huh?

Church

Note: For anyone who has had any conversation at length with the author recently, this will be a review as the author seems preoccupied with the concepts herein.

Most people grow up with some experience of church.  Wether your parents drug you to church every Sunday or you only darkened the the stained glass with your shadow at a wedding or funeral, we all have some concept of church.

“Oh, that’s that thing that happens every Sunday when the people sing and the preacher expouunds on his latest thoughts regarding the scriptures.”

Okay, so maybe you didn’t have that exact thought, but if you had to define what church REALLY IS what would you say?

I think most people would say that it is a building or a church service or maybe even a congregation.  The scriptures seem pretty clear in illuminating the thought that “the church” is the assembly of believers, but what does that mean?

In most churches we say things like “well, you know we are the church, it isn’t about the building” and yet we say things like “I am going to church today.”  So, how is it that we are capable of going to ourselves?

Now I realize that for simplicity’s sake we use terminology that is understood by everyone, and so please do not take me for one of those people that freaks out if you do not say things the exact right way.  Communication is usually not precise in delivery but if it is good communication it is precise in understanding.

I do think that this idea of “we are the church” is insufficient for the sake of understanding though.  If we really had and understanding of this idea then we would never have started calling buildings churches and we would never have thought of church as a place to go or a thing to do.

“Matthew, if church is not those things, then what is it?”

Well, let’s talk about where the word church came from.

The word church comes from the word ecclesia (pronounced: ekk ley see ah).  The word ecclesia was a word that the ancient Romans used.  When the Roman emperor would conquer a city/region and the region would submit to the authority of the emperor it was called an ecclesia.  In other words: a Roman ecclesia was a city that exhibited the lifestyle of the Roman empire.

The first Christians decided that any place the message of Jesus was accepted was a sort of Christian ecclesia, the difference being that Jesus was the ruler in these “conquered” cities.

(Note: For a much better look at this go right now and read “Velvet Elvis” by Rob Bell.)

So, the name “church” is something that the first believers stole from the Roman Empire.  Interestingly we don’t mind stealing this term from one of the most pagan empires of all time yet we correct people when they say Easter instead of Resurection Sunday…  I don’t see any difference personally.

Now that we understand what the word church means and where it came from, let’s talk about what church actually is.

I do believe that we-the community of believers-are the church but obviously this statement is not enough to define what the church is.  We have to ask ourselves the following question: What does it mean for ME-the believer-to say that I am the church?

First, I think that if we start to view our lives as “church” we start down the right path.  Individually we live church EVERYDAY; not just Sunday.  This means that even the most normal things that we do are spiritual acts, for example, brushing your teeth.  That doesn’t mean that you need to start saying things like “praise God brother” or that you should start speaking in tongues more or that every little thing that happens in life is a sign from God, in fact it almost means just the opposite. 

You, in your imperfections, are the living church.  What does that mean?  I think it means that God wishes to communicate perfection through imperfection.  That His drive is to exemplify honesty and authenticity through the person that He made you to be.  It seems that God wants to display your spirituality through the humanity of your personality.  In a sense God wants to bring spirituality back to the everyday life by showing us that real spiritualtiy is found in simplicity; it is found in love, reconciliation, generosity, selflessness, this is the picture that the scriptures paint: faith, hope and love.

Second, we must understand that if we are to attempt to “live church” that we can not do it alone.  If what we just said is true then it is obvious that the expression of spirituality in the everyday activities of life compells us towards others.  It is also obvious that spirituality can become very draining. 

If living as the church individually means that we live love, then we need people to love.  If it is reconciliation, then we need people to reconcile.  If generosity, we need people to give to.  If selflessness, then we need others to center around.

So, the second part of “being the church” is community.  This cannot be accomplished through a traditional Sunday church service, these are merely gatherings of worship and teaching (there I go ripping off Rob Bell again; oh, and you shold have finished “Velvet Elvis” by now).  Community is achieved when we become determined to do life together with people that can help us grow and people that we can help grow.  The job of the Christian community, internally, is to build eachother up; to pick up others when they are down and to be picked up when we are down.

And this leads to my third thought on what the chruch is: it is inviting.  If we learn to truly “be the church” then our lives individually and as a community will be beacons of light that call lost ships to safe ports.  The church has done such a great job telling the world what we are against that we have forgotten that we are for people, all people.  Drunks and drug addicts.  Nice guys and jerks.  Homosexuals and heterosexuals.  Murderers and saints.  The broken and the mended.  The church exists for 1) the needs of God- a people to love and be loved by, and 2) people from every walk of life.  The church, individually and in community should be inviting all people to explore faith regardless of where they are, who they are, and what they have done.

Unfortunately, not too many of us have great memories of what church is and without even thinking about it have developed some conclusions about what it should be.  Let us remember that each of us has a relevant experience, a story that matters, and perhaps we can explore together the depths of what God was actually doing when He called us to be His people.  Here’s to searching out life lived as church…