Jason Locke's Blog

To read my latest article on the Mosaic site, please click the link below: https://www.mosaicsite.org/main/2023/2/7/the-church-of-scotland-is-changing-fast-can-the-churches-of-christ-follow-suit  

On my sabbatical this summer, I rediscovered several important priorities about how to "do church" in the 21st century. Instead of endless controversies about what should or shouldn't happen in a worship service, the church needs to rediscover a sense of mission outside the bounds of traditional worship gatherings. Simply put, the church must become a people once again shaped by the mission of God. In writing this, I am not at all down on the traditional worship gathering. Regular assemblies are an enormous blessing to many existing Christians, myself included. We need to continue to slowly walk these gatherings toward being healthy and edifying for those who depend on them. As we continue to do this, however, it's time to STOP putting the wrong expectations on these worship gatherings, be they comfortingly traditional or radically contemporary. We should NOT expect worship to carry the load for evangelism, education, revival, fellowship, and every other necessary asp...

On my sabbatical, I've made multiple (re)discoveries about how we might think differently about doing church work today. Here is number two! It's that we need to think of strategies that put discipleship first, not worship first. The pieces were already in place for me to understand this one. What was lacking, however, was the imagination to see what it actually looks like in practice. Sometimes you just can't think yourself into a better way of acting ... you have to lead with your feet! That's what this discovery will allow us to do, or so I think. Everything I've ever known about how to do church involves a WORSHIP FIRST strategy. This means that the goal of interacting with non-Christians or unchurched people has been to get them to visit and then regularly attend a church's worship service. As a missionary in Europe, I was always trying to gradually move people closer and closer to the ultimate goal of getting them to join our church worship gatherings. Eve...