What is the difference between doing church and being the church?
This past month I met with other clergy and this distinction was made, the difference between doing church and being church. As we waited for the homemade pizza, it was suggested that we must change how we do church. This was followed by another responding and qualifying her comment by saying that we need to stop doing church and begin to be the church. Before I can begin to understand the unique distinction, I need to go back to the beginning and remind myself what it means to be the church.
Here is the church...
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the church is the children’s song about the church, the steeple and inside you would find all the flailing phalanges, also known as all of God’s people. So often we associate church with brick and mortar. That it is a building with stained glass windows holding people worshiping on Sundays. Yet the church is not a building it is a body of people gathered into one through Christ.
As water sprinkles on our foreheads in baptism we become a member of the expansive body of people who have followed Christ for the last thousands of years. In the midst of receiving God’s grace and forgiveness, we are also entered into an everlasting fellowship with Christ and our church community. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, "You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15). Adoption in Paul's lifetime was more powerful than any familial ties and connections you were born into. For if you were adopted the parent chose you and could never choose to disown you. With the word of God and a few droplets of water we have been adopted into the larger family of Christ, an expansive church spanning oceans.
The church IS a people so we gather
The early church gathered in homes, in places of secrecy to share in meals and conversations, to hear the Good News, dwell in the word and to worship God. It was illegal and life threatening to be a Christian. Today, we gather for many of the same purposes but have the privilege of gathering publicly. It may in the brick and mortar buildings our ancestors worked hard to establish or it may be in the community at Waudby's.
However, the church is still not a building but it is a people, “a body created and sustained by its very act of worship.”[1] It is the body of Christ brought into one through baptism and the sharing of the Lord's Supper. We gather as the early church because in gathering on Sundays and during the week we trust in the promise that the Holy Spirit is especially at work among us, sustaining us, feeding and nurturing us as we gather to praise God, dwell in the Word and hear the Good News. It is in gathering that we return to God, refocus on God's voice calling to us, remember God's love for us and regain the strength for another week living as the church in God's world.
This past month I met with other clergy and this distinction was made, the difference between doing church and being church. As we waited for the homemade pizza, it was suggested that we must change how we do church. This was followed by another responding and qualifying her comment by saying that we need to stop doing church and begin to be the church. Before I can begin to understand the unique distinction, I need to go back to the beginning and remind myself what it means to be the church.
Here is the church...
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the church is the children’s song about the church, the steeple and inside you would find all the flailing phalanges, also known as all of God’s people. So often we associate church with brick and mortar. That it is a building with stained glass windows holding people worshiping on Sundays. Yet the church is not a building it is a body of people gathered into one through Christ.
As water sprinkles on our foreheads in baptism we become a member of the expansive body of people who have followed Christ for the last thousands of years. In the midst of receiving God’s grace and forgiveness, we are also entered into an everlasting fellowship with Christ and our church community. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, "You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15). Adoption in Paul's lifetime was more powerful than any familial ties and connections you were born into. For if you were adopted the parent chose you and could never choose to disown you. With the word of God and a few droplets of water we have been adopted into the larger family of Christ, an expansive church spanning oceans.
The church IS a people so we gather
The early church gathered in homes, in places of secrecy to share in meals and conversations, to hear the Good News, dwell in the word and to worship God. It was illegal and life threatening to be a Christian. Today, we gather for many of the same purposes but have the privilege of gathering publicly. It may in the brick and mortar buildings our ancestors worked hard to establish or it may be in the community at Waudby's.
However, the church is still not a building but it is a people, “a body created and sustained by its very act of worship.”[1] It is the body of Christ brought into one through baptism and the sharing of the Lord's Supper. We gather as the early church because in gathering on Sundays and during the week we trust in the promise that the Holy Spirit is especially at work among us, sustaining us, feeding and nurturing us as we gather to praise God, dwell in the Word and hear the Good News. It is in gathering that we return to God, refocus on God's voice calling to us, remember God's love for us and regain the strength for another week living as the church in God's world.
Our mission is to share the Good News, in which “the holy catholic church is the community in which divine love is embodied and which carries that divine mission of announcing and enacting this love in all the world.”
God's story, our line.
Together in baptism we all, each individual, collectively share in the holiness we receive in Christ as well as a collective mission in Christ. God has had a love story with God's people for generations upon generations and in Christ we have a part in that story. Not only are we recipients of God's love but we are invited to co-write a few lines, chapters even as we share God's love story in the world. Our mission, our story, is to share the Good News, in which “the holy catholic church is the community in which divine love is embodied and which carries that divine mission of announcing and enacting this love in all the world.”[2]
Living out this mission is not always easy. Living out God’s love in the world will not always be welcomed; it may challenge our friends and family as we follow Christ to the point of the cross. Sometimes there will be consequences, consequences as a result of our faith. Following Christ as a church and community, being a part of Christ’s mission in the world is “both a gift and task from the divine Spirit.”[3]
Which brings me to my original quandary and ask that we all share in this question as the collective body of Christ; in fact, I encourage you all to share your thoughts and reflections with me and each other. Add your comments to this blog, What do you believe is the difference between doing church and being church?
[1] Justo L. González, A Concise History of Christian Doctrine, (Nashville: Abingdon 2005), Kindle, 2392.
[2] Theodore W. Jennings, Loyalty to God: The Apostles' Creed in Life and Liturgy, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992), 191.
[3] Jennings, 192.
Together in baptism we all, each individual, collectively share in the holiness we receive in Christ as well as a collective mission in Christ. God has had a love story with God's people for generations upon generations and in Christ we have a part in that story. Not only are we recipients of God's love but we are invited to co-write a few lines, chapters even as we share God's love story in the world. Our mission, our story, is to share the Good News, in which “the holy catholic church is the community in which divine love is embodied and which carries that divine mission of announcing and enacting this love in all the world.”[2]
Living out this mission is not always easy. Living out God’s love in the world will not always be welcomed; it may challenge our friends and family as we follow Christ to the point of the cross. Sometimes there will be consequences, consequences as a result of our faith. Following Christ as a church and community, being a part of Christ’s mission in the world is “both a gift and task from the divine Spirit.”[3]
Which brings me to my original quandary and ask that we all share in this question as the collective body of Christ; in fact, I encourage you all to share your thoughts and reflections with me and each other. Add your comments to this blog, What do you believe is the difference between doing church and being church?
[1] Justo L. González, A Concise History of Christian Doctrine, (Nashville: Abingdon 2005), Kindle, 2392.
[2] Theodore W. Jennings, Loyalty to God: The Apostles' Creed in Life and Liturgy, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992), 191.
[3] Jennings, 192.
RSS Feed
