Inflata-Church

"Feeding the bulldog" is a saying we ministerial types use for the offerings necessary to meet the church budget, pay the electricity & maintenance on an aging church structure.  I think I finally found the answer - maybe.  You be the judge.  I'm traveling through the metro-mess this week & couldn't believe what I saw.  An inflatable church.   I looked into it and for about 40 grand (my best estimate), I can have a luxury sedan OR a lovely Gothic church. 

www.inflatablechurch.com - no kidding!
It’s hard to believe, but for the price of a well-equipped  car, I can now buy myself a fully loaded, 47-foot-high place of worship. It’s got Gothic arches, an organ, a pulpit, an altar, space for 60 and even some stained-glass-style windows.  All for 40K, sounds like a deal, or even a steal. 

The problem? This building is a balloon. 

Apparently the world’s first inflatable church made its debut in 2004 in England.  Its creator had hoped that it would “breathe new life into Christianity.” (I'm sure no pun intended).  It apparently was featured on CNN and other media outlets. HOW DID I MISS THIS?  Here is a whole church designed to fit in the back of a truck.   

Inflatable Church Pool - NOPE - No mixed 'bathing.'  

When I told my wife about my life altering discovery - all she asked was "can you jump in it like a bouncy-house? Does it have a bathroom?"

I am trying to imagine myself walking through the gray Gothic archway, and entering a worship space that looks like a cross between a monastery and a moon-bounce (this is where a 'charismatic' service would thrive - imagine 'jumping for Jesus in this baptist balloon?  I would probably get kicked out of the association.) - brown polyvinyl pews, an inflatable organ, a pop-up pulpit and an air-filled altar.  Inflatable pews (it would seem to me) would be much more comfortable than seats made from hard, polished wood.  Just be sure to leave sharp objects at home.

Would Jesus have preached in an inflatable church?   Probably - but I do know that Jesus saw two boats at the shore of the lake, and so he hopped into Simon’s and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat (Luke 5:1-3). Jesus created a sanctuary at sea. A worship center on the water. He placed a pulpit in the center of the people so that the word could be heard.

So why are am I so stuck with speaking in a sedentary sanctuary?

No mystery, really. I have a natural human hunger for stability in my life.  It makes sense that a church needs a solid foundation and a set of sturdy walls, plus an unchanging number in the phone book (that says it all right there) and an address that hasn’t shifted since the cornerstone was first put in place.  Wondering if I should ask myself more the question: "What is a church - really?"  When I was small I would clasp my hands and mantra "here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door and there's all the people."  Need to rethink that one.

Should I  be operating out of the trunk of a a hybrid? Or off the deck of a fishing boat? Or from a flatbed truck hauling an inflatable church? Details, details.   In the midst of all this I am reminded that in the Old Testament, God’s people worshiped in a tent. Now there's a retro-thought reminiscent of the spread of the Good News in "tent-revival" format.

That question, for me,  is  apostolic, not apocalyptic.  God has called me to go out, not to get them to come in. I need to meet people where they live and work and play. Jesus invites me to “Put out into the deep water and let down my nets for a catch." Do I have the nerve to walk with God into an uncertain future, knowing that God is always ahead of me, and that God is always on the move? 

Now I don’t actually have to worship each week in a big balloon in order to pass the inflatability test. After all, polyvinyl pews can pop, air-filled arches can sag, and space for 60 is not going to fill the bill for many services of worship. 


There is tremendous value in thinking about being a church that is apostolic and on the move with God, a church that refuses to be stuck in one location and sidetracked by worries about the condition of its bricks and mortar.

From now on I think my focus will be on inflatability, not stability.

To be inflatable is to be incarnational — that is to be the living, breathing, walking, talking, fully enfleshed body of Christ in the world today. To be inflatable is to be filled with the Spirit — after all, in the Hebrew Bible, there is only one single word for the concepts of wind and breath and Spirit. To be inflatable is to be easily transportable, and able to move quickly and efficiently to wherever God wants us to be. When the Lord is on the move, I don’t want to be "left behind."

Inflatability is seen most clearly in our actions when I leave a building and go out into the world. After all, maybe I have come to worship feeling deflated by the frustrations of the week, and maybe even punctured by sharp words and destructive, damaging actions. 


When Jesus called, the future disciples “left everything and followed Him."  They abandoned their rootedness, and began instead a journey that would lead to their ultimate eternal destination.

So here I go, floating out into the world as a sign of God’s love for all people. “Do not be afraid,” said Jesus to his very first inflatable followers; “from now on you will be catching people." The best way to attract people to God is to be light and flexible and full of the Spirit, and the most effective way to draw people to Jesus is to do my best to love them as profoundly as Jesus loves them.

There was a woman in a mental hospital in Washington who was just sick and tired of hearing her chaplain tell her how much God loved her. She heard him say this again and again, and it just didn’t ring true; she didn’t believe it. Finally, she said to the chaplain, “Please, stop telling me how much God loves me. First, you love me. Then I’ll know that God loves me.”

That’s my mission  - apostolic, not apocalyptic. 

That’s the approach of a disciple who is determined to live in the world, meet people where they live and work and play and show them the irresistible love of God. 

That’s the technique of a Christ-follower who values inflatability over solidity, and flexibility over stability.  I wish it were me - I'm still a tremendous work in progress & too often "deflated." I drove by the "inflate-church" site again - just to see it again - wouldn't you know it had moved...what's a follower to do when his church moves too quickly and leaves no forwarding address?  Houston, we have a problem.  Just when I was sure the "bulldog" problem was solved.

I just thought this was funny!