I've spent a great deal of time this semester reading/talking/studying/exploring/etc what it looks like to be a healthy church. This is the topic of my independent study course, and it brings me to wonder over and over again what I am doing with my life. If the church is 'dying', will I even have a job at the end of this? What does the church look like, and how does it function without 'religion'? I mimic Bonhoeffer's question: What is religionless Christianity?
I've decided the large paper I am to write is going to start with Bonhoeffer, and it is going to go through Biblical examples of the church; early historical representations of what the community looked like. Indeed, what it looked like isn't really the issue. That is what has gotten us into so much trouble to begin with. We focus so much on the form of the church: the committees, the budgets, the deacons, the Sunday School teachers, etc, that we forget the function of the church. Jesus never told us what our churches should look like and how they should be governed, but he gave us instructions on how to be the church. In trying to do church, we have lost the fact that We are already the church.
We do not need a building to be the church. We do not need to meet on Sunday mornings at 11a to be the church, and we do not have to be on a committee to be a good Christian. In fact, sometimes, these things are hindrances to our being the church. We forget that the church is about relationships, reaching out to the poor, reaching out to the sick, reaching out to everyone. It is this everyone reaching that makes me question our models of missions. I'm not even convinced I believe in the Western model of missions anymore; at least, not as I see it being played out in the churches I observe and am a part of. Missions isn't a one day, weekend, or week long trip. Those are great experiences, but if those experiences don't transform the function of your life and ministry at home, that form was worthless.
When we relegate missions to a part of our church, to certain groups, to a meeting once or twice a year, or a committee that is to take care of that work, we have lost the point. That is not it AT ALL. That is completely backwards. The Great Commission said "GO!" It did not say "Wait around and form a committee and only some people will have to show up, and only some will have to take these silver things out of their pockets." In fact, the Great Commission said nothing about money at all! It said "GO!" "GO and MAKE!" Those are active verbs, not passive. They are imperatives, orders.
So what does it mean to be the church without the form? What does it mean to be the church without a church?
It means "going" and "making".
GO! Go to your neighbors, go down the street, talk to the secretary at your work, or the custodian. Talk to the beggar on the street that you just averted your eyes from. Take someone out to lunch.
MAKE! Make friends, make relationships, talk about life, struggles, fun, absurd... relationships lead to discipleship. Without a relationship, the words you say will mean nothing. It is the relationship that says so much more than your words ever will. Your actions speak louder than your words. Don't worry about your words. Don't worry about how to "slip God into the conversation." Believe me, if you are living your life in a Godly way, and you are caring about and for the people around you, that will say more about the God you believe in and worship than your words ever will.
You don't need a church to show someone God's love. You need you! You don't need the church. And the ultimate goal is clearly not getting 'them' to attend your church. Jesus says nothing about attendance in this. Nothing.
Matthew 28:19-20(NIV): "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Go and make this week.
