Being Church

What kind of church are we reproducing?

by Sarah Rennells, director of the EDGE

When I was five, I sang a song that went something like this, “I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world… yes, we’re the church together!” Twenty years later, that theology has stayed, and the conviction has grown within me. Church is not a place that we go to on Sunday mornings; it is who we are. The success of a church cannot be measured by buildings or institutions, but by a group of people who walk with God, growing in the fruit of the Spirit and learning to obey Jesus.

What did Jesus command? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God. Love people – the Samaritan, the alien, the foreigner, and your actual next door neighbor. What does that look like, and why is it so hard to actually do?

I don’t know about you, but I get distracted and self-centered. There are so many good things to do, so many ways to serve “the church,” and so many ways I would like to spend my time. To be honest, I sometimes get disillusioned with what we settle for as the “church.” I ask myself, What kind of church am I reproducing? Am I being authentic in my walk with God, honest with myself and others? Am I valuing people over programs? Is being more important than doing?

As followers of Jesus, we are called to live as a counter-cultural, Christ-centered community wherever we are in the world. We are the body of Christ – deeply loved by God, called to love one another, and commissioned to engage those around us and far away with the God gift of life through Jesus Christ. This gospel of grace is not just a set of beliefs; it is a way of life.

Mission flows out of who God is – His heart for all peoples and His mission to redeem all of creation through Christ is woven throughout the tapestry of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

Lord, teach us to be the kind of church you’ve called us to be that the world might know Jesus.

Comments

[Scott Pickering]

You go Sarah! This is great! Press on for Christ and His Church.

[Linda Rennells]

Great article, Sarah! I liked the photo of you also. It is good to be able to view the being part of following Christ as being just as important as the doing part, and a necessary pre requisite to figuring out what the doing should be. It is so easy to get out of balance and revert to thinking that our works are what are really important and who we are, but it is more the way we do things, our attitudes and the fruit of the spirit in our being, ie who we really are that gives credibility and yields fruit for the kingdom.

[Robert Wassel]

Excellent thoughts Sarah; you're right on! The church is not a building that "closes down" Monday through Saturday. The phrase "going to church" is so ingrained in our minds, that I think we respond incorrectly to how Christ wants us to "be the church." The challenge: How do we, who live in the U.S., live counter-culturally to the portion of the current of American Evangelicalism that touts community, but spends all of its human and financial resources on programs? You bring up a point we should not be quick to lay down.