Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings in their podcast It's Not About Church deal, in part, with this idea of how we sometimes need to clean up language. In case you're wondering, they're not talking about refraining from dirty swear words. They're talking about our tendency to use a term to define one thing when it really defines another. The term in question here is CHURCH.
How many times have we heard or said, "I'm going to church today" or "I don't go to church" or "why did that person leave church?" or "why doesn't that person go to church anymore?"?
Is church something we can go to? Is it someplace? Does it really happen only at certain times?
When we look at Jesus' life, how much did He talk about church? Not much, except to say something like He would be the one to build it and that hell couldn't overpower it. However, He talked lots about following Him as a disciple/apprentice and learning to relate better with others.
Church originally meant something like being called out. Called out to follow Jesus and His way of life. Paul called the community of Jesus followers a body, with Jesus as the head. Jesus also said things like wherever a couple of people gather that love Him, He's there. The word church, I think, more rightly refers to that family of Jesus followers, the world over, that connect in myriads of Spirit inspired ways in a thousand different places and times.
What we often call "church" in our society refers more to the religious club, as some have called it. Just because a person associates with or doesn't associate with the club, does not mean they're not a part of the church, God's Spirit lead family.
Maybe we need to clean up our language by using the word church to refer only to that beautiful family of God that knows no human boundaries or walls. Then, we can use something like the term club to refer to the groups that gather to practice spirituality in certain ways. They have clubhouses, not churches. They have club bylaws, not church membership standards. They have club rituals, not necessarily sacred practices. They have events that may or may not consist of true worship and spiritual growth.
And let's be clear. Clubs are not a bad thing necessarily. However, Jesus didn't come to call us to join a club. He came to join us to Himself and His followers AND the world around us. We can be an active part of the body of Christ (Church) whether we participate in religious clubs (formerly know as churches) or not. Following the Spirit's leading, we will find ourselves in contact with the Church (Family/Body) of Jesus Christ both in and out of religious clubs.
P.S. What do you think might be a non-offensive term for the clubs that we often call churches? Please post any ideas to the comment section for this post!
2 comments:
Hi Hanan,
Someone recently suggested it should be called an assembly.
Martin
The term "club" may be found offensive by some but certainly is a fairly accurate description of corporate religion. I can't imagine Jesus wandering around with a constitution and set of bylaws with a Sargent at arm beside Him ensuring that all members adhered to them. Unfortunately for many the idea of salvation by faith has taken on the life of salvation by association and they have a hard time separating their faith in God from their church and it's culture.
Unfortunately it seems that once groups start to reach 25+ there becomes a need for rules and regulations of conduct and thus we end up with churches with constitutions and bylaws. Maybe there is a need to go back to the "church" of the first century and start meeting in smaller groups where intimate sharing can take place and people can get personally involved in supporting,encouraging, teaching and learning from their fellow believers. They check their dogma at the door, and focus on love and worship of our Creator.
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