Church...Church...Church...

There's a great movie starring Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd called "Spies Like Us". They spoof James Bond and it yields some pretty hilarious results. This might be my favorite scene...

I feel like when we get into conversations about "church" this is what's going on. We have many people using the word "church" in very different ways. In the last few days there has been a brush up in the Christian world over a prominent author "coming out" saying that he doesn't go to "church" because he doesn't like singing and lectures.

Post by Donald Miller.

The responses came fast...

Post by Michael Jones.

So what is going on here? Is Donald Miller forsaking the faith? Are those who think you should go to "church" every week legalists?

The problem I think lies in that fact that in these discussions center around a faulty understanding of "church". Too many people think that "church" is an event that happens on Sunday mornings between the hours of 10 am and noon. So, when someone says, "I don't go to church" people immediately think they are walking away from the faith because "church" is primarily what happens as an event on Sunday mornings.

So is this event primarily "church"? I don't think so. I think that the scriptures bear out a broader understanding of "church". Ephesians 5 the church is stated as being the "body of Christ". In 1 Corinthians 12 we get a fuller picture of the body of Christ. Throughout the New Testament the words "church" is also used to describe a group of people that meet together as followers of Jesus. The word that we translate as "church" has a very broad range of meaning and its meaning is determined by the context within which it used.

What strikes me though is that the gathering itself is not "church". The people who are gather are "church". When you read the "church" passages it is clear that the primary understanding of "church" is a people and not the gathering.

I think we need to be much clear about how we speak of the church. I don't think the scriptures allow for and understanding of "church" to be...

• A building...
• A worship gathering...

The church needs to be primarily understood as the body of Christ, the people of God. So when someone says, "I am going to church". It doesn't really make sense. Are they going to a building where the church gathers? Are they attending a gathering where the church will be worshiping? 

If we can shift our thinking about what "church" is and come back to the clear concept that the church are people who make up the body of Christ. These people as such will...

• Worship corporately
• Worship privately
• Proclaim the gospel
• Live in community with other members of the body
• And more...

How does this inform our understanding of the conversation about people going or not going to worship gatherings? First, it reorients our perspective of gathering. The worship gathering is important because it provides us time to be with other followers of Jesus. However, the worship gathering also becomes just one piece of what we do as followers of Jesus but is not the only thing we do. 

Second, it frees us to understand that our being the church extends far beyond a two hour commitment on Sunday mornings. Too much of Western Christianity thinks of being the church as going to a building, singing songs, and hearing a sermon (you can see this perspective above in the three articles). Being the church is not primarily about attending a worship gathering. It is primarily about...

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." - Mark 8:34-38

This is not what we really want to embrace. We want it to be easy. But, following Jesus is costly. Being his disciple costs us our lives.  To be a part of the Church means to be giving our lives fully to him, every single day. To focus on a worship gathering as a primary mark of what it means to follow Jesus is myopic. Is it important? Yes, without a doubt. But "church" is not a building and not simply a gathering. "Church" is the body of Christ. We need to start speaking more clearly about "church" so that we don't unite practices to identity.