When the church becomes visible without signs or marketing

Posted by Alan Knox on May 11, 2011 in community, gathering, service | 3 comments

Keith at “subversive1” is writing a series discussing some of the problems (real and perceived) of organic church.

(Now, from the beginning, we must admit that all organic churches are different, so it’s difficult to write this kind of series.)

The latest post is called “Invisible: Organic Church.” This is what Keith says in introducing this weakness:

In our discussion we reflected on the fact that house churches don’t have large signs out front, and don’t market themselves the way traditional churches do. Because of this, it’s often likely that a house church could exist for years right down the street from another house church and not even be aware of each other. Not to mention the fact that people in the community are also not aware that the house church meeting is taking place in their neighborhood.

In the post, Keith offers several suggestions as to how organic or simple churches can become more visible.

We’re found one primary way to let people know that the church is among them: serve people in your community together and introduce them to your brothers and sisters. It’s simple. It’s effective. It gets the focus off of your particular organization (whether that organization is highly organized or not).

When we serve people together, we never say, “Hi, we’re from such-and-such church.” Why? Because the name and location of our meeting is not important.

Instead, we might say something like, “Hi, we’re friends of so-and-so. She/He said you might need some help with your yard work. Can we help you?” At some point, usually when asked or when talking to them later, we’ll explain that we are serving them because God loves them and we love them. We’ll explain that Jesus Christ had welcomed us into his kingdom, and his kingdom was one of loving and serving others.

How do you let people know that the church is in the neighborhood?