I have always heard people referring to groups gathered together, focusing on God as the Church. The phrase I have heard is, “We are the Church.” I never really thought much of this; it was just a
phrase that I identified myself with and ultimately overlooked. Reading Hayner’s Article, “The Story of the Missional Church,” I was intrigued when I read that the term Church was originally referred to as God’s people. However, the 4th century is when this definition became vaguer and ultimately less meaningful. The building the believers met in developed the label of “Church,” rather than the people themselves being the Church. Sadly, this notion still exists widely today and even the people who attend the “Church” overlook it, such as I did. How does this affect someone’s outlook on their own faith or on the Christian belief system in general? What if someone never wants to enter, do to their understanding of the people that do enter? It breaks my heart to think about the group of people that never want to enter. Specifically, because they are so set in their pre-conceived notions of what goes on in the “Church,” along with the seemingly “self-righteous” people that come out of it, that they do not want anything to do with those that spend time there. What can we do in response? How can we as Christians affect these people in a positive way, to help better their understanding of us as a true Church body? I think it is essential to pray that God works in their hearts, to apologize for whatever initiated the bad taste towards us, and to not push anything on them. As we have talked about going out on mission, our drive should be to meet these people where they are at, letting God do the work and allowing him to change their outlook towards us to loving people with good intentions, rather than evil building dwellers.
-Colten
I really like this last bit that you wrote. You’ve captured something critical to the missional shift, which is the realization that mission pushes us out of the church to seek out others rather than wait for them to come to our buildings!
It is wonderful to be able to be apologetic for hurts by the church and to live an embodied witness with people who would never think they’d find life in church. One thing I’ve learned from living this out over the past few years is that there are still times where there is social awkwardness when we explain that the Jesus way really cuts across how we normally think of life, but even then it’s important to have that posture that isn’t one of pushing anything on others!
Thank you for the input everyone, I have to say I gave a chuckle when evil building dwellers came to my mind, but it is true and you all have hit the nail on the head concerning what I meant towards that phrase! We all to often find people attending church to get a good feeling of sorts and don’t live out what was said or what they did in the building once they walk out its doors. And this is where a lot of misconception of Christians has come from I believe. These people believe they follow Jesus and in turn the people who don’t know any better believe that too. Jesus has called us to action and going to the building is not enough of an action. Breanne, I like what you said about us defining “church” and needing to draw a change in ourselves before we ask people outside to even consider entering! John, I loved the Golden calf reference and how you laid out the fact that God has no bounds! Jack-o, taking action outside the church is exactly what is needed!
Hahaha! Evil building dwellers…I like that Colten. I too am saddened by how many people may be lost to Chirst simply because of what modern Christians have allowed the church to become in modern society. The problem for me is this and it echoes the thoughts of Breanne above. I don’t care if church is in a building or not what bothers me is that that has become the only ‘place’ that many christians act anything like Christians! I think that part of the answer to this problem is that we need to be aware that we are the church and represent Christ in all we do everyday. Maybe if non-Christians saw more of that outside the church building they would have less of a negative outlook on it.
-Jack
Evil Building Dwellers is a beautiful descriptor of some of our current idolatry. I like the idea of returning to a nomadic spiritual life. Maybe our Golden calves are the buildings in which we limit God. Maybe God is at work at the lake, or in the mall, or in our homes, or at our place of work.
Colten, thanks for your thoughts. I resonate with them a lot! One of the biggest criticisms I hear about the church is that “the people that call themselves Christians are the most hypocritical”. Our belief system is founded on a man that most people respect, and yet what they see when they look at Jesus and when they look at Christians all too often are two very different images. It keeps them away from the Church in both senses–the building AND the people. I appreciate what you said about prayer, meeting them where they are, and letting God do the work. From what I can tell, we need to start changing what we’re about and how we live (especially when it comes to defining “church”) before we ask them to do the same.
-Breanne