Estimated reading time: 7 minute(s)

The marquee in front of a local church reads:

CH??CH

WHAT’S MISSING?

U R!

JOIN US FOR WORSHIP

It at least gets a chuckle from me every time we pass. 🙂 You gotta love those clever little sayings on church marquees across the nation…

But yesterday, it made sense to me. It wasn’t just a clever enticement to the lost and forlorn who need to come to church and find Jesus. It was true. For all of us.

This wasn’t a new revelation. I had understood before that God intended the church to be relational, not institutional. There are no commands to create a structure or any sort of hierarchy (almost exactly the opposite for the latter) but there are plenty of times we are reminded to “one another”. Love one another, bear with one another, encourage one another, share one another’s burdens. The new testament is replete with relational “commands”.

(Footnote: I am trying to figure out recently why we are so eager to know and follow God’s “commands”. It seems to me that God actually wants us to move beyond obeying him out of fear and move toward following him because we love and trust him. We heard someone recently describing the idea of “fearing God” and how that applies to a new testament believer. In the psalms it says “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.” And then in the new testament it says “Perfect love casts out fear.” We had a discussion in a small group over this, and then recently heard an interpretation that likened it to growing up. You start out with a healthy fear of the awesome and terrifying Creator of the universe, but as you learn to trust him, and his love for you – His perfect love – your fear is gone, and you “obey” him out of love. No longer are they “commands” to “obey”, but words of life that give you joy to know even more. Read more on this idea in Psalm 119. It’s all about the joy of God’s “commands”. End of footnote.)

With that understanding of body life, I noticed how much our structure of our main gathering denies us any chance to really do that. From the schedule that must be kept, to the seating arrangement (rows facing forward), to the purpose for gathering (directing our attention to the mostly non-participatory program being carried out on the stage), to even the hurried leaving time at the end. Almost everything we do is tailored to the event that does not encourage or even allow for relational connections, and so, they don’t happen.

I was longing yesterday to just stop singing and talk with people, get everyone excited to be there… and then sing. I noticed so many happy faces who were enjoying joining their voices with ours, but I noticed a number of others who looked like they wished this part was over. They were there because it’s what you do. From that quick observation I couldn’t tell if they were there because of someone else’s will or of their own will, but their faces did not seem to reveal true joy in their hearts.

So, I pressed on, and finished my part each time, though my heart longed to just stop and interact with people. If you have ever seen me do anything in front of people, you may have noticed that I am not your typical public speaker. 🙂 I love to interact, and take any chance I can to do that. But, as the song leader, often you just have to get on with the songs as they are a timed piece of a timed service, so my interactive options are slightly limited.

Then, as we listened to the sermon for the day, I noticed that on several occasions I just wanted to respond to something that was said. Sometimes with a question, sometimes with a supporting comment. But I just wanted to respond. And not just me. I wanted to hear from other folks in the room. How great would that be if we were all in some sort of setting where we were really doing this together?

But we’re not!!! Do you remember the stern warnings as a kid? “Shhhh! Be QUIET! Have a tic tac.” 🙂 (I added that last one in there… don’t remember if that was true or not, but my sister and I did consume many of those potent little breath fresheners as kids while attempting to sit quietly in our Sunday morning pew.) We are taught to be reverent by being quiet. By just sitting and listening. By being a passive participant. The whole structure is so sad! So limiting to what we could be. We could be the church. The body of those who have been saved. And that could be so much more if we weren’t so loyal to our denominational boundaries as well, but that’s an issue for another day.

The one last observation I had is our focus on the visitor. Not only are we denying ourselves a great chance to “one another” the other believers, but we are so careful with our words and the structure of our services to include the first time visitor or occasional attendee. We are cautious to remind them that offering is not for them… they don’t need to put anything in. We fear they would be offended, not understanding why we give. We explain communion to everyone, making sure they know they are welcome to partake if they are believers. Yesterday a few things were explained in the sermon as being for the regulars (I forget the word that was used), and if you have questions, to talk to someone after. None of these in themselves is a bad thing, but it just betrays our true focus. Most of the gathering is at least conscious of the visitor, and often focused on the visitor. But the purpose of the church gathering was to “one another” believers.

Church is not a time, a meeting, a building, a gathering, or any sort of measurable thing. The church IS the plural of the individual believers. We are part of the church as soon as we are part of Jesus. No man can decide when you are in or out. So, no set of qualifications determines when something is a church or not. You don’t have a list of items that must be met before you can be called a church. You don’t even need a gathering to be a church. HOWEVER… the church exists as a reality of Christ’s body on earth, and a main purpose of it is the one anothering that happens in a gathering. So why are we denying ourselves this primary purpose?

One more observation. At the end of a long morning of two services and rushing here and there, I found myself (and most everyone else) packing up at a rapid pace and trying to exit the building as soon as possible. I asked myself as I was doing that, why am I not trying to “one another” right now? Why do we all need to leave so fast after the services are over? And I realized, it’s because we WERE together for a long time, and now it’s time to go. We were there for hours! As were many others. Kids need to eat/sleep. Adults are tired as well. It’s just time to go. And we all lament as we leave the fact that we never get to spend much time with each other…

U R definitely missing from church today, but not as the marquee suggests. Your mere attendance at the gatherings we call church will not resolve that focal issue. We just need to get our focus off of what we call “worship” and as we gather together one anothering in every way scripture says, God will be “worshipped”. And the church will be stronger as believers are built up by mutual sharing of life, one to another.

Ideally, the church exists beyond a sunday morning gathering. The church exists in a neighbor helping out in a time of need. The church exists in a family providing a meal for another who can’t. The church exists in random gifts of money (like a Gas Card we received from some friends earlier this week!) The church is the embodiment of Jesus (Christ’s Body) in the world today. They will know we are his disciples by our love. That’s it. Not what T-Shirts we wear, or where we park our cars and our rear ends on Sunday mornings. Not even by how much knowledge we gain from all of the sermons or Bible Studies we ingest. They will know us by our love. Our real love for each other, as we “one another” with other believers, and as we love those whom God has placed in our path.

That’s the church. And I hope U R in it. 🙂