Vacuum Cleaner Churches

By Jason

19 Jun 2004

Never one to mince his words, a thought provoking quote from 1993 by Alan Roxburgh, via Mike Todd

“…We need a movement of God’s people into neighborhoods, to live out and be the new future of Christ. It must be a movement that demonstrates how the people of God have a vision and the power to transform our world. This is not the same as current attempts to grow bigger and bigger churches that act like vacuum cleaners, sucking people out of their neighborhoods into a sort of Christian supermarket. Our culture does not need any more churches run like corporations; it needs local communities empowered by the gospel vision of a transforming Christ who addresses the needs of the context and changes the polis into a place of hope and wholeness. The corporation churches we are cloning across the land cannot birth this transformational vision, because they have no investment in context or place; they are centres of expressive individualism with a truncated gospel of personal salvation and little else.

Our penchant for bigness and numerical success as the sign of God’s blessing ony discourages and deflects attempts to root communities of God’s people deeply into neighborhoods. And until we build transformed communities there is no hope for a broken earth.”

Share on Facebook

2 comments

Trackback


  1. Comment by Shawn Cardwell

    1.45 am on 20 Jun 2004

    here here!
    it is happening. we are out here doing it. believe in Him that calls us to the neighborhoods to be His bride.

    jason, thanks again for the breakfast time here in Portland.
    a blessing to you, your family, your church, and God’s balance of it all.
    shawn

  2. Comment by Tom Reindl

    4.35 am on 23 Jun 2004

    What we need is to live out the Acts 2:37 – 47 Church. Until we are willing to do that, whether we be called “traditional”, or “emergent”, we will all be nothing more than watered down examples of the real thing.

    If you want to experience the Acts 2: 37-47 life, you have to live in a persecuted church, where they really do live like this. I live in a nation where it is accepted to be Christian, for now. I see that changing, possibly even in my lifetime.

    Persecuted churches do community right. We do not. If we compare ourselves to the Acts 2: 37-47 church, we can’t fail to see that we aren’t even close.

    Try an experiment. Tell all the new emergent believers that from here on, all of their money and possessions must be pooled together, and that a few men will distribute it all according to each one’s needs. See what kind of response you get, and you’ll see what I mean.

    I would apologize for being so strong here, but it is hard to think that I would have to apologize for telling the truth. However, I can still pray for you, and me, and all of us as one, that we would be of one mind, and stop trying to be one body with many minds.

Comments are now closed.