If you travel much at all, you have probably seen many
Community Churches in different locations. I often wondered what exactly
the name meant. Apparently, these churches are often a collection of Christians
from many other denominations that felt that their churches were not
sufficiently reaching out and meeting the needs of their local community. These
people often come together to form a new church – a community church – with a
mission to reach out to their community.
The first time I visited a Community Church was in Maryland.
How I ended up there is an interesting story.
Perhaps you have heard of The Bible Answer Man. This is a
radio program hosted by Hank Hanegraaff. You may know Hank from the many books he has
written. Hank is also known for his ministry, The Christian Research
Institute. This group publishes a magazine called Christian Research Journal. I
used to purchase this magazine occasionally at our local LifeWay store. In
Volume 22 Number 3 there was an article written by a lady named Rachel Ramer. I
wrote a letter to the editor about this article and surprisingly received a
response from the author. I then responded to her response. This led to Rachel
and me exchanging Emails over the course of about a year, discussing many
Biblical topics. Rachel lived in Indiana, and for a while I worked on a project
near her hometown. During one of my trips I was able to meet her in person over
dinner.
For Christmas 2000, Rachel mailed me a copy of a book that
she really liked and asked that I read it. The book was Finding Faith by Brian
McLaren. After reading the book I exchanged a few Emails with the author. At
that time Brian was the pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville,
Maryland. In fact, he was the founding pastor.
In the summer of 2001 my employer sent me to Rockville,
Maryland, to attend a week long class. When I found out that Spencerville was
just a short distance from my hotel, I contacted Brian and told him we would be
at his church the Sunday morning after my class was over. We made arrangements
to have lunch together afterwards.
All went according to plan. Kathy, Andrew, and I went to the
church. We attended a Sunday School class and then the worship service. Brian
spoke on the topic of the Apostles’ Creed. After the service was over, we met
up with Brian. As it turned out his wife and kids were out of town for various
reasons. So, it was just him joining us for lunch. He told us how to get to a
Mexican restaurant he liked, and we followed him there.
At lunch we talked about family, Christianity, and his book
Finding Faith. I had my copy for him to autograph. I also gave him an
autographed copy of my first book (the only one I had written at the time),
Beginnings to Endings. The lunch and conversation were quite enjoyable.
Over time, Brian wrote more books and became more involved
with leaders and churches from around the world. This led him to leave his
pastoral ministry at the church and become, according to some, a leader in the
Emerging Church. Brian has become a somewhat controversial person in the
Christian community. Some really like his ideas, but others think he has gotten
off the Biblical track and more into what some call the social gospel. You can
see what he is currently up to on his Web
site.
To me, the Cedar Ridge Community Church seemed very typical
of an evangelical church. Of course, it’s hard to gain a complete understanding
of what a church is all about with just one visit.
If you’d like to read a more complete story about Rachel
Ramer’s and my Email exchanges, you can read it in an earlier
post. A famous atheist is involved.
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