Beyond The 4 Walls

Gathering together with around a 100 urban youth workers, leaders, & pastors at the Urban Youth Workers Institute's "Reload Bay Area" yesterday was a humbling reminder that what God is doing goes way beyond the 4 walls of my church. Listening to the stories of young & seasoned ministers from the urban trenches was so refreshing, encouraging, empowering, & humbling. It was a reminder that God often works far more in my region than I see on the surface!

It is said that the Bay Area region has 9 million+ people living in it with only 4% believers in Jesus Christ. Out of 9,000,0000 people only about 360,000 live for Jesus. The average church in the Bay Area is only about 50 – 100 people. The largest church may be anywhere from 7,000 – 10,000 (that is probably stretching it). What does this mean? There is lots of work to be done! We have to continually allow the Holy Spirit to remind us that the work God desires to do in our region goes far beyond our own church, far beyond the 4 walls of our building.

If you ask me, there are way more people out there starving for hope, longing for life, & desiring truth than our Bay Area church buildings can hold. Our vision has to grow, our heart for our region needs to expand, & our solidarity must become stronger than it’s ever been. To see the magnitude of the movement of God that is necessary to transform this region is going to take way more than the way we have been ‘doing’ church.

It’s time to arise, believe, & move from ‘doing’ church to ‘being’ the church; a living, thriving, Spirit-empowered organism that transforms all who come into contact with it. Jesus’ promise was that His Spirit would empower His disciples to witness in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, & the ends of the earth,” (Acts 1:8). Where are your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, & ends of the earth? It’s time to believe God to do far more than what we are seeing in our 4 walls & allow His Spirit to move us beyond anything we have ever seen or known in our time.

Let’s Do This Together

Do you have vision for your city & region? How can you begin to pray towards & allow God to mobilize your church to go beyond the 4 walls?