Imagine a church that doesn't need a parking lot

Ancient rabbis limited the amount of walking a Jew could do on the Sabbath by defining a 'Sabbath Day's Journey.' Walking more than this constituted work and a violation of the Jewish law. It is generally believed that this distance was less than a mile. To this day, many Orthodox Jews live within walking distance of their synagogue.

Imagine for a moment that we Gentiles still obeyed this law. Imagine if we all had to walk to church instead of drive. Imagine if the only way we could participate in corporate worship, Bible study, prayer and service was to gather with other Christians in our neighborhood. What would the impact be?

• Less denominationalism.
• Smaller churches but a lot more of them.
• Discipleship and fellowship would probably be a lot more important than property, programs and staff.
• We'd have to get along and solve problems. Finding another church would probably mean moving houses!
• Less recources needed to maintain the organization, more resources available for ministry.
• More easily reproducible.
• More people involved in leadership.
  
  Would this be healthier? Would it be more biblical? Would it be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission? What are the downsides? You tell me.
  
  90% of the people who attend the Nicosia International Church walk to worship on Sunday morning. We are a neighborhood church in the purest sense of the word. Yet we also come from 28 different nationalities and at least a dozen denominations. If we had cars we'd be tempted to disintegrate into ethnic or denominational churches that we could drive to. That way we could be with people who act and eat like us, who worship with the same style of music and share the same cultural or political values.
  
  At the Keystone Project a small group of Christian leaders from around the world is learning to make discipleship the foundation of our churches and ministries. We are learning to plant churches by making disciples rather than planting churches to make disciples. What the emerging churches that come out of this movement will look like is still unclear. But it is the future. Rather than thinking about new ways of doing church, maybe its time to get back to the ancient way of following Jesus. Make discipleship the priority.
  
  Though 100 or so people identify with NIC, we don't own a building or have a bank account. About half of the money we collect (and we are a poor church of students and refugees) we give away. It's not a perfect church, but it's different. One of the things all of us in the West are learning is that the conventional way of doing church works less and less. In the last decade, over 500 billion dollars were spent by US churches on domestic ministry, and yet the percentage of people attending church has declined. Pumping more money into it is not the answer. Maybe walking to church is.