Church in Silver Spring

This past Sunday, TTS, AR and I went to visit a church in downtown Silver Spring that meets in the Majestic Theater.

Some immediate observations:

- its in a movie theater (obviously)

- the majority of the congregation was black

- about 100 people in the afternoon service

- no youth service, but a children's service was available

- the church has been around for about 2 years

- there are only about 6 people on staff at the church

- the church is located in an urban setting, outside of D.C.

After the service we had the opportunity to talk with the pastor and church planter of the Theater Church. We asked him, "What is the most challenging part of being a church planter in this area?". He replied that it is very hard to maintain balance between his personal life and the church. It is hard to keep himself spiritually full and still pour out all that he can for his church.
This is reflective of the statistics in The Crisis of the American Church which states that a number one cause for pastors leaving the church is that they are spiritually burnt out.
I really enjoy visiting other churches. Comparing the church I normally attend and Theater Church, they seem to be polar opposites. My church has a huge congregation, of mostly caucasians, and a strong youth program. We have our own gigantic building in the suburbs. I think this demonstrates the diversity of the church of Christ.

Organic Multiplication- Copies vs Common Characterisics

Many times pastors will look at the models and programs of successful churches and attempt to implement the same activities in their own church. As the pastor takes the new ideas back to their church, they can either reproduce the program exactly or create something with the same basic structure with common characteristics; they can have a factory or a farm.

The reproduction of a model is like a factory. A factory can readily reproduce reliable copies of the original product, given the appropriate resources are provided. However, they do not, in and of themselves produce life, nor are they capable of recreating life on their own.

On the other hand, a model with similar characteristics is more like a farm. A farmer studies the conditions a life form needs to flourish and the dangers from which it must protect. In this way, a farmer can extract the key characteristics that make that life form successful.

Both of my parents are avid gardeners. They enjoy growing plants and landscaping our yard. However, most of my house is in the shade. This means that only certain kinds of plants can grow around my house. If I were to plant a plant that requires full exposure to the sun, like roses, they would without a doubt shrivel up and die. However, if I planted a hosta around my house it would survive. In the same way, if the methods of a wealthy middle-class large congregation are implemented in a church in central Africa, they certainly wouldn't survive. This demonstrates that exact copies of a church's methods and programs will fail when put in a different context. Therefore, in order to spread the gospel and create a sustainable Christian movement, the gospel must be contextualized to each culture it is in.