"Come grow with us! A place for you. Visitors always welcome. Dynamic praise and worship. Contemporary life-application messages."

Notice anything about these church advertisement jingles, which might separate 20th century church activities, from 1st century church life? Let me give you a hint: It has to do with our tendency to view church as a place (the church building), or an activity (Sunday A.M. church services). The tendency of American churches is to call people to one specific location, for a specific event. We call both the location, and the event "church."

In my earliest, most cursory readings of the Great Commission given by Jesus to His disciples, the word I remember most vividly was, "Go." Yet, somehow I find myself trapped in this contemporary American church mentality which says, "Come join us. Come grow with us. Come, come, come...."

For years, I've struggled with the tension of desiring to build a church which fulfills the Great Commission, through the activities of every member. Yet, I've realized that "business as usual Christianity," did not allow me to accomplish this desire to its fullest degree. By performing Sunday services designed to draw people to our church location, and making this the primary activity of our church life, I was in essence communicating that church was a place, and an event. I was also saying, "Come, come, come...."

How then can I be delivered out of this struggle, and break free into church life structured after the Great Commission? For Church on the Coast, the answer was found in decentralization.

We used to have one door of entrance into fellowship. That was our Sunday morning service. We discovered that home-cell groups, meeting in as many homes as possible, create new front doors for the church. As we commonly remind ourselves, "The front door of your house is the front door to the church."

We used to struggle with an inconsistent outreach program. As a small church, it was impossible to keep up with the pace of the larger churches. They had more famous speakers. They had concerts. They had bigger, better advertisements inviting people to come. They had holiday programs. We had diddley-squat. It was too expensive to keep up, and we refused to mortgage our future. By decentralizing into individual homes, people began to realize that they were personally involved in making the Great Commission happen. We may not be breaking any growth records, but we are touching people more consistently, purposefully, and personally than ever before.

We used to struggle with balancing evangelism, and nurturing spiritual growth within our membership. Now we do both with ease. By putting the burden of evangelism upon each member of the church (instead of upon myself, or the finances of the church), I set up an environment which demanded growth from each member. After all, there's no better way to grow in the things of God, than to be challenged with the responsibility of ministering to people.

There was a time at Church on the Coast, when all our activity, and all our energy was focused upon a single location. A building can suck you dry of spiritual life, if it becomes too great a financial burden, or if it becomes the definition for "church." But, we have discovered new life outside the four walls of our Sunday morning gath 'ering place. There's a whole new world out there, and it desperately needs us. We are beginning to touch that world, but it didn't happen with consistency, until the front doors of our homes became the front door to the church.

Decentralization is working for us. Our leaders are becoming real leaders of people. Our members are examples of a true caring community. And, we've finally broken free from the struggle - No longer are we trapped in the status quo structure which only communicates, "Come," but we're finally a group with some "Go."