My Dream Church

The church of my dreams is based upon the two greatest commandments, which are total love of God and love of neighbor. These are the very essence of my dream church. Out of our love of God, we would worship regularly, and this worship would be both spirited and Spirit-filled. Out of our love of neighbor would come real ministry.

The only way for a church to be truly effective is for it to have devoted and excited believers doing real ministry in it. The people must be devoted. In my dream church people come because they feel like they are serving God by worshiping together. They come because they want to be there and not because there is nothing better to do. They also do not come simply out of habit. In this church people long to be together worshiping the Lord.

An effective church must also have excited people in it. If the church folk are all negative or even hum-drum about everything, then why would visitors want to come back? There has to be a sense of excitement, of joy, about the church and about being a part of the church. Otherwise no one else will want to be a part of it.

An effective church must have true believers. They must first of all believe with all their minds and hearts in Jesus as Lord and Savior. But they also must believe in their church. They must believe that it can make a difference, and that they have a purpose for being there. Once this purpose, or vision, is formed, they must proceed to the final step of the equation.

They must do “real” ministry. The church of my dreams won’t be a church in a wealthy neighborhood that has a food pantry or clothes closet as its sole ministry. It also won’t be a church in a neighborhood filled with high school drop-outs that only provides seminary scholarships. The ministry is real when it comes from God and makes a difference in the community. Only after that is done can the ministries abroad become real for the church. In other words, the church has to think about its surrounding community’s needs before it can take on “pet” ministries that make the people feel good.

The church of my dreams would be filled with devoted and excited believers. But it would also encourage people who visit or join to become devoted and excited believers doing real ministry as well. They would be offered something to believe in, and given avenues to minister to the world.

This church would be a church that is intentional about prayer. Through the prayer life and honest dialogue of this church a vision would be established. Every decision made and ministry begun would come out of this vision. And every person would know the vision of the church.

Worship would be open to everyone, no matter the color of their skin, the size of their pocket book, the position of importance in the community, the name of the family born in to, their age or any other barrier that can come between people. This is because the church of my dreams is a church without walls. Walls divide people. And in my dream church there are no divisions. People are different, but seen as equals, just as they are in God’s eyes.

My dream church would be flooded with children and youth. There would be young adults and older ones too. Each group would have a say in matters, but no one group would control the church.

Membership in this church would be given to those who would make a commitment to God and the church. This would be a commitment of learning the vision of the church, growing in Christ, serving the world and being held accountable to each of the above. Each person who would want to join would go through membership classes that would teach the essential beliefs necessary to be a Christian, our doctrinal beliefs and the vision of the church. If after these classes are taken, the individual decides that this is not the church for her or him, then we would lovingly try our best to find a new church home for the person or family. This is because my dream church is not nearly as concerned with numbers on role as the number of people brought closer to the Lord.

A church like this would never sell out to whatever the fad of the month is because it’s not just trying to look good. It would, instead, focus on how Jesus can be made known to people better. The service, or ministry, or missions that we do would be done out of our desire to do the Lord’s will and to bring other people into a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. This is of the utmost importance. We would never do anything with motives that would exceed this great desire of our church.

This church would focus outwardly instead of inwardly. Decisions made would be more about what could be done to help others instead of what could be done to help ourselves. In my dream church we would focus less on how much money we have and more on how much we could spend in ministry. I know that in reality there has to be attention given to how much money we have. This is an obvious part of life. But in my dream church, people give to the Lord and the church remembers this fact as this money is used. In other words, it would not become a financial institution or for profit organization.

The church of my dreams is a place where people understand their church in terms of people instead of a building. When they come together, they do so for the purpose of honoring and worshiping God. But when they leave, they go with much more than they arrived with. They go equipped with a little more wisdom, a little more drive, a little more Spirit each time they exit. And this gives them what they need to serve God and neighbor more effectively.

The most important thing about my dream church is the fact that God’s will is seen as more important than ours. And it is His will that we strive to live by. If we could all prayerfully focus on doing the will of our Lord and Savior, then I believe the church of my dreams would not be far off.