Doing church

Wow I've got a lot on my mind. I guess that's a good thing... better
than nothing.

Feeding off of a post I made earlier with "the Jesus question", I
wanted to seek further into something else that was created out of
good intentions, but I think has skewed the real message.

I call it "doing church". What did Jesus say about church? That the
Church (notice big C) is the communion of all believers. Blacks,
whites, hispanics, italians, russians, antarcticans, and even the
french. Everyone. All believers. This is the Church.

Now, let me get back to "doing church" (notice little c). This is
where we get the baptists, methodists, presbyterians (both kinds),
anglicans, catholics, episcopalian, reformed, pentecostal,
charismatic, contemplative, and on and on it goes. We all have our
different methods, our different theologies, our different beliefs.

Why?

Ooh... why? Really, why? There are a million and a
half reasons why, but honestly, I don't care. The past is dead and
gone. The truth is, the Church consists of all believers, and yet
each and every one of these groups above thinks that they are the
Church. Now, they may be the church, but they're not the Church
alone. They don't have it all right. Sure, they may have some of it,
but they're not complete.

The great Reformation was not a change in theology... the bible hasn't
changed in 2000 years. It was a change in methods, in methodology.
Their focus was to focus the church back on the actual teachings of
Jesus and not on the traditions and institution we as humans have
created and tried to call "the Church".

What is the result? We're doing church.

In the words of Peter Storey, it is not written "for God so loved the
church". Rather, "for God so loved the WORLD". Our ministry, as the
Church, and as the church if we really want to get things right, is to
the world. Not just within our church, not just within our community,
but to the entire world. Asia, Saharan Africa, Antarctica, Brazil,
Haiti, Indonesia, Texas, New England, Belfast, Brussels, Timbuktoo.
Everywhere. The WORLD is our mission field.

What will it take for us to wake up and stop "doing church"? A
generation seeking God and desiring to be the Church. A generation
seeking a romantic love affair with Jesus. A generation not concerned
about the institution of the church, but reaching out to the entire
world in teaching, preaching, healing, and with the love of Jesus
himself.

Is that generation now? My soul and heart yearn to know... and just
to know that I may be a part of it excites me more than words alone
can describe. I hope we're here. I hope we are. I pray that we
will.

Tired of 'doing church' and longing for more,
chris

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