When you hear the word ‘church’, what’s the immediate picture that comes into view?
“Ecclesia” – a common Greek word referring to periodic political gatherings, was used to describe something about the new movement of Christians when they started to gather. It has been translated as ‘church’, and has morphed from that sense of gathering periodically for a purpose, to describing the organizational expression of that gathering.
When pastors call you back to ‘church’ in their
post-pandemic effort to repopulate the pew, and when they say ‘you can’t love
Jesus and not love the ‘church’, it may have a lot more to do about coming back
to the ‘big house’, to the regular weekly ‘worship’ service, to the financial
support and volunteer positions that need to be filled, than it does to the
principle of being gathered around the purpose for which we exist. I am pushing buttons here, but please read on...
What is that purpose? Jesus zeroed in on this when responding to a question about the most important commandment. Read the exchange in Mark 12. It was a question many people have: “What constitutes the core of faith, of devotion to God”? The questioner wanted to know what they really needed to do if they were to be truly following God. Jesus revealed the profound simplicity of what it means to live according to the Kingdom of God: Love God fully, and equally so love your neighbour as you love yourself. That’s it. Jesus emphasized this is a more intimate proximity to the purposes of God for us than all our rituals, practices, programs and other accoutrements of our faith(s).
For the current expression of the ecclesia, the gathering called the church, the biggest question then becomes: “What of your offerings & sacrifices, your services, programs, practices and organizational expressions, actually reveal and turn people toward loving God AND their neighbour?
I want to be careful not to project my own thoughts and experiences as universal, but I am having so many conversations with friends, colleagues, leaders, and believers outside my usual circles, who are deeply struggling with the current expression of church. Call it what you want – a post pandemic malaise, apathy or laziness – but I think it’s critical to explore this at a deeper level. Could this not be a movement among true followers who are asking themselves whether the very essence of their faith, loving God and loving their neighbour, is being facilitated, enhanced and enabled by their ‘ecclesia’?
We believe the Holy Spirit of God perpetually illuminates the truth of God to the world. How we gather right now has not always had this form. What we believe about God, Christ and the Kingdom has not always been understood as we know it now. There is a constant metamorphosis to our personal and collective encounters with God.
What is the Spirit illuminating right now to you personally, and to you as a leader of a ‘church’?
