We don't need another fancy building...

Jan 12, 2015 -- Posted by : admin
Drive down almost any major road in Preston and you’re likely to pass at least one church building at some point. Drive from my house in Ribbleton to Asda Fulwood, a journey of 2 miles, and you’ll pass two church buildings (coincidently both empty... we’ll come back to that). Preston itself gains it’s name from its religious history as “priest-town”. There’s always been at least one church in Preston, now there’s at least 56 Christian churches listed on a local directory of churches, not to mention the obscure “Church of the holy Sepulchure Mercy to you Hopefully” type churches which stay well hidden off the beaten track. Then there’s the raft of other religious gathering places: Mosques, Synagogues and Gurdwaras to name but a few.

Do we really need another one?

No, We don’t need more church buildings. Or temples or anything like that.

We don’t need any more church buildings. Right? They’re just not the main thing.

But,

We do need loads more people who have heard about who Jesus is, what he’s done and have given their lives to following him.

We do need churches where Jesus Christ is the God who is worshipped, the message who is preached and the foundation of everything.

We need churches which are built not of bricks and crumbly mortar but are made of human beings.

We need communities of Christians who want to include others who are different to them.

We need inclusive communities where you can belong before you start behaving. Where what you believe doesn’t exclude you from friendships.

We need churches who highly value the Bible and treat it not as a book of pithy religious self help sound-bytes but as it actually is, God’s word spoken thousands of years ago and also speaking today.

That’s just a starter for now. The truth is, if you’re not a Christian and you’re reading this, the list I’ve put together above only really has any relevance to the world if Jesus really was raised from the dead. Actually, physically, he was dead. Now he’s alive. Physically. That kind of raised from the dead.

If that’s not true then Christianity is a complete joke. But if He was raised from the dead it changes everything and we do desperately need the kind of church I’ve outlined above.

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