Your mom's a skyscraper!!!

“Thus says the LORD, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,’ declares the LORD.”
~Isaiah 66:1-2

So...I imagine that if you’re a Christian born and raised in the West*, you have probably heard (or said) at least one (or all) of these phrases at least once (or a hundred times) in your life...

“Hey, how was church Sunday?”

“What church do you go to?”

“You can’t say something like that in church!!”**

“They’re building a new church over on Main Street”

“Church was AWESOME today!!!”

“He’s not a part of our church.”

Interestingly enough, if you would have said these words to a first century Christian, they probably would have been dumbfounded. The reason? Because they fully understood that church was not a building...a service...or a denomination. It is the body of Christ...living and breathing. The bride of Christ. God’s chosen people under the new covenant. One does not GO TO church...One IS the church...and the church is ONE (well, idealistically...). WE are the house of God...Jesus Christ is the foundation:

“And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual HOUSE for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: ‘BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNERSTONE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’”
~1 Peter 2:6

Most of my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m sure would agree with that when it comes down to it....that the church is not a building or service. One may argue that it’s just programmed into our brain...that we call it that out of habit, but don’t really think that way for the most part. I’m not so sure...maybe deep down we (service-goers) don’t believe it...but sometimes our lives betray us. If this were simply a problem with semantics, it would be a lot easier to ignore. But I think it’s really a symptom of a larger issue***.

We talk a lot about people going to worship services (which most people call, “church”) their whole life but never actually being born again. And we should...it seems to be pretty common. When we’re not assembling together in the way that Jesus intended (a subject that deserves a whole different note)...when we’re not living as the body throughout the week, in community (and all that that entails)...when we’re just meeting once a week to hear a sermon (after which many people often feel that their job is done if they’ve been convicted****)...our growth both as individuals and as a body is severely stunted. Sin is tolerated (or simply unrecognized). Our “church” becomes like entertainment or a hobby. It creates a sort of division in our lifestyle. It’s like...we have “church time” and then “real-life time”, when those should actually be one and the same.

It’s not that I believe that every Christian that attends services in “church” buildings thinks/lives this way...but I do believe that it facilitates and encourages such thinking and living, whether we want it to or not. A week or two ago, they played a video in a service at Community (the church of which I’m a part here in Lexington) that was all about how the service wasn’t supposed to be the end of our Christian walk, but the beginning (or something like that...I really can’t remember exactly)...that we are supposed to take what we have learned and go and practice it, bless others with it, etc. throughout the week. The video just fails to see that our system of “doing” church institutionally...which includes these services as the driving force of our community...is part of the problem.

Honestly, I think in some “church” buildings, they may as well have a sign over the exit door that says, “Your Christian walk stops here.”

We’re supposed to be a family...
...a living...

...breathing...

...COMMUNITY...

...where we truly love and encourage one another...

...beyond a set of four walls.

Or in some cases, 436 extremely expensive walls that contain the latest in everything. But I suppose this isn’t really the time to go on a rant about church finances and God’s economy.

The truth is that our institutional system stifles so many things that the body of Christ is meant to be. There are so many aspects of it that could be brought up here, but I think I’ll end with the thoughts I’ve expressed thus far and let people respond. But this will probably the first of a lot of notes that I will write about church practices...in this one, I’ve raised questions/issues and not really talked about potential solutions. I’m hoping that will start to come in discussion of this note...and then in possible future notes.

I need to make sure one thing is clear...it’s not that I’m saying God doesn’t work through our way of doing church even though we’ve screwed it up....God continued to work through Israel even though they progressively moved further and further away from God’s original plan for them. I have seen wonderful, Spirit-led things come out of the institutional church where people have a heart to serve God. But I’ve also seen a lot of bad...but it’s bad that’s coming not necessarily even out of people’s wrong motives, but out of a worldly mindset that has invaded the church. So let us stop conforming to this world and experience a little mind renewal!!


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*I know that the West isn’t the only place where you find this...but that’s mainly because Western missionaries spread the system.

**This is a phrase that I heard a few times while I was working at Oak Forest UMC’s middle-school program during the summer. I was frustrated as the kids would tell each other what they shouldn’t do “in church,” as though the building were some kind of sacred place and that it’s okay if we do those bad things elsewhere. We HAVE to start acknowledging (and teaching our kids) that if we are Christians, then WE are the house of God, and that carries through our whole lives...not just a few hours a week.

***I’ve been driving my mom crazy lately about church semantics. Every time she says something about “going to church” I’ll say something like...”I didn’t know it was a place you could get to” or simply say, “you mean, worship service”. But I do actually think semantics are important...that they can influence our way of thinking/living as well as vice versa.

****A great quote by Francis Chan: “We’ve conditioned ourselves to hear messages without responding. Sermons have become Christian entertainment. We go to church [services] to hear a well-developed sermon and a convicting thought. We’ve trained ourselves to believe that if we’re convicted, our job is done. If you’re just hearing the Word and not actually doing something with it, you’re deceiving yourself.”