What Kind of Church is Soul Sanctuary?

So, I have been thinking… no really… I have been thinking and thinking and wondering what to write! I currently have 3 books on the go, all at once. One about the Last Days, one about building a church culture that promotes healing, and one about unique problems faced by men. Maybe I will share on all that at a later time, but recently I had had a few questions come my way asking “what kind of church is Soul Sanctuary?” What I find interesting is that many of us want to put labels on everything, yet at the same time we we hate being labelled. Maybe because labelling things helps us make sense of our world? What is sure is that when it comes to things related to faith, labelling seems to be a-okay.

So, in the spirit of engaging with this common question, let’s talk it through. What kind of church is Soul Sanctuary?

Let me say that we teach and hold to the traditions of Scripture, that the Bible is the Word of GOD, that Jesus was born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, that He took our place on the cross and died for our sins to make us right with GOD. We believe in His resurrection, and there is a heaven and hell… and we believe GOD is Sovereign and reigns! So, I guess that makes us kind of traditional.

Back in 2004, Soul Sanctuary was started so that people could feel comfortable to bring non believing friends and family members to church. “So, you are missional?” Umm, the church is supposed to be missional! We are called to transform the community that we are placed in as well as to make an impact around the world. 

“So, you are seeker sensitive then?” This is a hilarious question, at least to me because often when people ask this question to me they are using it as a weapon to critique the function of the church. So, what is a church to be? Seeker hostile? I like to think that we as a community are seeker friendly because no one who is new to a church feels comfortable at all, they are often scared to death, so it is important that we are friendly. When people walk into Soul Sanctuary we try hard to make sure that the environment is friendly! We want people to come back, but at the same time we want to give people a lot of room to check things out without people looking over their shoulder. 

“So, then you are an attractional church?” My first answer would be NO! But as I think about it, I would have to say that is a component to who we are. When a business attracts people we call it successful but when a church does it, there are those out there who call it compromise! We actually do want people to come back, and we recognize that our style may not be for everyone but we work hard at trying to keep the environment clean, the kids ministry safe, and the list goes on. 

As a church, we have a mission, a purpose… we want people to experience the saving grace of Jesus Christ (to Know GOD). We want to see marriages restored, addicts set free, etc. (to Find Freedom). We want to see the excluded included, we want to see teens and children make their faith their own (to Discover Purpose). We want to see people serving others in their GOD given gifts and to ultimately Make a Difference in this world where we find ourselves… and we invite all people to be a part of it.

So what kind of church is Soul Sanctuary? One where people come to know God, find freedom, discover their purpose, and make a difference.