If you ask four people to define the church you will get five definitions. Furthermore, people are very attached to their particular definition. The most common understanding of the church is what I call the "cultural" definition. This is the understanding of the local
building on the street corner and the community of people that meet inside on Sunday mornings. But it's so much more, and so much less.
If you follow my blog,
Thrive in Exile, then you know that I differentiate between the REAL church from what I call the
"Church Delivery System."
It's easy to confuse
the two. After more than 25 years of working on the church delivery system, I began about three years ago to spend my time and resources focusing on finding the purest experience of The Church that I could. Sometimes that can be found in the traditional system, but mostly it goes far beyond Sunday morning.
The Sunday definition is too small.
The church is as simple as two people. Jesus said he dwells among even two people
who share faith (Matt 18:20). This should open us up to a sea of new possibilities. We each share faith uniquely. Our experience with God varies quite a bit. So coffee with a friend is church. Connecting and discussing life is church. This is missed if we focus solely on the Sunday "big show."
The church is also a global community that is a positive, redeeming influence in the world (Matt 5:14-16). If we spend too much time in one local church we
begin to see ourselves as distinct or cut off (even better off) than others. I don't think this is what Paul had in mind when he called early churches to be distinct (1 Cor 6:17). As a result of a limited definition, many churches play "red rover, red rover" with their city.
But to be a "light in the world" means to be an influence. This is a positive mindset distinction (faith), not a cultural or doctrinal
distinction. Today, far too many churches are known by what they are against and miss the opportunity to be for something. They see spirituality as separate from serving human needs. Meanwhile, scientists are working on cures for cancer, engineers are making better bridges and finding clean water, and others are focused on advancing the world in countless ways. How is that NOT the church? They are all aspects of
it.
If the church is truly a positive, redeeming agent in the world, then all we need to do is follow its footprints. Look to where real transformation is taking place, and behold you will see the effects of the church. What will surprise you (just as it did me) was that it doesn't usually lead us to the Sunday big show. Most of us will need a wide angle lens to see this aspect of the church. It includes companies, visionaries,
organizations (public and governmental), individuals of all faith systems, all doing their part to make life better. Though they are not all sharing the same motives, the collective work is nonetheless the byproduct of the church. That is true on the macro scale, just as it is in a small local church community. Think about that for a minute.
This means that church is not a place, or a thing, or a strategy. It is a collective, an organism. It's
not something you go to, it is something you are. It is the way in which all people find themselves engaged in the redemption of the world rather than plundering the world. To the degree that we do our part, is the degree that we act and live in faith. If we are disconnected from our greater engagement, we are disconnected from the church. All church is mission, all positive mission is an aspect of The Church, we cannot have one without the
other.
Whether we attend a local community week after week, a couple times a year or never, the church is not defined by our attendance to a delivery system. Weekly services can greatly enrich our lives and help us grow. They can be wonderful contributors to our lives, but they are only an aspect of The Church. "REAL CHURCH" occurs whenever we give our lives in service to another. And this takes a million different forms, and each one is
beautiful. When we do this we are not acting alone, we are acting in faith and we are becoming the hands of God to touch and mold our world.
God can and does use every single one of us. The more conscious we are of that reality, the more we are The Church.
