be excited about joining. Not a building. Not an event. Not a time. God is calling us to a world that needs us, because it needs him. So what time does your service start? It starts right here, right now!

CHURCH!