Ditch the Building: 7 Ways the Church Could Go Rogue and Fix Everything

By Nick May

Sometimes going radical means getting to the root. Sometimes it means pulling something up by the roots. What is it that is keeping you from doing what God wants you to do?

There are many books about how to do church "right." There are programs for every imaginable thing you might want to improve in your church. There are at least as many measures by which you can determine whether your church is successful.

Ditch the Building ditches that approach and asks you to look at what God is calling you to do, and how ingrained church structures are keeping you from actually following that call. Nick May doesn't claim to know what you're supposed to be doing, or even what's stopping you. What he does know from the experience of growing up in church, working in a megachurch and then pastoring a church plant, is that many of you are precisely at that point. You likely have at least the glimmering of a vision of what you believe God is calling you to do. When it comes time to start doing it, however, you find things in your way. It may be things in your own life or things in your church.

Ingrained structures may be your physical building. They may be your order of worship. They may be found in your Christian education department where you are implementing innovative ideas to prepare your children and youth to live in the 90s--1890s.

We often hear that God hasn't changed. This is supposed to tell us that we don't have to change either. But people and culture do change, the challenges change. We have to find God's way of responding and building God's people.

If you want to live out your life comfortably, don't buy this book.

If you think the church today is just fine, don't buy this book.

But if you hear the call to follow wherever God leads, no matter how radical that makes you seem, then buy and read this book.

We're not telling you that this book will change your life. We're hoping that after reading it, you will be empowered to let God change your life, your ministry, your church, and our world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Energion Publications
• Release date: May 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781631996955

Book preview

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Copyright © 2019, Nick May

All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture marked MSG is taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

ePub ISBN: 978-1-63199-695-5

ISBN: 978-1-63199-672-6

Energion Publications

P. O. Box 841

Gonzalez, FL

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A Note from the Author vii

Architecture

Hierarchy

Organism

Quorum

Livelihood

Butterflies

Juggernaut

This book is dedicated to the congregations that

were displaced by Hurricane Michael.

Now you are truly the church.

A Note from the Author

I didn’t write this to pick a fight. Despite my Irish tracksuit and the look on my face, I actually dislike conflict very much. In truth, I almost didn’t write the book at all. I was afraid of what my former mentors and church friends might think if I did. So I wrote a different book first (also about churchworld). That one was more subtle. Less informed. Passive-aggressive, even. Okay, so maybe I am picking a fight.

In the pages to follow, you may be tempted to judge me as unduly crass or garishly irreverent. I assure you I am, at best, only one of those things. My words—whether four-lettered or foul-tempered—are meant to illuminate the absurd little battles for which we raise our banners. Think of any verbal or visual offenses hereafter as clever traps set by yours truly.

I am (was) a world-class church-goer and defunct church planter. Those are my only credentials. I pen this treatise to those in the path of the pendulum. To them that stand at the crux of greatness and obscurity, having yet to choose the latter…

Architecture

I’ll say it—the church was never meant to have buildings. Not ever. The very fact that we do is probably the single greatest missed point in human history (unless man nipples actually do something). It’s borderline as bad as the Israelites needing that golden calf…

What if, instead, you had to invite someone into your home to share the Jesus story with them? Cold. No five-step onboarding system. No curriculum. No invite cards. No pastoral backup. Just you, whatever translation of the Bible you’re least bothered by and the best excuse for hospitality you can manage to cobble together on the spot.

It’s a scary proposition—being 100% responsible for someone’s introduction to the gospel message (let alone their discipleship). Can you imagine someone imposing that sort of expectation on you? He would have to be the kind of person who could simultaneously elevate and abolish the need for holy ground by fulfilling its purpose in himself and creating living temples out of human beings. Ludicrous, right?

I was sitting in Starbucks one morning, probably plotting some safe way to further my influence by bookauthoring or YouTubing, when an obviously foreign family caught my eye. I watched as they ordered