THE CRYING DESIRE

Not for a moment would I suggest that every church that is located inside a building whether a small wood frame structure or colossal concrete edifice is an ineffectual institutional church. That kind of wholesale depreciation would miss the point of all my recent articles and certainly of this one. I must make that qualification as I publicly question present-day interpretations of church and what churches do. I observe the church through the lens of scripture and the eyes of experience.

The assembly or church about which Jesus spoke just before he was airlifted into the heavens began with the investment of the Holy Spirit into each one of the approximately 120 people waiting and praying as he instructed them to do. That was the memorable Day of Pentecost described in Acts 1&2. By the end of that first day, 3,000 more people were added to this assembly, the same way the first 120 were endorsed, by repentance of personal sin, faith in Jesus being God's Son, Messiah, whose death atoned for their sin, personal baptism as a public display of allegiance to Jesus, and the coincident filling by the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus' early church was stamped with an enthralling relationship with God that should characterize his followers always. It is that gripping rapport with the Father for which many people are longing today.

That dynamic affiliation with Almighty God, and with the eternal Son and with the indwelling Spirit, is not the experience and sometimes not even the teaching that occurs within institutional churches whether wood or concrete. For that reason some believers pull away, disappointed, vacant, starving. They will search for that which scripture described, the church that God is building rather than the church that humans build. God's assembly or church has been knowing God and loving God and experiencing His power, and growing numerically ever since those early days. This is Jesus' church. His church is comprised of people with a passion for obediently following Jesus; people who can talk together with love and grace and permission to be authentic; people who compassionately respond to people around them. Jesus' church has grown in battle field bunkers, in refugee camps, in summer children's camps, in prisons, in lunch break conversations during business hours, in family devotions, in university dorm rooms, and in sanctuaries of some country and city church buildings.

What many of you want more than anything is friendships with people who are fervently following Jesus and living his holy kind of life and winsomely relating to everyone with the presence of the LORD.

MAYBE THE TERM 'DE-CHURCHED' IS UNSUITABLE

Today, I have repackaged several insightful points written by respondents to my earlier post. Those points infer that the terms 'de-churched' or 'no longer churched' are unsuitable expressions to apply to a person who has made a difficult decision to no longer attend church. I am unsure what term fits the Christian who no longer attends church, yet loves God, reads the Bible, shares faith with others, hangs our with other believers at occasional events or studies or house parties, displays the fruit of the Spirit and serves other people. Perhaps there is no need for a term, since that Christian is doing everything that God expects of a follower of Christ who is a member of the Church.

Okay, she was a founding member of the church when it met in a school, gave her money, energy and time to help build the church with seating for 300 people, but she became disillusioned by prevailing models of church, and left her church, choosing not to attend a church any more, but she is still an integral member of the Church.

We use the same term 'church' to denote several dissimilar concepts, the local congregation, the people of God worldwide, the institutional church, and the church building. That may lead to unfortunate assumptions about people. Leaving a local congregation is not synonymous with leaving the Church. No longer attending the 10 am Sunday worship service is not synonymous with leaving the Church. Available programs and meetings at specific times on specific days do not define 'Church.’

Church life as we experience it institutionally today has been shaped by paradigms developed since the apostles obeyed Jesus to carry the good news into the world. Church has taken on organization and constitution, bylaws, governance, ritual, schedules, property, programs, departments, technology, specialists and debt. It is possible that those of us who are most heavily invested in and committed to Christian gospel, and service and church, innocently, unknowingly accept what is and continue to interpret church primarily in terms of the building. "Come to church this Sunday," the sign says. "We missed you at church last week," friends say. "The church construction costs will be $18 million dollars," That is the largest church in the city.

I am pleased that my pastors deliberately remind us each Sunday, "good morning church." There is a consciousness that the church has gathered and when we have worshipped God and enjoyed one another, the church leaves the building. Then back to the diligent believer who decides no longer to attend church. Our opinion must be that a member of the Church has left a specific building but continues as a member of the Church, God's Church.

I am still bothered by a couple of things. I appeal for understanding for the person who is done with church. Yet it is clear that church implies community/fellowship, and that is one thing this person is leaving behind. What will this person do for community? The person may claim that 10am on Sunday with 300 people hardly felt like community or family in an intimate sense. Being associated with the church's small group ministry offers a more predictable community experience. One would think that for the values and benefits of the Christian family of God need to occur somehow for the person leaves church. Another matter that bothers me, is the need for a personal plan of how spiritual strength and health and growth is to be nurtured if it is outside the context of the organized church. That must surely have to be considered, otherwise the departure seems selfish and futile.

ILL-INFORMED ECCLESIOLOGY

With hands together and fingers extended like the spire of a church, the dated rhyme was recited when I was a child. “Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple, open the door and see all the people.” I had no idea that I was quoting faulty theology. Actually, the terms ‘church’ and ‘people’ are not distinct from one another. Academically most of us understand that ‘church’ is people rather than stone, concrete, dry wall and seating. Church is people, each of whom is a living temple in which God’s Holy Spirit lives. Scripture uses the Greek word ekklesia, meaning assembly to convey the idea of ‘church.’ The theology of the child’s rhyme is improve if we change it to, “Here’s the building and on top is a steeple, open the doors and the church is the people.’