As you well know, we are praying and working diligently to relocate our church, which is why I have spent several weeks writing about the “church” in our weekly Connection Paper at Victory Church. If you have missed my previous articles you can check them out here on the blog, just search for the the “Relocation Process” articles.
Previously, I have written about the description and ownership of the church, and today I would like to focus on the mobility of the church.
Have you ever stopped to think about the mobility of the church? The mobility? Yes, that is right, the church is to be mobile! The idea is that we, as a church, should be more like the children of Israel as God led them through the wilderness. Numbers 9:23 says, “They camped at the Lord’s command, and they set out at the Lord’s command.”
The church is to be more like a guerrilla army rather than a fixed fortification—mobile and quick to adapt, not stationary and inflexible. That is the church described in the Bible.
“Share in the suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. To please the recruiter, no one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of everyday life” (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
The church doesn’t have to be gathered at a particular location to be a church. In fact the first century church was a “scattered” church! Persecution led them to constantly be on the move! Acts 8:4 says, “So those who were scattered went on their way proclaiming the message of good news.”
Even when scattered—not gathered—the church is still the church! Jesus’ working assumption was that then church would, in most periods of history, be too persecuted to get cozy in a particular location. Matthew 10:23 says, “When they persecute you in one town, escape to another.”
In Acts 11:19-21 we see the difference a militant adaption to circumstances and a rapid seizing of opportunities makes in spreading the Gospel: "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
What happened was trans-cultural and effective—and exactly what God had in mind! According to the following verse, does the New Testament assume the church is to be mobile or not?
“And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How welcome are the feet of those who announce the Gospel of good things!” (Romans 10:15)
Since the church is, by definition, the “army of Christ” — obedient, mobile, adaptable — then who are we to tell “the One who enlisted us” we will not move? The question is not whether we should be willing to move, but only if the Commanding Officer is leading us to move. We are His rapid deployment force!
Any thoughts? Feel free to post your comments and let me know what you are thinking.
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