Who We Are: Doing Things Differently

Muskoka Community Church has always marched to the beat of a different drummer—not in terms of our beliefs or theology, but in the way we approach and carry out our disciple-making mission. Never was this more clearly illustrated than when we launched our public services at Riverside Public school in the fall of 2008. 

There is a fairly established pattern for starting new churches, with some very basic “rules” about what is needed for success. One of the most important tasks is the recruitment of a core team of people who would help get the church off the ground. These should be people who were not only Christians, but who were willing to give up time, money, and emotional energy because they believed in the church’s mission and thought God was calling them to be a part of it. When we moved to Huntsville in July 2007, this was our primary goal. We made every effort to get connected with as many people as possible—both to get to know our new community, and also hoping and praying that God would miraculously connect us with people who would help us start the church.

But a year later, it was a dismal failure. And not for lack of effort on our (especially April’s) part! We could make a list of well over 200 people who knew us by name and knew what we were hoping to do. However, the vast majority of these were not churchgoers (and not particularly interested in changing that). The few Christians we did meet were happily involved in their own church.

By the spring of 2008 our core team consisted of seven adults in addition to April and I. By the summer, that had dropped to three adults as one couple moved away, and another decided this wasn’t for them. Conversations with mentors and denominational liaisons were getting serious. What were we going to do? Was it time to throw in the towel, since we did not have enough support to even host one worship service, let alone a church as we envisioned it? Clearly, according to all conventional wisdom, we were not ready to launch, and yet...

We decided to go for it. It was do or die, start or quit. So we began to plan for a fall launch of public worship services at Riverside Public School. April would lead the children’s ministry, and I would oversee most other aspects. But who would help us with the kids, music, sound, video, greeting, setup, teardown, pulling the trailer? Well, our tiny core team for one. But we hoped that maybe a few of our non-churched friends would come to our rescue. 

Because I am a chicken and didn’t want to face verbal rejection, I made my request by mass email. The gist of it was something like, “You know that April and I are here with the goal of starting a new church, and we know that is not something you are interested in, but we really need help to get things going. Would you consider lending us a hand by….?”

One of the first to respond was a good friend who had only ever stepped foot in a church once in his life (for a wedding). His response was along the lines of, “Jeremy, you know that I am an atheist and consider myself anti-religious, yet because you’re a good friend, I could help you run your sound board for the first few weeks.” His wife’s response followed not long afterward:, “I guess since he’s helping with sound, I could help sing your hymns” (at that time, she was not aware that modern Christian worship music existed). 

Side note: That one threw me for a loop. An atheist on the sound board seemed okay, but in my past experience there were certain “standards” for those who were “up front” in a church—they should at least believe what they’re singing! But as I prayed about it, I felt like Jesus reminded me that none of his disciples were Christians when he called them, and they really didn’t believe the “right” things until after they had been with him for a couple of years, and had done all kinds of ministry stuff along the way. So I decided it was okay (and did I mention how desperate we were for help?).

To my surprise, many other responses came in, and so when we held our first public service on October 19, 2008, the vast majority of the volunteers who were greeting at the door, holding babies in the nursery, handing out bulletins, running sound, and singing in the band were non-Christian friends who were just lending a hand (if you’re reading this and were one of those friends who helped us out—thank you!).

I’d love to report that all of them stayed at the church and became dedicated followers of Jesus, but that isn’t what happened. Most of them served for a while until new attendees took their places. But what their involvement did accomplish was to shape our culture in ways that reinforced what we had known from the beginning—that this was to be a church for people who weren’t church people. When you get up to preach, or do announcements, or lead worship, and you see a bunch of your non-Christian and atheist friends in the small crowd, you automatically translate the “Christianese” into language they can understand.

And so, like many things in the life of our church, God turned what seemed like an obstacle (the lack of a core team) into a tremendously positive opportunity. Not only did this odd launch team help our church get off the ground, and imprint it with a unique culture, but that it also planted some seeds in the lives of those who wouldn’t otherwise have come to church. I know that for my atheist friend, while he did not become a Christian, he told me his view of the church had become much more positive. And that’s good progress!

This also started a pattern that has held true, and that is that we are a church that does not do things the “typical” way. That isn’t to say we're radically different from the other great churches in our area, but simply that there have been many other times along the way where “conventional wisdom” or “tried and true methods” have not applied to us. God seems to like stretching us and using us as a laboratory for kingdom experiments. Over the years I’ve come to greatly appreciate the creativity and sense of adventure this brings, and I hope that as we continue to grow and mature, we continue to live on the edge, take risks, and do things that are unusual—for the sake of Jesus and his mission.