What if the "Visitor" Was You?

Just got back from a great pow-wow with our Western Regional Leadership team of the Vineyard, held in Temecula as the rain fell and the waters rose. While there, one of the pastors remarked that -- despite the fact that their church had moved to new meeting space -- he was encouraged to see that they were still getting "visitors". Something about that term grabbed me and I heard it in a whole new way.

It's not that I am not well-acquainted with the use of the word "visitor" to describe those folks who are coming to our church meetings to check us out. They are visitors and the word is appropriate. But this time, a different thought occured to me: what if "we" were the visitors?

In other words, what if we were the ones showing up for a "visit" on the turf of the people in the everyday places of our community? What if we were the ones who stepped out of our church space and stepped into their life space as a "visitor" to their world -- visitors who bear he gospel of grace, the love of God and an openess to connecting with their reality?

I quickly decided that, armed with this new insight, I am going to seek to be the "visitor" who comes to the lives of others. How about you?

New Wanderers - Apex Church

Another sign of what the Spirit is doing in our time:

Apex Church in Dayton, Ohio is a large (formerly) traditional church that has chosen to emphasize their identity as a network of house churches. One description of their congregation is as follows:

"They have over 2,500 hundred people showing up every weekend, but that is the least impressive thing about this church. Rob Turner is a great, young leader. Their church is made up of 60-70 house churches that meet on different nights throughout the week. You are not a member of Apex if you do not go to a house church."

From Apex's own website, we get this:

Apex Community Church is a network of community churches
delighting in Jesus so much that we are compelled to love, equip, and send people. As a network of house churches we desire to spread a passion for Jesus through Christ-centered communities among individuals where He is yet to be worshiped.

Apex desires to see God work as he did in the early church, as detailed in God’s inspired Word, specifically Acts 2. We created a model termed 3G (e.g. Gathering, Growing, and Going), which is our way of making sure we are staying focused on the mission and vision the Lord has given us as a body of believers.

We gather corporately for celebration and teaching, growing spiritually as house churches and going, i.e., meeting the physical and spiritual needs of others.

This is yet another example of a traditional church that has shifted to a network of house churches focused not only on their own fellowship but on "the mission and vision the Lord has given us as a body of believers".

I appreciate the way Apex has embraced their call to launch a network of house churches that are not just appendages to the Sunday gatherings but are, in fact, the heart of this large congregation. Establishing house churches that care and serve neighborhoods, provide for intimate fellowship, and provide for the training and edification of the whole strikes me as the kind of balance that calls many New Wanderers to take risks in order to pursue.