Rethink Church: What if Church were a Verb?

Rethink Church is sweeping and ambitious – to invite the church and those unchurched who seek spiritual fulfillment, to become more outwardly focused and engaged in the world. The campaign seeks to offer the church, not as a place to come to and stay within, but as a base of operation for expressing faith by moving out into communities and around the globe to become part of God’s plan for world transformation.

Are you ready to become more outwardly focused and engaged in the world?
How does it make you feel to think about moving out into the community?
Where do you see a need in the community? What is that need?

The grand hope is to spark a global conversation about what it means to live as a person of faith, a disciple of Jesus Christ, in the 21st century. If the campaign is successful, it will be the catalyst for a radical return to understanding of what the gospel means to us today.

Do you consider yourself to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
What are some of the things you do because you are a follower of Christ?
What does it mean for you to live as a person of faith?
What is the gospel message in the context of the world we live in today?

The primary audience for the rethink church campaign is individuals who lack a church life today, primarily those 18 to 34 years old. Research shows young adults are predisposed against mainline denominations. The campaign will challenge them to think of church, not as a static institution, but as a movement of people empowered to transform the world. It will urge them to think of church, not as a noun, but as an action verb – a movement of people seeking to make disciples of Jesus Christ by gathering in buildings on Sunday, seeing the world as its parish and doing faithful things in it.

If you are a person seeking God but not the church,
how do you envision the church?
What is the most effective way for us to share the gospel with you?

At the same time, Rethink Church will speak to the people in the pews of The United Methodist Church. It will call us to see our local church in a much broader way – not solely as a building in which we worship, but as a conduit into our communities through which we may live out our faith by touching people’s lives. As awareness is created by the Rethink Church media campaign, seekers will be drawn to congregations. Those of us in local churches will have an opportunity to show, by doing, what rethinking church looks like.

So .. is the church just a place to worship?
Do you want more?
Do you want to touch people's lives?
How are you willing to change in order to "rethink" church?

These paragraphs are excerpts from Rethink Church 101: As the next evolution of the “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” welcoming and advertising campaign, RETHINK CHURCH seeks to redefine the church experience beyond the church doors and invite people to become engaged in the world. The campaign aims to spark a global conversation around the rhetorical question, “What if church were a verb?” You can access Rethink Church by using the Web Link on this site. You might also look at the emergingumc blog and the missional church network if you are interested in this direction of thinking ...

The questions are mine ... What are your thoughts? Peace, Cindy