The Church in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend

This week Lorie and I got a chance to visit the site of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  This was the battle which effectively ended the resistance of the Creek Indians to the expansion of settlers into what was at the time the Mississippi territory.  While the back story to the battle is interesting it is also long so I want to jump to just one part of the conflict.

The Creek Indians that opposed the settlers moving into the area were led by Chief Menawa.  Under Menawa’s leadership about 1,000 warriors and a much smaller number of their kin took a position on a bit of land that was shaped like a horseshoe by the meanderings of the Tallapoosa River.  Across a narrow section of the horseshoe they built an impressive defensive line.  They were depending on the river to protect both of their flanks and their rear.  At this point, the battle was lost to the Creeks.  All they actually managed to do was give themselves a false sense of security and confine themselves for slaughter.  

The U.S. forces, lead by Andrew Jackson, outnumbered the Creeks nearly 3 to 1.  They also had vastly superior fire power armed with muskets and artillery.  The Creeks had a few muskets but were for the most part armed with clubs and bows.  With their rear covered by U.S. forces to prevent escape and with allied Creeks and Cherokees crossing the river Menawa’s defeat was an inevitability.  The lopsided casualties of the battle indicate how bad Menawa’s strategy actually was: U.S. Losses: 70 killed and about 200 wounded.  Creek Losses: about 800 killed and about 200 wounded.  

As we toured the battlefield I thought about the church in America.  We all know that the church is not a building, but the people.  But that factoid in our brains seems to have trouble working its way into the function of our lives.  If someone asked you, “Where is your church?” how likely would it be that we would give an address or directions to a building.  If we said our church was a large brick building would we be talking about a group of people?  The damage done by mistaking the church for a building and vice versa is immeasurable.  I am not anti-building,  Buildings can be very useful tools.  What concerns me most is that as there is growing opposition to the church (the people of God) that we will retreat more and more into our church buildings.  If we do so, we will, like the Creeks, seal our own doom.  

What can we do?  It is my opinion that the church more than ever needs to get outside of it four walls for as many things as possible.  From Small groups to fellowship events to even our worship we need to move the church’s life out of our building and into the community.  Rather than asking the community to come to church (by which we mean an event at our building) let’s invite the community to our lives in the community.  Better yet, find ways to invite ourselves into the lives and events of our community.