Brick, Mortar, and a New Thing

For many decades, local church organizations have complemented and helped various Christian ministries and vice versa. Billy Graham’s first televised broadcast was on September 30, 1951. It’s possible that some leaders of localized church fellowships felt uncomfortable about this “new thing” presenting the Gospel in their realm, but at some point, they had to decide whether Reverend Graham was obeying God or the devil. Considering the outcomes, it seems that many pastors in those early years had the discernment to perceive what God was doing.

I have been on the road, ministering in traditional churches of all denominations, since I was 14 years old. My wife, Christian music singer/songwriter Pam Thum, also grew up traveling the world, ministering from church to church to people everywhere. We were on the ministry staff of a traditional church for eight years, and then God directed us to a new season. I felt He was telling us He would take us to many communities around the world. Of course, we just assumed that would mean traveling again.

In 2019, the Lord directed us to create video ministry exports and simply call it Living Room Church. A medium-sized fellowship reached out to us because their pastor had suddenly passed away. He had been there many years, and there were complicated concerns in the leadership. We provided them with these ministry videos through Living Room Church, and their fellowship and leadership began to grow. They went from being personality- and building-centric to being focused on the Word of God.

Taking Off

While that was going on, people from other communities started joining us. Then in the middle of all that, the COVID pandemic hit. But Living Room Church didn’t skip a beat. Of course, other ministries started doing online streaming during the pandemic, but Living Room Church was unique in that we weren’t modeled around the core demand for building attendance. We only have one priority — attendance to God’s Word.

Church fellowships centered around a brick-and-mortar presence have a lot to offer their local communities, but the church Jesus said He would build in Matthew 16:18 had absolutely nothing to do with real estate, architecture, or property assets. Good leaders understand this, and so the “new thing” God is doing becomes their opportunity instead of a feared liability.

According to Barna Research, before the COVID-19 pandemic, most church attendance happened exclusively in person. Today, that’s only true for about half of churched adults. In fact, 20% still primarily attend online, and 26% mix online and in-person worship. Millennials are most likely to have embraced hybrid options, with one in three attending both online and in person.

A Gallup poll conducted in 2024 showed that just three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services regularly. We want to engage the remaining 70% by delivering Bible-centered ministry to their doors, wherever they may be. Alcoholics Anonymous meetings share our messages. Truckers and pilots indulge in God’s encouragement, sharing the daily prayers from our online community. From college students to retirees, they’re reaching out to us, enjoying God’s presence in their small groups.

Meeting Needs

Many people in North America love to congregate with a crowd, enjoy a worship band, drop their kids and grandkids off for children’s programs, and engage in many other good things that are part of a live Christian gathering. But that’s not our assignment or specialty. Billy Graham was famous for saying, “Would you come?” We help those who are called to go. For the single mom working around the clock, the trucker driving through the night, and the white-collar worker traveling around the globe, we specialize in promoting God’s presence and attention to His Word — now.

Ephesians 4:12 explains the importance of a diversity of gifts and supply for Christ’s Ecclesia, His Body. It says the diversity of gifts is for “the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints, [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body.” Courageous pastors celebrate Christ’s Body being built up and equipped.

The Church is His Body. We are called to be the church, not go to church. Of course, there’s nothing wrong or biblically contrary in going to a building called a church, a chapel, or a cathedral. The compromise that quietly sabotages our life is when we substitute going for being. There is no substitute for being the Body of Christ. That’s our identity. It’s our Kingdom citizenship.

God has called us to be living stones built into His Ecclesia which we never, ever leave. As a child of God, we’re reborn of the Spirit to be spirit, not part-time but always. Could our confidence in a physical entity be an unintentional breach in our faith, distracting us from abiding in a spiritual state 24/7?

What’s Eternal?

Consider the macro picture — not the next year or decade, the next millennia. Of everything you call church today, what will remain even a few hundred years from now? All the assets will be gone. The building will be gone, along with the beautiful branding, management systems, high-tech sound and lights … all gone. The question is, what will remain?

Jesus’s church is eternal. His Body is forever. God gives us all “things” to freely enjoy — but let’s be honest, we easily conflate what’s temporal with what’s eternal. Our inability to distinguish between the two is a major liability. It’s why the children of Israel took the gold God gave them in Egypt and used it to make an idol.

Nobody who’s left this mortal realm is walking around Heaven talking about his denominational affiliation. Kingdom heroes we have championed here on Earth who’ve done great things for God’s glory are not in Heaven longing for their favorite cathedral or temple. Moses received the design for building the tabernacle, but remember, it was only a copy and shadow of what is in Heaven (Hebrews 8:5). Not even Moses is walking around Heaven reminiscing about the earthly tabernacle. It was only a copy of heavenly things! God has given us types and shadows of spiritual things by using physical things so we can mature our faith accurately.

Our assignment is to make faith the center of our homes. When parents are putting biblical principles front and center in their everyday lives, praying, and prioritizing Bible study, children will grow up understanding this isn’t just a religion — it is a relationship with our living Savior, Jesus Christ. Will putting God’s Word at the center of our lives be helpful or hurtful to our society as a whole? I think we all know the answer to that.

In Isaiah 43:19, God said, “Behold, I am doing a new thing,” and then He asks, “Do you not perceive it?” We need each other, and 1 Corinthians 12 emphasizes God’s genius in our diversity. It’s a new day, and God is doing a new thing because He is still looking to save the lost, to find the one sheep that has left the fold, and the prodigal son who wants to come home.

Dr. Stephen Marshall is pastor of Living Room Church, an online congregation based in Michigan and Canada which has viewers from over 100 countries. He has written three books, Live Life Strong, 31 Ways to Your Best Days, and A Little Boy’s Prayer. For more information visit: https://livingroomchurch.org/.

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