Like an airport?!?

My new role with the Catalyst Foundation means I'm doing a bit more travelling than I've done before. that means spending a little more time in airports, with the strange sociological realities they bring.

At church this morning our pastor referred to an analogy he heard from Dr. Reggie McNeal at a denominational conference this week. It went something like this:
The church is meant to be like an airport; not a destination to which we bring people so they can arrive, but a place we pass through en route to where we are meant to be, which is among the people in our communities who are most in need; the place where God is at work.

I didn't hear McNeal, but I find it an interesting and helpful image. Certainly the church loses perspective and often we see our Sunday services as the purpose and high point of life.

I long to be part of a Christian community in which our gatherings are truly about being energised and prepared for being the presence of Christ in every other aspect of life.