Church is something we ARE, not somewhere we GO!

On Sunday, September 14th our church was forced out of our comfort zone. Our main building has 3 Air Conditioning systems, and two of them had major breakdowns happen at the same time. To make matters more interesting, the 3rd unit has a problem as well, and is on its last leg. Our main building being serviced by these units has the sanctuary upstairs, and the classrooms, nursery, offices, and children's church downstairs. Interestingly enough, these 3 units were installed at the same time back in December of 2002. Like most churches usually do, our church choose to purchase cheap units, and we're discovering the hard way that "you get what you pay for."

This event presented a major challenge to our church, because we do not have the money to repair or replace these units. Like hundreds of other churches in America, we have seen about a 40% decrease in contributions this year, and have made drastic cuts to keep operating. All reserve funds have been depleted, so this blow struck our church hard.

Our campus has a total of 4 buildings: the main building, preschool building, daycare building, and the cafe'. We decided to move our worship services to the cafe' and move our children's ministries to the daycare and preschool buildings. The cafe' now is setup with an area on one end to eat, and the other end is set up like a modern church sanctuary would be in a semi-circle. We've turned our newest building into a multi-purpose building, and it's going great!

The congregation is suddenly more unified and harmonized than ever before. Everyone is working together to make this thing work. What started as a big challenge has now become a big blessing! The quality of church services and atmosphere is awesome! The quality of our children's ministries has drastically increased as the daycare and preschool facilities are much better than what they were using in the main building.

Through this challenge we are discovering that the church is not about the building, its about the people. Church is not somewhere we go---it's something we are! The building we occupy doesn't define us--the relationships we have with one another, and the attitude we project is what defines us. I may be stepping out on a limb here, but I'm beginning to believe that the AC units breaking down may be the best thing that every happened to The Haven. Regardless of why it happened, I'm thrilled to see that The Haven is a group of believers who "ARE" the church, not a people that fill up space every week. We are facing this challenge with a good attitude, and are determined to grow and prosper in spite of it.

This challenge happening during the same time that the economic crisis hit our nation. As I've been following the events lately a big question has crossed my mind...

WHAT WILL THE AMERICAN CHURCH DO IF THE ECONOMY CRASHES AND WE CANNOT AFFORD OUR CHURCH BUILDINGS ANY LONGER?

Do the buildings we occupy define us? Limit us? Or even stiffle us? Will the average church be able to continue their mission and exist without a building to call home? Maybe its time more than ever to stop "going to church" and start "becoming the church."