Editor’s Note – the following is from the Green Church web site

+greenchurch

www.greenchurch.info www.coffeehousechurches.com

• Infectiously connecting a group of overlooked friends

• As the heart, hands, voice, and compassion of the Body of Christ

• In an essentials-only church that gathers right where they live

+The most life-changing ministry we can humanly provide a group of overlooked friends is a simple Body of Christ, a Church, planted among them, to be His Hands, His Heart, His Voice, His Compassion in their circle of relationships+

1. What do you mean by “green” church?

“GREEN” is the best word to describe the group-sized, suburban, middle class, parking-lot church I have been part of for the last ten years.  This group of Christ-followers is all about God and relationships.  They dress “Saturday” casual and share easily in their gently guided faithlife together.  Intentional, but always relaxed about things like “time” and “personal input” they flow through worship, sharing, prayer support, “good Samaritan” celebrations, serving others, and personal growth in obedience-based discipleship…often in a different sequence each time they gather. Then, they continue living as the Body of Christ wherever they are all week.

But that’s all they do.  They are efficient and effective.  No time or spiritual energy is spent, or wasted, on lesser things.  Some, usually pairs, get together during the week (or just are together…it’s not a special meeting) and they may pray for others, or help someone, or gather food for a needy family, but there are no committee meetings, no programs to plan, and no events to promote.

They are “green.” They have learned three basic essentials about being the Body of Christ together, though they have only learned these things in their hearts, by doing each one….it’s just how they think of church life now.

1. They ARE the church …not the building, not the name, not the leaders, not the location, and not the ‘worship service.’  They are the Body of Christ as they gather, AND parts of His Body wherever they are individually each day.  They leave no physical trace of their gathering each week (pretty good evidence that the church is ‘in’ the persons, not ‘in’ the place.)

2.  They radically focus on loving God and loving persons wherever they have an opportunity to do either one.  These two essentials get 100% of their time and energy as the Body of Christ.  Living-out these two priorities is so life-changing, for them and for others, they won’t settle for less purposeful church involvements!

3.  They give everything away every week or month. Each time they gather they bring groceries and toiletries to fill a box and ask anyone to take it who has a friend, neighbor, or acquaintance in need (lost job, house burned, spouse left, etc.)  At the end of the month they also divide up their total financial offering between persons in need, missions initiatives, and church planting efforts…and the participants deliver the money personally to the persons they know.

For this group being “green” means maximizing their relational and spiritual influence as Christ’s Body without waste or negative ‘by-products.’

Issues like church burn-out, consumer Christianity, spectator faith, or building & program drained budgets don’t exist for them.

Their hearts, time, and resources are spent on God and people…that’s all.

2. “Kim”…Christ-formed in a twenty-dollar experiment

Kim came to the “green” church as one who had trusted Christ in childhood, heard lots of sermons, and went to many Bible classes.  She found herself at mid-life with so many responsibilities that church and vibrant Christian living had been crowded out by daily demands (or at least pushed to the edges of her life.)  Kim was genuinely a Christian, but had not connected with the nurturing or practical opportunities she needed to fully live-out her faith-life.

As soon as she started participating in the parking lot gathering, she started bringing food for the give-away box, and she brought good stuff.  Almost as quickly, she began bringing her toddler grandchildren, who learned to go get food out of her kitchen and put it in a grocery bag whenever it was time to go to church.  (Isn’t it interesting that this was their first perception of why people went to church!)

But mostly Kim began to grow in her personal prayer-life.  She prayed not only about herself and her widely extended in-laws and “outlaws,” but she also prayed for coworkers and patients in her nursing career.  She turned into the nurse everyone called on when they had a big problem or a dying patient, and she found great value in helping others.

More and more of her family noticed the “richness” in her life and began to turn to her in a new way.  Many began coming with her to the “green” church.

Then she stuck her neck out.  One Sunday the church gave everyone a sealed envelope and encouraged them to seek God’s guidance to someone they could help with the contents of that envelope.  She did pray, and she noticed a maid at her hospital eating only crackers for lunch.  Without opening the envelope or knowing what was inside, she told the maid that she had something to give her “as a reminder that God loved her,” and handed her the envelope!  (Man, that took faith, because Kim didn’t know if money, or a scripture verse, or a paper cross was inside…only when she came back to church the next week did she learn that every envelope had $20 in it.)

Kim was hooked on noticing the people around her and how she might be “Jesus with skin on” in their lives.

Within two weeks, she found herself at a grocery store, on vacation, 300 miles from home.  She had her “Christ-like” radar for helping others turned on, and she noticed a lady filling her cart with 3 gallons of milk and then frowning while she added up the cost.  One mom knew another mom’s plight…buying food for kids without quite enough money to get all that was needed.  So Kim, pulled out her own twenty dollar bill and said, “I don’t want to be intrusive, but I’m a mom too and just wanted to pass this on to help with your grocery shopping today…and to remind you that God cares about you.” Neither mom will ever forget that encounter, or God’s presence in that brief exchange!

Well, Kim continues to pray and help patients spiritually, beyond the duties of a nurse. Her 20-something niece was baptized recently (as the church surrounded her at a backyard pool) and two more young adults in her family are now considering Christ seriously for the first time. Naturally, she keeps her eyes open for God-arranged encounters with anyone who needs her help, and she always carries a twenty dollar bill.

She is one of the “richest” Christ-followers I know!

3. “Stan”…Christ-formed through a food box

Stan, a middle-aged medical supply rep, had gone to church some as a kid, but had completely separated himself from it in his teens.  He says he was burned and disappointed in some of his experiences with church so he washed his hands of it.

But after 40 years of shunning church he experienced this group, and God used it to begin chipping away at his heart. His wife had started participating in the “green” church on the parking lot.  She heard about it through her mother’s participation (who heard about it through her garage door repair man.)  Her sporadic presence soon became regular and she began to tell Stan about the weekly food box, the monthly cash given to persons in crisis, and the outdoorsy environment.  He finally came with her on Mother’s Day, but he was careful to remain aloof.  Again at Christmas, Stan was with his wife, but he always sat at the edge of the group and just looked away during prayers or worship.  He was polite, but distant.

Then he came one Sunday when there was a particularly touching report from the recipients of the food box the week before.  He asked if he could deliver the box to an elderly lady on his medical route during the coming week because he knew she was having trouble financially.  According to plan, he loaded the box on his truck Monday morning with the intention of dropping it off about midday.  But before he left the warehouse, a supervisor brought a new trainee over to ride with Stan and learn the “job”.  As they rode together, and got to know each other, the trainee asked about the box of groceries and Stan told him about the green church and how they gave everything away.  After a quiet pause, the trainee opened up a little deeper…he said he’d been out of work for several months and things were really tight at home…he asked if Stan thought the church would allow him to have the food box in order to feed his three kids.  Stan could barely talk by then but okayed that idea wholeheartedly.  Immediately the trainee called his wife, welling up with tears, to tell her what he was bringing home to three hungry mouths!

Stan became a Christ-follower soon after that encounter!  Not only was he at the gathering every week, he began to share openly during the Bible time about his own journey.  He prayed.  He sang.  He went out of his way to help people in his path during each day.  He served others in the gathering. He shared his encouragement and thoughts in this group with a Christ-like wisdom. He began to talk with his grown children about his new way of life (they had already noticed of course), and they began to show up at the gathering.

This green church always depends on God’s “giftings” and anointing more than on human selection, and in that environment HE raised up Stan as a true “elder” in  group!

Life transformation became a reality for Stan, without anybody saying those words or planning a complex “strategy” of discipleship.

The “green” church just lived it out!

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