A people practicing the presence

I passed a church in the area this weekend and noticed their motto written below their church name. It said “A people practicing the presence”. It struck me just how inwardly focused this sounds. It’s certainly nothing wrong with be a people practicing the presence of God but the message that is sent out is that non-Christians are not welcome because they really aren’t into ‘practicing the presence’. It puts up a nearly impenetrable wall to those not in the ‘presence of God’ club.

The church in general is perceived by unbelievers as a Christian Social Club and in many cases it’s an accurate representation. I read recently that most unchurched people are pro-Jesus and anti-church… and the average unchurched person never connects Jesus to church in their mind… they see them as separate and generally unrelated. Jesus is into helping the poor and healing people and stuff like that… the church is often seen as the enemy of social justice… aligning itself unconditionally with odd bedfellows which make it seem like an intolerant, uncompassionate, warmongering political puppet.

We must figure out how to turn the church outward… the current buzz word is ‘missional’. We have to break out of the social club mode and work to make church accessible.