Omelette Church

What kind of church are you a part of?

Is your church an egg church or an omelette church?

"Neither," you say. "It's a church church."

What I mean by an egg or omelette church is this: Does your church look to confine all church activities to one central location, keeping the good in and the bad out. Or does your church, like an omelette, look to crack the egg and fill the city with the influence of the church?

So, what kind of church are you a part of?

The Egg Church

An egg church is centralized. It has clearly defined walls and boundaries. Those walls keep out foreign matter. This could be good, in that these barriers maintain a sense of holiness and purity about the church. Conversely, the flavor and benefit of the church is kept inside the walls and not spread out to fill the community.

Within an egg church the yolk, the leadership and Spiritual vitality of the church, is at the very core. Those around the true spiritual center of the church play second fiddle, never really getting in the mix and taking on the same spiritual substance as its leaders.

The egg church is isolated. Inward focused. And does not impact its city.

The Omelette Church

An omelette church is decentralized. The goodness once contained only inside its confines has been sent out to fill every nook and cranny of its surroundings.

The walls in the omelette church have been broken down and done away with. As the church has been stirred up, and sent out, the leadership has mixed in with and rubbed off on the whole of the body, giving them flavor and nutrition to impart wherever they land.

In this mixing in and among the city the flavor of the egg is not lost or downgraded, it is made more appealing as it mixes with the ingredients around it.

The omelette church is pervasive. Outward focused. And flavors the city with its influence.

Naturally Drawn Inward

I think we'd all agree that the Church should be more like an omelette than an egg, but if your experience is anything like mine, there is a draw toward isolation. We seek comfort and familiarity and that means showing up week after week in the same safe place and often staying put right there for years. Rarely if ever venturing out to serve outside the church walls or to really live out our faith during the week.

It is our natural tendency to avoid being stretched. But what we need, and what the world needs, maybe more than anything, is just that. For the church to be stretched outside of her comfort zone and into the unstable and unpredictable waves of real life. It's there our faith will grow muscles and the truth we've stored up will be exercised.

We Don't Need More Truth

It's been said, "the church doesn't need more truth, it needs to apply the truth it already knows." While we never stop learning (that's what a disciple of Jesus is - a learner), there's a lot of truth to that.

So let's be that church!

Let's be the church that breaks the shell and spreads. Let's be the church that seeks to take the life-giving truth and life of the Gospel to every nook and cranny of the city. Because people aren't coming to us like they did in 1950. The church of today, and even more so, the church of tomorrow, will be a church that goes to where the people are. Or they may not be a church for long!

Truth be told, the healthy church is the church that is gathered and scattered. Jesus called His disciples to Himself (Matthew 4:19) and then He sent them out (Matthew 28:16-20). It's like an accordion contracting and expanding. It only makes music when things are moving in both directions. Like breathing, we not only take air in, but we've got to breathe it back out as well.

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Father,

Make City Church a church that gathers together and breathes in your grace regularly and just as often scatters, breathing out your grace in every area of our lives for the good of the city, and for your name's sake. Make us salt and light to Huntington so that they will know who You are and what You are like, Father.

In Jesus' name.

Amen