How to "Church"
Apr 11th, 2008 by ljkim
The word “Church” is a verb, didn’t you know? Okay so it’s not REALLY a verb…but maybe it should be. If it were a verb, what would it mean? What does one do when he or she “churches?”
If you look at its actual original use in the Bible, the word “church” is never in reference to a building (although people today use it to mean that), and in its original use it’s never in reference to a religious non-profit with officers, employees, and a snazzy name (like CityFellowship) – so that’s NOT what the “church” is…
The “church” in the Bible is always a community: People who have been brought together by Jesus (or their desire to know about Jesus) who become like family as a result. Therefore, if church was a verb the action “to church” would be: to make friends (and develop real social connections) with people (loving neighbors, even loving enemies) for Jesus’ sake. So if you were to go to church one Sunday morning but didn’t know anyone and didn’t make any real human connections, you technically did not go to church…you went to a service or a meeting, but you didn’t actually “church.” Make sense?
Now I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal – but it’s actually the key to how God saves the world… I won’t get into all of that right now – but the real problem with the world is not an unequal distribution of resources (it’s not really a problem with social “justice”), it’s really our estrangement from God and one another… I say this a lot: if everyone in the world had the friends I do right now in the church, there would pretty much be no more poverty or homelessness, or untreated addiction, or violence in the home, or unemployment or untreated disease… Because if I had any of those problems someone would do something. The problem is, not everyone has that – and a big part of God’s solution to that is “church.” Only Jesus can attract such an eclectic group of people that He can connect the world to Him… But our part is: to church. The world needs you to start “churching…” So when people ask what CityFellowship is about – you can tell them we want to be a church that churches.
[About the photo: I just got through saying that church is NOT a building, then what do I do? I put up a picture of what looks like a "church!" - can anyone place what chapel this is? I'll give you a hint: it's a school on the west coast.]
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