Where Do You Go to Church?
Where do you go to Church? What do you say when people ask you that?
When I was a kid, going to church was the rule. We went to church at First Baptist in Colman, South Dakota and then Ramsey Baptist in Montrose South Dakota. It may surprise you to hear this — me being a pastor and all — but I didn’t always like it. We went Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening, and youth group, rarely did we miss. But I do remember trying to miss… a few times. You may remember “Wonderful World of Disney?” It was always half over when it was time to leave for the evening worship service. Where do you suppose I wanted to be?
Now let me proclaim, I am so thankful that my parents forced — yes even though my Father’s favorite line was “you don’t have to go to church, you get to go to church” sometimes forced was the proper verb — forced me to go to church all the time. It created good habits in my life that were hard to break.
But I wonder if Jesus ever intended for church to be an address? At Calvary we have four different addresses with six different worship gatherings, and I love them all. But church is not an address. In fact, I don’t think the church Jesus said he would built was ever meant to be stationary. Perhaps we should stop asking, “Where do you go to church?” Perhaps we should start asking, “Where is your church going?”
Okay — all of that to say — two weekends ago, I did not go to church. I was a part of the church that is going to people all over our community. Very simply, we cancelled our worship gatherings for the weekend and went out to serve. It was a great way to worship and a great way to encounter Jesus. Watch the video for a bit of a look at where the church in State College went one weekend in May.