What is the Church?

Having grown up in the church, I have always taken for granted that I've known what the church is. It's people who meet in a church building (usually with a cross or steeple somewhere on the exterior marking it as such, though not necessarily). It's most commonly a gathering that's held on Sunday mornings to sing, read Scripture, pray, and listen to sermons. Churches collect money to put into their building, their programs, their staff, and sometimes missions. Sometimes the church gathers together mid-week for a Bible study or some other type of program, but usually people have other friendship circles outside of the church community that they spend most of their free time with. There is church, and then there is life (even if your faith stretches across all of it, the people are often separate). Church event, social event. Church people, work people, friends, family. 

Having been struggling with church leadership (directly) for over a year and with lack of enjoyment of church services for most of my life, I've often wondered if there is something else. What we do on Sundays, is that really what God had in mind when he suggested we not neglect gathering together? I feel like the older I get, the more I question the way we've always "done church." 

Is it a coincidence that our churches look suspiciously like the temples of Jesus' day? We have buildings set aside to gather in - temples. You have to be at least a certain level of "holy" to enter - you come to make sacrifices but not just anybody off the street can wander in. You can't log your "church time" for the week unless the service is held at the right time and in the right place - Sunday mornings at 11am in the church building - or in a park if it's nice out and Sunday School picnic day. We do certain things while we're there, in certain ways, with a certain level of reverence. If we do it wrong, we will be judged. If we don't attend the weekly service, we're neglecting meeting together and inviting judgement - from God and from each other. Don't miss too many Sundays in a row, have a sermon every week, have music every week, or else it might not count as having been to church.

Could there be another way? For most of our marriage, Nathan and I have dreamed of a different way of doing things. What if we looked forward to church? What if we felt more alive after gathering, rather than needing naps and being glad that it was done for another week? Well, here we are now, having been thrown into a different way unexpectedly. And as nervous as it has made me at times to do things differently, it has felt more and more like a gift. It is so freeing to dream of the possibilities and know that God is dreaming with us.

I've started looking to the New Testament more and more for clues of what God intended the Church to be when he first planted the idea of meeting together. This is in no way a formal research paper, but rather a list of thoughts off the top of my head! If you're curious, read on!

• Jesus was seen as a radical and was killed (by the church) for being heretical
• Jesus made the church/temple of his day uncomfortable
• Jesus was accepting of everyone - when he met a woman at a well who had had many husbands and was living with someone who was not her husband, he offered her living water, not judgement
• The temple curtain was torn, indicating a change in the line between God and man, a new way of doing things. Old laws and ways gone, new ways are here (Spirit-led)
• People were encouraged to get together regularly to encourage each other to continue to offer Jesus/love/living water to people around them
• Eat together, share resources, meet together, share life, pray together, do life together

I don't see anything about going, weekly, to a communal building and spending the majority of your resources to keep up the building and run programs. Sure, a dedicated meeting place can be helpful. Sure, programs can be fun. Sure, both of those things take finances and that's not wrong. But are multi-million dollar budgets for churches really necessary? Or could we be using our money in other ways to serve those around us better? I guess my question is, are the arrows in a church diagram supposed to be pointing inward, toward the building - attending, drawing people in, etc? Or outward into our communities - going out, being salt and light in a dark world? Is the goal to have impressive buildings and programs and services in order to draw people into our doors so they can find Jesus? Or is the goal to go out into our communities to serve and love and bring Jesus out? 

What would happen if we intentionally found those people around us who we would be committed to doing life with? What if "church shopping" happened once or twice in our lifetime and was a matter of getting to know those around us and choosing to meet together regularly to eat and pray and encourage and learn and grow together? What would happen if our children learned that Church is the people we are real with and the way we do life together instead of where we go on Sundays? How would that set our kids up for life, for finding their own Church community one day, for living wholly for God? Would there be less disconnect if Church was a part of everyday life and the Church was just "your people"? 

What would our relationships be like with our church if we took the time to get to know everyone in our circle? Would we judge each other the same way? Would we hurt each other the same way? Or would we be more patient? Would we help each other discern instead of thinking we know what's best for everyone else? 

My gut is that North American churches have fallen back into the old way, the pre-Jesus way, of doing church. There are certain laws that need to be held. There are certain ways of doing things. Certain places to be at certain times. And there is so much fear that if we get it wrong or even question it, God will be so upset. I've been there. I have lived in fear that if I didn't have the right answers or the right way "in" to Heaven or God or whatever, that I would be condemned to life without God for eternity. But in my desperation to get it all right, I put God into a box and made him so small. 

We can meet God in institutions, yes, but I don't think that's the only way. We can live with morals, in fact I think the Spirit does ingrain ideals into each of us to guide us to what is a good way to live. But to treat these morals as laws instead of relationships really separates our core from our actions. Laws are Old Testament; freedom is New Testament. Temples are Old Testament; relationships are New Testament. 

Let's live in the freedom Christ offers. Let's seek him and not be afraid of what we will find if we ask questions and give room for the Spirit to move. 

What would you do if God nudged you to leave the church - or the type of church - you've been part of your whole life? Is there room for that in your faith?