Close Your Church for Good is a book about deconstructing the church. It has argued that to be and do all that Jesus desires, the church must transform itself from a property-holding, power-wielding, people-controlling institution, and become a relational-driven, service-oriented, self-sacrificial incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Yet at the end of this book, you may be left wondering what is left of the church as we know it? I have suggested we give up our clergy and our buildings, that we cancel the Sunday service, the prayer meetings, and all other church programs. I called on pastors to stop preaching, and church leadership to get rid of their doctrinal statement. I invited Christians to stop evangelizing. If a church actually did all this, what would be left?

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The Epilogue to my book, Close Your Church for Good, is subtitled “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus.”

Though most of the book has been somewhat critical of church, and has deconstructed or torn away much of what people associate with church, I wanted to close with a section that provides some suggestions for how the church can move forward, and how the church can be transformed from a religious institution into a missional movement.

This closing section attempts to inspire you to accomplish the change that Jesus wants for His church.

Please note that due to some of the feedback I receive on these posts, this epilogue might be radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the blog posts that form the epilogue:

• It Looks Like Jesus
• More Coming Soon!

Shane Claiborne went to India to work with lepers. They are the rejects and outcasts of Indian society. Speaking of that experience, Shane said this:

I knew what Jesus meant when he told Peter that the ‘gates of hell would not prevail’ against the church, as I was finally seeing a church that was storming the gates of hell itself to save people from its horrors (The Irresistible Revolution).

Shane discovered what all other men and women of faith understand: that heaven is best found when we head toward hell, that Jesus is most active where death abounds, and grace and mercy shine brightest in the darkness of sin. That is why he and his community, The Simple Way, sought out the worst and most crime-filled area of Philadelphia, and then sought to redeem and transform it with acts of love, mercy, and kindness.

They are not the only ones taking the church to hell. Gabe Lyons, in his book The Next Christians, shares the stories of numerous individuals and groups which are looking for the darkest and dirtiest places on planet earth, and then going there intentionally to share the love of Jesus with the people they find.

He writes about Gary Haugen who founded the International Justice Mission to target sex trafficking.

He writes about Mike Foster who set up a booth at the adult entertainment expo in Las Vegas and handed out Bibles with hot pink and yellow covers with this message on the cover: “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”

Gabe says that for Christians who want to bring the light of the gospel to a dark and dying world, “running away is not an option.”

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If we decide to join Jesus in storming the gates of hell, we will find something surprising when we get there. We will find a ragtag band of prostitutes, alcoholics, drug-addicts, murderers, and thieves, dancing and singing and laughing with Jesus.

It is a strange sight there at the gates of hell, but it is the way of Jesus.

Joy and laughter in the face of darkness and despair is one of the best ways to turn back the night and light a candle in the dark.

Jesus dances with harlots, shares meals with tax-collectors, laughs at the jokes of murderers, and drinks with alcoholics.

Meanwhile, we look on with disapproval. We get offended. Doesn’t Jesus know what they’ve done? Doesn’t He know He is just encouraging them? Doesn’t He know how it looks to hang out with such people?

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When we go to the gates of hell to battle for the lives of men and women who are trapped there, we go knowing that we will lose the battle. We lose the battle because losing is the only way to win.

When the church arrives at the gates of hell, we will do the same thing Jesus did in His life and ministry. We will die. We do not lay siege to the gates of hell to fight against the people we find there. We camp out at the gates of hell to love and serve the people who are trapped there.

When we follow Jesus to the hellish places on earth we will die to ourselves in the process. Our dreams, our hopes, our longings, our rights, our power, our money, our prestige, our authority, all gets discarded. Just as Jesus laid aside His honor and glory so that He might rescue us, He calls us to lay aside similar things so that we might rescue others.

Though he rightfully could have demanded service and worship from all, he served the lame and the sick by healing them, the demonized by delivering them, and the outcasts by befriending them. This is what the kingdom of God looks like. It looks like humility. It looks like grace. It looks like service. It looks like Jesus (The Myth of a Christian Nation).

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