Opening the door (PS - Check out my new footer!)

I was in class this afternoon and we had a panel of pastors in talking with us regarding various outreach/missional positionings and ministries that their congregations engage in. Then it came time for questions. And it seemed at first that we just didn't have anything beyond surface level, DUH questions (I think this has a lot to do with us seniors being just one week out from learning of our regional assignments - there's just not much more mental room right now.)

But then someone asked a question about the "membership model" of church - as one of the pastors said they find many issues with this modern model. The person asked, if you don't have a membership model when the folks you are serving come into your church for your outreach, how do you share the gospel? That is your call as a church to share the gospel.

I looked at my neighbor and gave a strange look because to me it sounded like this person was saying that unless you are a "member" of the congregation, that you could serve them and thus share the gospel. Or that you must be a member in order to receive the gospel that is called to be shared. I was literally dumbfounded.

One of the pastors spoke up and began to articulate the numerous and concrete ways that the gospel is shared daily in their outreach ministries (providing for food, school supplies, etc...) And then the pastor said, "I mean I ask the question, what if we really believed that Jesus said what he said?"

Truly, that is it! If we lived what we say we believe, and do and be what and who we are called to be, things like providing food, etc...won't be an issue. We would just do because that's what we do, because of who we are, that is who we are called to be.

And I looked at my neighbor and I said that sharing the gospel is as concrete as opening the door, offering a hand, sharing bread, providing clothing, helping others to seek employment or housing, fighting for the human rights of all people. The gospel is opening the door!

So per the membership model - well, it has (or had) its place, but in the end it is not about members, it is not about numbers. Our call as Christians, our call as disciples, and our call as the church is to live the gospel - to open the door!