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“The Church is not a tribe for the improvement in holiness
of people who think it would be pleasant to be holy, a means
to the integration of character for those who cannot bear
their conflicts. It is a statement of the divine intention for
humanity.” – Harold Loukes

I tell people that I am full of mystery and intrique. It started as a joke – probably a shameless attempt to get on the quote board – but like all really funny things, there’s some truth to it. As I’ve often expressed, I’m not very good at expressing myself. People don’t know what to make of me. I’m a girl that looks like she could be in high school who uses words like “stymied” in everyday conversation. I’ve (almost) completed my doctorate, but I couldn’t figure out my friend’s CD player. I talk when I’m tired and am silent when fully awake. I’ll argue on behalf of someone else, but hate conflict when it pertains to m own defense. As the great philosophers of Green Day once sang, I’m a walking contradiction.

Once, I even had a friend remark to me that the intricacies of my (probably somewhat warped) personna ruined a long-held theory about Christians. They had been of the opinion that there were two types of believers – those who are raised in the Church and believe because that’s what they’ve always known. These Christians have never “worked out their salvation” as Paul directs because they’ve never really thought about it. Or there were those who turned to Christianity to improve some aspect of their lives. The second type view the Church as a means of restoration and come from a variety of different contexts, but the defining feature is that the Church is a means of self-improvement. I didn’t (and hopefully still don’t!) fit into either of these categories.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of truth to what my friend observed. There are people in the Church who appear to be members of the community solely for the good that they think will be brought to their lives as a result. They see the Church as good group therapy, a way for them, or their kids, to be shown how to conduct their lives in a morally upstanding manner. For them, the Church is little more than a spiritual psychoanalytical group session – a good way to get their life back on track.

But this was never God’s intention for the Church. As my pastor taught in a recent sermon, the Church was intended to be the foundation upon which God’s plan was brought about on Earth. It is His means for bringing Him glory – and for drawing others to salvation. The Church is Christ’s ambassadors, sent to do His work. As Harold Loukes comments above, the Church “is a statement of God’s divine intention for humanity”.

It’s a shame that in many circles the Church has become less than that. It’s an even greater shame that there are Christians who are content with this downgrade. We should want more. I know God does.

As for the second type of Christians, those who have been brought up in the Church and don’t ever reason out their faith, we’ll leave that discussion for another day. 🙂

Maybe it was because I had been gone a few weeks. Maybe time dragged because I had forgotten all that needed to be said. Maybe it was an anomaly – the result of a busy time of year. Or maybe the announcements at church really had taken up a huge amount of time.

It seems like a strange thing to notice, yet it couldn’t help but catch my attention. As I sat in church this week and heard announcement after announcement, I was convinced they had exponentially grown in length. There were at least two ministries that were brand new, countless invitations to go away for the weekend or spend another night out (it’s a family church, but I’m not sure how people actually spend time with their family), not to mention the revolving slide show of announcements that usually greets us as we walked in (I was late this week so maybe we did without – but I doubt it). And the church is just barely a year old!

Now, I love my church. I have a lot of good friends there and I think we have one of the best pastor teachers that exist. And I get the benefit of all the activities. You want to make sure that everyone has a place to be “plugged in” (And if not, we now have a new ministry to accomplish that!). And you want to make sure that people are both serving and being served. But I have to wonder if its all really necessary Is all the activity contributing something of value and of worth?

Some of the best times of Christian fellowship that I have had happen far away from the church doors. They weren’t the result of planned activities or structured ministries. They came as a result of people who shared a common faith seeking to live life together – To support one another, to love one another, to encourage each other on in our journeys. Life was meant to be lived – not to be a ceaseless barrage of events. I fear sometimes that the modern church spends so much time doing that we’ve forgotten how to be.

The sad thing about the current structure is that you rarely get the benefits of the church body. Everything is so fragmented – there’s one class for one stage of life, another class for the other. You don’t really get to experience the beauty of diversity because you self-select into groups of people with whom you are similar. And that’s o.k. But is it helping us live life of significance?

As much as I can remember from Scripture, Jesus never commanded us to do anything just for the sake of doing. In a twist of irony, it was Mary, the sister who rested at Jesus feet who received the commendation, not Martha who in the modern church would be responsible for the hospitality ministry. And even Jesus Himself often went alone to a quiet place to pray, a privilege we rarely afford to our servant leaders. Jesus’ ministry wasn’t primarily about doing – although He did a lot. It was primarily about investing in 12 men and teaching them how they should be.

I fear that today the activities are a result of uncertainty. We don’t know the right thing to do, so we just do something. We’ve lost our way on what it means to live as the Christian church. But doing something isn’t the same as doing something significant, and eventually the disillusionment of activity catches up with us all.