What I Want and Don't Want in a Church? Part 5

This is the last installment of this ranting about what I want and don't want in a church.

I don't want a church that is inward focused. So many churches expend all their energies taking care of each other. Those things are important, but they consume time and resources that could be better used.

I want a church that is outward focused. We have a hurting world out there. There are hungry and thirsty people in our world. They need our help. They need food in their stomachs. They need clothes on their backs. They need to hear the Good News of salvation.

We need to get beyond the four walls of the church. We will be changed for ever. I recall a scene from Field of Dreams. A bright young baseball player named Archie Graham in playing in the baseball field that used to be a corn field. The girl falls off the bleachers and begins to choke on a hot dog. Archie Graham runs to the edge of the field and stops. He has a decision to make. If he leaves the field, he cannot go back. As he steps across the line, Burt Lancaster appears as an aged "Doc" Graham to save the girl.

If we leave the church to save our world, we will never be able to go back to the way things were before. We will be changed. Our world will be changed.