Movement? Not A Church?

It seems one of the questions I answer most often about the church planting movement we are launching in Ypsilanti is about the name. We call our community a movement and not a church. Why? The reason is simple, the Church is much broader than our local incarnation of the body of Christ and the Church, when it is truly being the Church, is a movement.

What is a movement you ask? A movement is organic, it's alive, and it's messy. It's multiplying and replicating. A movement is not in stasis. It's a community of people who gather around a mission and passionately pursue it together. Some movements last for a moment. Some movements last for a long time.

In its purest form the Jesus movement has been alive and well since Jesus' ascension. There are those who have tried to institutionalized it. There are those who have tried to use it to consolidate power. In many ways when this happens the Church isn't really the Church. It's simply a gathering of people who are members of the Church. For the Church to be who it really is, you must have movement. You must have multiplication and sending.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:16-20

You can't live out this vision of Jesus as an institution. We can only live it out as a movement. An organic, living, breathing, community on mission together.