It is about the mission, not the gathering!

I liked this a lot from Francis Chan..
 
Francis Chan - How To Have Real Community from Verge Network on Vimeo.

That is good stuff, especially the opening line:

If I just read the Scriptures I wouldn't even think so much about the gathering. 

Wow, is that completely contrary to our culture. The preeminence and centrality of the "local church" so dominate our thinking and functioning that we tend to elevate the gathering over the mission or in some cases we confuse the two and we sublimate the mission of the church into the traditional gathering of the church. Not surprisingly it tends to be those with a vested interest in perpetuating the system that are the most vocal about the "centrality of the local church".

Yeah, yeah this is a two minute video clip. I get that. I am also not discounting the importance of the gathered Body. How else can we practice the 58 "one another" commands in the New Testament if we are not gathering together? But what I think Francis is saying and what I am certainly saying is that if we make the mission the "main thing" then we will find that the church will form naturally, dare I say organically. We will make disciples and those disciples will turn to one another for support and in doing so, by teaching and more importantly by example, they will in turn learn how to and begin making disciples on their own. That is how the church grew in the first century. It was not about the gathering and it certainly was not about the leaders.

A Christian that never "goes to church" but is out making disciples is infinitely more faithful than the Christian that never misses a Sunday but never seeks to make disciples. A disciple making Christian will love to spend time with their brothers and sisters, being equipped and encouraged and exhorted but that gathering is secondary to the mission of the church.

I agree with Francis, when we read the Bible without our stained glass tinted glasses we don't see "go to church", we see "go to the world"!