Octopus or Strawberry?

Continueing my thoughts about what it means to be 'church', it seems as though most churches are like an octopus. They reach out into the community, get hold of people and bring them back to be swallowed up in the centre. This seems OK except all they are doing in effect is feeding the centre. It seems to me that instead of being an octopus we should be more like a strawberry plant. The strawberry plant reproduces by putting out long trailers and producing another offspring which itself grows roots and begins to grow in another place. Eventually it becomes independant of the parent plant. Then it in turn produces its own offspring and so it continues. This is a truer picture of the New Testament Church - they went out and instead of bringing people back to the main centre, they established themselves wherever they were.

So why, if we consider ourselves to be 'church', do we insist on just feeding the main centre instead of producing offspring where we are? One friend wrote in his blog about outreach, making the point that we can only reach out to somewhere where we do not already inhabit. Surely as Christians we should be inhabiting the community and not just reaching out to it in order to feed our own congregation. It just seems to me at times that we are more concerned about increasing our own numbers and getting people to congregate with us than to help people to connect with God and have a real relationship with Him - even if they do not wish to join our particular group.

When Jesus saw Zacchaeus, He didn't suggest to him that if he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath He would get someone to pray with him. He went to where Zacchaeus was in his own surroundings, where he felt at ease and uninhibited. He met him where he was. I know some churches do this but it seems that the vast majority are only interested in activities or projects that will in some way benefit themselves and increase their numbers or standing in the eyes of others. No wonder so many really committed Christians are opting out of church as we understand it. As one friend explained to me - 'I am not prepared to be just a pew-filler any more.' Octopus or strawberry?