The Church is the body of all believers, it is not an organization.
The church is a local group, which may have some formal sense of order.
The social club is the semi-business entity that needs to make the house nut every month so that salaries are met, facilities are paid for, etc.
There's been a lot of blogificatin' recently about the Millennials leaving The Church.
They're not. Most of them are staying in The Church.
Many of them are leaving a church, though some will eventually wind up in another church.
The people who are panicking are the people who run the social clubs.
They point to the satisfied 1/3rd or so who Like Things The Way They Are Just Fine and tell themselves what they need to do to keep the Millennials from leaving The Church the church the social club is just to keep on doing more of what they've always been doing, only a lot louder and stronger and more rigidly.
The Millennials are gone. They are not coming back to the social club.
What some churches -- i.e., local groups of believers -- can do is find where the Millennials are gathering for their spiritual quests and instead of trying to shoehorn them back into a building or a rigid power hierarchy, help them.
The thought of shuttering structures associated with local churches is anathema to some, but The Church has never been located behind doors.
Never.
Ever.
Forget about money.
Forget about programs.
Forget about doctrine.
Forget about dogma.
Forget about everything except the lostlonelyscaredsearchinghungryfrightenedforlorn souls that need The Church and take The Church to them wherever they are.
Take love.
Take compassion.
Take acceptance.
Ask for nothing.
Take nothing.
Accept nothing.
Demand nothing.
Let them know we are Christians by our love.
