When Jesus said, Behold I stand at the door and knock, He was actually speaking to a church. Why are people leaving the church by the thousands? Why are fewer and fewer people looking to the church for answers? What will it take to reverse this trend? The Homeless Church takes a fresh and honest look at the Christian Church in the world today…from the inside and the outside. While some are growing in numbers, many more have experienced enough decline to force some to shut their doors forever. Do these closures mean that God is out of business? Certainly not…God never needed men to build Him a house.
What is church? Does it need a building? What is more important; people or buildings? What can the church do to stop the decline? The Homeless Church is the honest story of one of those decliners. Each chapter draws from the personal experience of one man’s journey as he learns to reconsider his own perspective of what Church should be. What did the author learn that you can benefit from?
I learned I could heal when I let go of the weight and the pain that held me down. I learned that I was safe in God, regardless of my exposure to others. I learned to love and be loved in my darkest moments. I discovered the greatest wall to overcome was the one I built to protect myself. I hope as you read my story you will discover you are loved beyond comprehension and there is always hope, whether inside the walls or outside of the walls.
You are never alone. No matter how desperate you feel or how much you hurt, God can surround you with his love and his people, wherever you are. Over the years I have watched many hurting people leave the Church during their most painful times. After the death of one of our children, we found it necessary to leave for a season, also. What we found outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar walls, was amazing. The Church cannot be a healing place if it doesn’t learn what to do with hurting people. In fact, numerous local churches are feeling the effect of this movement away from the brick-and-mortar as attendance continues to decline.
