Think Outside the Walls

Taco Bell's current advertisements have the catchy phrase, "Think outside the bun." I think our church can modify this phrase to "Think outside the walls! (of the church building)

The more that I read, pray, and ponder the church and its mission, the more convinced I am that the church needs to focus on what is going on outside the building and bring to bear Jesus' love and commitment to people outside of the sanctuary.

Today's thought for the day by Alan Hirsch powerfully captures this idea of thinking outside the walls: "the church's true and authentic organizing principle is mission. When the church is in mission, it is the true church. The church itself is not only a product of that mission but is obligated and destined to extend it by whatever means possible" (The Forgotten Ways, 82).

I am constantly wondering how we can live outside the walls, how we can incarnate Christ in Medfield and the surrounding towns, in the nation, and in the world. I wonder how we can make this happen, and not just offer this idea lip service. I wonder what it would look like.

The membership or Christendom model church has focused primarily on what happens inside the walls of the church building and attracting people inside. It takes intention, it takes effort to reverse this thinking and focus on what is going on outside and how as Jesus body we might incarnate his love in the surrounding neighborhoods. Rather than think of mission as one of the many things that we do, what if we began to think of it as our organizing principle and the main thing we do? What if what we do inside the building is always seen in the light of what it will help us to do outside the walls rather than what we do outside the walls supports what we do inside the walls? I suggest that we adopt the motto, "Think outside the walls!"