Heather and I recently returned from what the Beeson program calls, “The Houston church immersion.” My fellow pastors and their spouses, lead by an experienced pastor from Houston, saw 13 churches in action, in 2-1/2 days. It was one of the fastest tours of a city I have ever been a part of.

We worshiped in a house church that reaches out exclusively to the gay community of Houston. We toured a large Southern Baptist church, which had in their foyer a fountain that was larger than most swimming pools. We worshiped in an all African-American church, a post-modern church that meets in a basement where they all do art during the church service, a mission-church, where the dominate out-reach event is the weekly church based poker tournament, and a small little church named Lakewood, who’s pastor’s name is Joel Osteen.

What we learned was the following:
First, the God created uniqueness of each church is what makes it great! Heather and I loved how each church was so different in how God was asking them to carry out their mission. Churches can learn from each other but not try to copy each other.

Second, the people owning the mission of each church is what made them great! The churches which had as their base, that the churches mission is owned by the people, these churches were great churches. Churches that just let the paid staff handle the ministries were flat. Staff, leadership and the people all owned the mission with their hearts.

Third, when a church knew it was placed in their community by God, to reach their community for God, this was a great church. A common thread in all the churches was a desire to look outside their walls, pray for, and love and help those who don’t know Jesus.

It takes all kinds of churches!