What to watch for: Everyday people at your fitness facility or on your sports team coming together regularly for support, encouragement, spiritual growth and worship.
How it is happening already: Simple fellowship takes many forms in fitness and sports. It may be nothing more than regular conversation in the sauna after a workout or on the bleachers during a game. In many instances it is more evident by a Bible study or prayer time before, during or after a physical activity. On a larger scale some fitness facilities provide for more organized “church” meetings.
What needs to happen: Facility or team members (rather than facility or team leaders) need to identify and organize all members within a facility or on teams that embrace the Christian faith. Then strategies for organizing and executing regular simple church programming can begin.
How it will grow the faith and fitness culture: This form of fellowship provides a high opportunity for nurturing strong Christian faith growth. It is also one of the most effective ways to simply demonstrate to those who are not Christian the relevance of faith in daily life.
What you can do: There are many ways to get the ball rolling. One of the most simple things you can do is strike up a casual conversation with others. Don’t force faith into your talks but also be aware of when faith naturally can fit into a discussion. Take interesting faith-based reading with you. Invite members of your church leadership to participate in the fitness or sports activities you do.
It started as a game of pick-up basketball. Several men, some old, some older, and a few young guys too are all members at the Jordan YMCA in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over the course of several games they discovered they had something in common beyond their interest in basketball — they all had a transforming Christian life experience. Before long they got together at the YMCA not just to play ball but also to encourage each other, take time to pray and to specifically talk with others who were curious about the Christian faith or had concerns in their life.
You may be inclined to see this as nothing more than a bunch of church guys getting together to shoot some hoops. It is, however, nothing less than a fascinating example of a growing trend throughout the world where people are seeking a return to a more basic form of church. If you think going to a crowded gym and waiting for equipment makes you feel lost and stuck in the masses then try going to a mega-church packed out with a few thousand people.
This is known as simple church, organic church or home church. Biblically, this is based on both the experience of the early Christians, as described in the book of Acts, and the clear teaching of Jesus in Matthew 18:20 that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. As Robert Fitts has so eloquently put it in his book, Saturation Church Planting, “Jesus in the midst is church! It is a different experience than Jesus within. We cannot experience Jesus in the midst when we are alone. We can only experience Jesus in the midst when we are in company with others – at least one or two others. But is this church in the fullest sense of the world? Yes, it is a church in the fullest sense of the word. It is the basic church. You can have more than two or three and it is still a church, but it does not become ‘more church’ because there are more than two or three. It only becomes a bigger church.”
In simple churches today, groups of 5-25 gather for a more intimate experience that stresses accountability, care, and a desire to get deeper in the Scriptures so that the participants can live 24/7 with the framework of “seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) It does not matter whether this is at the gym, or in a home, at one’s place of work, or in a restaurant. What matters is that Christians are coming together in Jesus name, and are seeking His face to have an impact through their ordinary, everyday lives. And it is having an impact, a huge impact!
George Barna, who is widely recognized as the most quoted Christian in America, because of the research and books that come out of the Barna Group, now tells us that more than 20 million Americans are voting in this way with their feet. In any given month these millions are having some direct contact with and involvement in a home church. And the surprising thing about these Christians, who Barna calls “Revolutionaries,” is that they are the cream of the crop, not the drop outs and back-sliders!
Reggie McNeal, a widely respected leader within the Southern Baptists, is his book, The Present Future, put it like this. “A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.” In living rooms, office conference rooms, colleges and gyms around the country people are finding their faith afresh. Often called “marketplace ministries,” groups are flourishing as they seek to bring the presence of Jesus into the fabric of everyday life.
To understand simple church it is important to gain a clear perspective on the original concept of “church” as it was defined and experienced in the early church. From the beginning of the book of Acts, we see Christians meeting from “house to house.” In fact, from Acts 8 onwards, and this is clearly corroborated by the historical accounts available to us of early church life, they only met from house to house. It was not until the time of Constantine in the third century, that churches began the wholesale migration into buildings with professional staff that we see today. Church history also shows us that renewal movements within the life of the church have nearly always been led by laymen and these movements have often found themselves outside of the four walls of the traditional institutions.
Most Christians are aware of the phenomenal growth of the Christian movement through house churches in China over the past 50 years. But it is only recently that Christians in the West have begun to see the relevance of these simple approaches to church life as also applying here in the West. As our concepts of simple church as an intentional form of “church” grow and develop, so also we see the relevance of “church” at fitness facilities and among sports programs. It is, in some instances, an outgrowth of active modern-day Christians seeking to practice their faith despite busy sports schedules. Parents of children in gymnastics or on sports leagues have long been torn between their commitment to worship at church and games scheduled on the weekend away from home. Simple church is a very practical and effective way for these families to do both.
The added benefit of simple church in a sports or fitness facility setting is the potential to be a Christian presence among those who are not Christian. It is, by all accounts, a most obvious setting for church — in the midst of everyday life as compared to being away and disconnected from those who want to truly observe the value of Christian fellowship. In this way we can live the calling of Jesus to be “lights in the world,” rather than retreating into our “sanctuaries” where the world neither see us nor understands the faith that in within us.
If you would like more information about these movements, we suggest that you go to www.house2house.com or that your consider buying such books as An Army Of Ordinary People by Felicity Dale, or Organic Church by Neil Cole, both of which are available at the www.house2house.com site or via www.amazon.com .
