The Country Club Church

My family is currently attending a rather large church in Twin Falls Idaho. Not long ago, the pastor mentioned that at times this congregation has been called a “Country Club Church”. I started thinking back. It occurred to me that every church I have ever been a part of has been called a Country Club Church. 

When I think of a Country Club, I think of a place that gives special benefits to its members, and is sometimes exclusionary towards non-members. It provides comforts and pleasures that the members pay a high price for. The clubhouse is usually stylish and plush. It is very exclusive.

For the record, when you’re referring to a church, this is not usually a compliment. 

But it begs the question: what exactly is a “Country Club Church”? Is that what we mean? Only the finest and best of everything? A club that looks out for its own members and sometimes seems exclusive? Places a high premium on membership? 

Compared to most of the world, every church in America is a Country Club Church. That’s not meant to be an indictment; it’s a statement of reality. And I confess, I’ve gotten kind of used to that myself. I like nice sound systems and comfortable seats and lots of room for meetings.

In a matter of months, we’re planning to move to a part of the world that most certainly won’t be accused of having country club churches. There’s not really all that many “broom closet” churches either. There’s not many churches period. Part of our work is going to be helping to plant some of these broom closet churches. Part of our work is to make them self-sustaining, and self-duplicating. No big budgets, just a more or less comfortable place to meet.

We’re hoping to partner with some folks in these country club churches to help support our efforts to do that. The goal is not to get them to the point of supporting a pastoral staff, much less paying us for coming over. That’s why we need you to partner with us. We need the country club churches to help us help plant the broom closet churches.

Maybe being seen as a “Country Club Church” can be a compliment after all. Maybe not only that, maybe it’s an honor and a privilege. Maybe it’s that whole “blessed to be a blessing” thing. “Freely, freely, you have received. Freely, freely give.” “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” Luke 12:48 NLT.

May we all be that blessing!

An Imperfect Illustration

People ask us all the time why we’re trying to go to Thailand and help plant churches. They ask what we’re going to be doing. They want to know what is prompting us to go and try to work with people who are struggling to get by. Why should they support us to go to the other side of the world and care for people there? Why would we want to leave the comfort of the States? 

Andrea’s dad gave her some advice once. He told her, “Never become a missionary. Unless God tells you to. Then you’d better do it.” For quite a few years now she (we) had followed his first piece of advice. But now, the second piece has kind of overshadowed. We can’t “not go”.

Of the 16,749 people groups in the world, 6,929 of these are considered to be unreached. They are considered "unreached" when the gospel has not broken into their culture and language. They do not know Jesus, there is no church among them, and if there are believers, they have no opportunity to become growing disciples of Jesus, unless someone from the outside comes into their culture with the gospel. We’re not talking about going to convert the heathen masses. We’re talking about bringing the light and love of Christ to a people that hasn’t had the opportunity to experience for themselves that light and that love. We’re hoping to go to a part of the world that is less than 0.16% Christian. We’re hoping to be the hands and feet and eyes and ears of Jesus to unreached people. 

A new friend in this venture put together a video explaining this. He calls it “An Imperfect Illustration”. I’ve listed the link below. Take a minute, it’s worth watching.

http://thai5.info/?p=3643

“Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’” Isaiah 6:8, NLT.

Ok, Let's Go!

A friend sent me a message the other day. It seems that I had appeared in one of her dreams. 

That’s not the first time I’ve heard that. Just kidding.

I asked about the dream. She said, “You appeared, took off a knit cap, rubbed your recently shaved head, and said, ‘Ok, let’s go’”. 

That’s kind of random, huh? 

Then again, maybe it’s not so random after all. The month of December was kind of tough. We didn’t hear anything from the mission. We didn’t hear anything from the field. We didn’t feel like we were going anywhere. It was a lot of no fun.

A few weeks ago, we got in contact with our Pre-Field Coach. He put before us a possible opportunity in a different part of Thailand, working with a somewhat different focus. And he put us in touch with the Team Leader. We met with the team from our church that is heading to Thailand in July. We got some definite time frames from them as well as some tasks. Last week we had a great Skype conversation with the team in Thailand. We left the chat feeling very comfortable with each other, and feeling that we were ready to begin moving in that direction.

I’m not sure I understand the knit cap or the freshly shaved head (but if I did shave my head I would probably need the knit cap). Maybe it’s some reference to living and working among Buddhists… I don’t know. But I do understand the last part. We say it to each other every day. 

Ok, let’s go!