The majority of churches in the U.S. are what is often called the proclamation model, where you sing, give, hear someone speak, and respond. This method has been around for the last 500 years and is how many of us have moved toward Jesus. This is what we would call our Sunday morning and Wednesday night ministries. We are finding that this strategy is effective among our students. It has become a space where they invite their friends to move toward Jesus. Over the last few years we have seen God use this strategy to move people toward Jesus in many ways. Our students have experienced a large amount of growth and are in need of a new facility. That has caused the leadership team to begin the process of building a Student Ministry Center and Gathering Space. With the addition of many new families we have also recognized the need for a clear entrance facing our two very large parking lots. This will turn our current overflow into an open foyer that communicates to our guests where to go. This will also create an additional space to gather before and after services.
Here is how you can be a go-er:
This strategy is simply a place where the public has an opportunity to gather; it’s an open door for connections, relationships, and life. Our hope at Momentum is to use this space as an opportunity to move those who don’t attend and are not attending toward Jesus. In Hebrews we see the picture of in-person gatherings as something that is intentional, targeted, and hopeful.
Three ways you can be involved: We are Go-ers.
Jesus and the Apostles gave us a great example of what it looks like to move people towards Jesus. Their model said “Go where the people are.” In the 21st century the average young person will spend almost 50 days of every year engaging with social media! That’s 3 hours of surfing per day! This is one place where the people are in today’s culture, so how can we not take the gospel to them? At Momentum Church we want to go beyond a weekly livestream, we want to create relationships, community, and discipleship all in a digital world.
3 ways you can be involved: We are go-ers
We are living in a post-Christian culture now, where people with a secular worldview outnumber those with a Judeo-Christian worldview (2 to 1 in most zip codes in America.) Research shows that 60% of people will never come to a traditional church setting as we know it, but many would venture into a Dinner Church setting.
Dinner Church is an expression of the Church that looks back at the earliest church model in the Bible to reach these people who are uncomfortable darkening our regular church building doors. Unlike an outreach or a simple homeless feed, a Dinner Church is a fully-functioning church body that meets all the scriptural purposes of the Church: worship, fellowship, discipleship, evangelism, and compassion. It does this by regularly bringing people of all ages and backgrounds together over a meal, to hear a message focused on the life and teachings of Jesus, and to have the opportunity to talk and pray together. Jesus modeled this strategy for us in the gospels, where He spent much of His time teaching and healing at table, eating meals with “the least of these,” the sinners and the outcasts. The early believers in Acts continued this model as they gathered on a regular basis to break bread, fellowship and pray.
We are looking at planting a Dinner Church this year in the community of Colville, in a location where there are not many (or any) churches established yet. How can you be involved? Be a “go-er:”