Dirt can be good for the church?

Dirt can be good for children, say scientists:Messy play should be encouraged, according to the hygiene hypothesis Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8373690.stm

As a "soon to be parent" I noticed this and thought it was worth look. I have always been a believer that our society has become obsessed with cleanliness, over subscription of drugs and Health and Safety. But I do recognise the importance of these things in the running of a church community. Peoples safety should not be taken lightly and God demands we are good stewards of our the people we serve.

My point is more focused on how spiritually safe our churches have become and how we have sought to ensure that any mess is kept out of our churches, especially in worship. By playing it safe and keeping things tidy we are in danger of minimising opportunities of restoration and healing to take place on individuals and as a body of followers. We are fooling ourselves to think we can leave our sin at the door of our churches and worship as if we are all OK. It does a disservice to God and to our friends who we worship with. Maybe we need more sin in the church (this is not the same as being more sinful).

Dirt is good for the church because it allows God to clean us up, make us right and recreate our minds, bodies and spirits repeatedly. This does not mean we sin on purpose but bring the realities of our everyday life before God (not just on a Sunday), before our community and deal with it. Being exposed to the dirt of life will not harm us because God promises that he will protect us where ever we are. Jesus prayed for His disciples and us in John 17 that we would not be taken out of the world but be protected as we interact with it.

Then why are we scared to get our churches dirty?

Matt

Back to church?

Last Sunday morning Lizzy and I went to Southampton to lead the Children's Celebration Sunday. Whilst on the journey (which was 2 hours shorter than the journey home) down from Nottingham we listened to Aled Jones on Radio 2 Sunday breakfast show. One of the guests on there was chatting about "Back to church Sunday" with the tag line "come as you are."

This got me thinking about how this idea is the wrong way round and that we should be going into the world rather than thinking people are going to stop what they are doing and come to church. We have been trying that for a long time and I don't believe it is a sustainable solution for the church. It is about time we turned our own backs on our church buildings and set out into the community to find out what exactly is needed rather than react to what is presented before us by people.

Jesus met people in their own village or town, He got out and about and His name and works spread out across the whole of the region. He was active not passive, mobile not static and people knew what he was about. In Matthew 13 Jesus sends out his disciples to go and cast out demons and heal the sick. He sends them out into the reality of a world where people needed to be freed, healed, restored and resurrected. He commands them to "go" and they go.

Isn't it about time we went back into our local pubs, shops, barbers, sports teams, schools, library, sheltered housing, council offices and many other places and take the message of Jesus with us for all to see.

Matt