c h u r c h

My perception of the ‘church’ has been shifting, changing, sorting, and refining itself over the last four years – so much so that I have grown to appreciate not the rules, structure, and typical happenings of a service, but rather the fellowship and building up of the body of believers. This concept of “being the church” rather than “doing” church has really soaked into my heart and affirmed, built up, and disciplined me in my personal walk with Christ.

I was having a conversation with my aunt the other day where she reminded me that the church was never meant to be this trapped, exclusive, thing that we do – rather, the church is supposed to be a living, breathing, growing, alive, and thriving organism. The “church” is Christ alive and at work in our hearts – using us as His vessels – by the power of the Holy Spirit to draw all men unto Himself. I related this to the principle we see in John 4:23, “the true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth”.

This is a fully-engaged, holistic experience of worship. To worship in spirit and truth is to have an encounter with the LIVING God that changes and transforms us as His church, His bride – a living, breathing, growing, alive, and thriving organism by His power. When I put this together with that I have experienced over the last few months in attending a local weekly gathering of Jesus loving, worshipers – or to give it a more formal title like people in society today prefer, a “house church” – I am blown away by the blessings I have seen come about through the growth, stretching, and deepening relationships with the Father – as this living, breathing, alive, organism.

We are the body of Christ – we are not a denomination – a building – or even a specific discipline of rules and theological standpoints. We are simply His children, hungering after Him and the things of Him – as we journey along His pathway for our lives waiting for the moment He will show us what is next – or which way to turn. This is important because when I ended a relationship of about two years – nearly two years ago (strangely enough), the ‘church’ I was attending at the time was not overly supportive of me – in fact, I have never felt such strong rejection in my life. It was a tough thing for me to swallow for a long while. You see, the church was the very ‘place’ I was supposed to be able to go when I needed help.

The logic behind this is simple to dissect – it was merely a place – a building – a shelter – a refuge – and really when it came to it, it was none of these things for me. However, through this last season of growth and discovery in my life, I have found that I can go to members of the body of Christ when there is a need, and they in turn can come to me. Just as our physical bodies, when we have an injury – the other members, or parts of the body compensate for the weak member by bringing rest, or bearing some of the load this member would typically have to carry.

The beauty in this is when we walk, live, breathe, and function as the body of Christ, rather than an organization or building, a place – we recognize more easily and fully that we never walk alone – and that we cannot walk alone. We need Christ to enable us to walk, and His Spirit to guide us – we simple need to be willing vessels and honestly, some days it is much easier to be a willing vessel when we have a supportive body behind us.