CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS
The Question
Are you asking when will we reopen?
As you know, The Church never closed. WE are the church. We are ALL ministers!
Now that legal restrictions are starting to lift, seize this next month to be the church without a building. The church has thrived for centuries in homes and through acts of love and service. As things begin to open up, find ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
If God is working His purposes in this season, let’s make sure we do all we can to join Him. Let good come from a phase outside the church walls, so that when we do come inside, we’ll know that we didn’t miss an opportunity that was set up for us.
The Next Steps
In addition, before the “gathering in a building” stage, we feel led to reignite biblical church practices. As we sense the fire to fellowship, challenge yourself and rekindle ways of living out being the church.
As much as we want to go back to what is familiar, we know The Holy Spirit is calling us forward to better! Not instead of anointed sacraments like Sunday morning gatherings, but in addition to them.
Ask yourself, how is God calling each one of us as ministers to be the church outside of our “normal” traditional ways?
Let God ignite those plans in you instead of reopening with old wine skins. God is calling us to new! New wine! New wine skins! New songs!
The Future
The prophets of old said things that still apply! (Isaiah 54) Prepare the way for the Lord! Stretch wide your tent! It’s worth the read to see how it was said in different translations.
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/54-2.htm
May I call you to think outside of your box and jump out of your comfort zone. The hearts of people are open, the harvest is ripening and the Spirit is willing to show out His power through our obedience.
They’re so many ways to be generous and plant seeds of joy. Even if you need to stay home, we can all sow hope, which brings us to the challenge.
Allow this challenge to be a catalyst to birth creativity and Spirit led ministry. Utilize this opportunity to rebirth what the early church did so well. Seize this short season to discover better ways to love without strings, fellowship and even grow relationships without a building. This is our reasonable act of worship as God’s people.
The Challenge
We believe in BEING THE CHURCH so much that we want to give every family $50 each to invest in doing something that extends Jesus outside of the church building
It’s not a whole lot of money, but we want to let God take Newsong’s resources, bless them, break them up amongst our family, and watch God use them to give away so much more than we started with. (Luke 24:30) That’s the way He did it with the feeding of the 5,000 and He hasn’t stopped yet.
The only condition we put on the challenge is that you do something that celebrates our motto as a church. We have fun. We love Jesus. We are family.
Here are some ideas to get your Spirit to brainstorm ways to involve family, include fun, and be the loving hands and feet of Jesus.
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Here are some ideas:
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Order pizza and invite church family to bring lawn chairs and sit in the driveway together for an hour.
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Deliver takeout to a friend who is hurting.
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Invite your neighbors over for an outdoor movie night and snacks.
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Offer to go buy items for someone who can’t leave their house.
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Give $50 to Rizutos Ice Cream and tell them to tell the next 10 customers that it’s on Newsong Church.
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Invite church family over for a BBQ.
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Use your seed money to buy ingredients to make pies for your neighbors.
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Pay for the groceries or gas or coffee of the person behind you in line and share an encouraging word to them.
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Start a home fellowship and use the money for snacks.
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Bring donuts to the hospital nurses or the nearest firehouse.
We hope you find some cool ways to be the church without strings attached. Someone might say, aren’t you afraid someone might spend it on themselves? If you need groceries that much, we are happy to bless. Freely we have been given, freely we will give. That’s the heart of Jesus. We want to plant the seed in you to be generous and watch God use you to grow it. Like the parable of the talents, don’t bury it. Do something to BE the church.
Whatever you end up doing, when we do come together, we’d love to hear the testimonies of how we saw God glorified through this challenge! In addition, we hope it’s not a one time thing, but it sparks creativity to continue being ministers outside of the church walls.