The No Walled Church

Florida Thoughts Part 1

The No Walled Church

 I spent the latter part of last week in Florida.  We were right near the tornado area.  As a matter of fact we were less than ½ mile from it.  I remember hearing the sound of the wind, but not knowing what it was at the time.

 Well, I was there for a Master Builders church leadership conference.  For those who would like to know more about Master Builders, it is an apostolic ministry that provides support to the local church.  The Master Builders website can be found here.

 I love to go to things like this and see the diversity and still the unity of the body of Christ at work.  Watching worship leaders from at least 8 different states come together to worship is awesome.  Listening to the teaching of apostolic leaders from other networks and hearing the heart that beats so similar to ours is unreal.  Sitting down and talking with other Pastors, Youth Pastors, and church leaders is inspiring.  All of these things show me that we are all on the same team.

 This brings me to the focus of what was shared at the conference this year.  In a nutshell, we as a body of Christ send too much time focusing on becoming the church community and not the community church.  These are my own words and I have had this feeling for quite some time, and they were echoed many times at the conference.  Neil Silverberg, the leader of Master Builders spoke about the future of the ministry and the future of the church.  In his message he outlined where churches fail.  They fail when it comes to Matthew 28:18-20:

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth.
Mat 28:19  Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20  teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.

 Too often the church is focusing on getting people into the church.  “There is a safe community inside here, come on in and sit down” seems to be the mentality.  Many times I see people leaving churches and going to bigger churches because the programs are better.  Many times people focus on the Superbowl party for the church, instead of the Superbowl party for their lost friends.  Many times we see Christians who know very few unsaved people.  I could go on but I think you understand my meaning.  From here, Neil spoke about the fact that we need to change our culture. 

 As I listened and later reflected on this, my mind went to a mission trip to Honduras.  In Honduras, I noticed something.  The church buildings we saw had virtually no walls.  My mind began to reflect on the “no walled church” in light of the Gospel.  Jesus calls us to go out and reach the lost.  He calls us to do this in three ways according to Acts 1:8:

Act 1:8  But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

1. Jerusalem and Judea-This means to minister to those closest to you.  It can be your house, your family and closest friends, and people you see on a daily basis.


2. Samaria-I read this as “some area”, meaning areas not far from your home where you can see the lost and broken hearted.  It is obvious who Jesus was referring to when you look at His life.  He was reaching out to those counter-culture to Him.


3. The ends of the earth-I think this one is pretty self explanatory.

 What if we adopted the concept of a no walled church?  What a difference there would be in the kingdom if we would get a hold of this vision and make it our lifestyle.  This focus, instead of worrying about our political rights and comfort zones being violated could, and I believe would change the world.  If we taught our children to live in a mindset of the kingdom first, by the time they became leaders, they would see the value of the body of Christ networking and working together to reach the lost.  If I remember correctly, Jesus didn’t come for the well and the prosperous; He came for the lost and the poor in spirit.  He didn’t seem to be too interested in the current status of the big churches of the day; instead He put His focus on those that the church overlooked.  He wasn’t worried about getting people coming to His church because it had great programs or a great community; He was interested in being in the community and ministering on the streets.

 These are some of the thoughts from my trip to Florida.  I will be sharing more as time allows.