imagining how the church can reorient around mission

Years ago, I was having a weekly breakfast with a group of pastors who led downtown churches in my city (that is what pastors do, right? Eat!). One of them I became exceptionally fond of. He was nearing retirement and I found his insights particularly insightful. On one occasion, I asked him if he had any wisdom he’d like to pass on to me (I was one of the young ones then). He said if he were to do it all over again he’d sell the church buildings. Firm, resolute…unflinching…sell em all! He felt like they stole focus from the “main
thing” he was trying to accomplish.

That was years ago now and in my nearly 30 years of pastoring I have
heard his words echo in the back of my mind at many crossroads. In those years, I have rarely pastored a community with a “church building.” We’ve rented a few, but to truly occupy, none…until now. God has graciously seen fit to loan us one. I say graciously because it was not what we were looking for. We simply were seeking to embed our community in a specific location. For us, it was the north central part of Spokane. We all sensed this was where we were to put down roots. read more

via www.youtube.com read more

This response came after reading Gustavo Martin's thoughtful
comment on the last post here from David Fitch. You might want to read that first.  I really appreciate Gustavo and his earnest commitment to the
church and the Gospel!

"Agreed (and BTW – thanks for the interaction).
That being said, I think you may have some misunderstanding of the term
attractional. You might be getting it confused with the term attractive. The
gathered church is to always be attractive and winsome. When most people use
the term “attractional” they are normally referring to the concept of
“extractional” (removing people from their natural sphere of influence for the
Kingdom by eating up all their time with internal church stuff). read more

“If you’re not careful (with the attractional ministry approach), you’ll end up looking back after 30 years of ministry realizing the high point of your ministry was that one moment in time when you finally got all 300 people to come to your church and be happy at the same time.” 

– David Fitch