Let’s begin with two questions today. “What is church?” and “What does it mean to be the church?” I’ve gone to so many churches over the years. I’ve gone to seminary. I’ve pastored churches and non-profit ministries. I’ve been theologically trained to answer these questions. But how do you answer these church questions? What do your answers say about you?
If most people don’t go to church, and most people aren’t interested in going to church, how do we become the church, God’s representatives, wherever we are and wherever we go? As I stop and reflect on this question, I stand corrected. It’s not a matter how we become the church. We are being the church, God’s reps, 24-7. Whatever we’re becoming is what the church is becoming. If we’re being transformed into Jesus’ likeness, the church is looking and smelling like the face or aroma of Christ. If we’re living in our past, the church is becoming really old. If we’re becoming jaded or cynical, the church will be a turn-off. If our lives are becoming a heartfelt song or prayer, the church will be a sanctuary. If we’re being shaped by our culture, the church will be entertaining quipping with retorts to make you laugh. If we are daily being shaped by God’s Word, the church will be proclaiming the Good News through daily conversations. If you want to know what you’re becoming, just listen to your internal dialog, the stories you tell, and how you spend your time and money.
My understanding of “church” has radically changed over the years. It’s not a building. It’s not defined by a denomination. It’s not defined by a people group. It’s not geographically defined. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit drawing people together as God is above all, working within and between us, drawing people into relationships where Christ is made known. Church is happening across the world in cathedrals, barns, workplaces, schools, renovated buildings, restaurants, and homes. Church happens where two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name.
This week I got to be and experience the church at Tim Horton’s, at schools, in foster homes, at New Life Church, at Crossroad Community Church, at Frazer Automotive, at Associated Charities, at Christian Counseling ministries, and in my home. Any place can become church when you allow the Spirit of God to fill and transform you. You won’t be able to contain it. It may burst out in love, spontaneous laughter and joy, in song, in celebration, homemade pie, in confession, in play, in sharing God’s Word, by taking interest in others, hugs, prayer, or heartfelt stories.
If you want to know what the church is becoming, listen to the words you use to define you when you’re getting ready in the morning in front of the mirror. Listen to your words, your stories, and watch the dynamic interplay in your relational conversations with God, yourself, and with the people around you. Is the church becoming more and more like Jesus or more and more like the world?
Where did you experience church this week?
What is the church becoming?
This is very refreshing, as the word “church” many times comes with a lot of baggage attached to it. It has names, faces, experiences, and feelings tied to it which may cause a knee-jerk reaction, whether good or bad. Yet stepping back and distinguishing between what is the work of the Spirit of God and what is the fruit of man (regardless of whether it comes from someone who labels themselves as “in Christ” or not) aids in clarifying what we associate in our minds and hearts as God’s work here and now. Man is not the sum of his actions, and, in the same vein, the church is not the church only to the degree that the outward expression represents Christ in fullness. Man is the dwelling place of God, the tangible expression of heaven here and now; the image of our Father may have be clouded in our vision but is not any less true. What does He say is true of our individual and corporate expression? Where is God not present in us? We don’t have to look hard too far to find Him, yet it is eyes of the Spirit and not our human eyes. May we recognize what is already present in us (Him!) and identify and call forth the same in all we meet.