The church can be really messy! I do not mean a mess like that on my desk right now with papers here and books stacked over there, Bible opened up on my left and a guest card on the right that I followed up on a week or so ago, or even my son's book laying here, or the bills that need to go to the treasurer. I am not even speaking of the church building, of course that can get messy as well and for the most part it is easy to clean and have spick and span for the next service or event. No lately, I have become more and more convinced that we, the people of God are actually the church. I have a friend who says that we pastors have preached for years that we are the church not our facilities, and then as soon as the sermon is over we turn around and say, "Don't forget next Saturday is workday here at the church." I thought it was kind of humorous when he said it, but that it didn't really apply it to me. Then I realized I have said it for years but only recently have I really begun to live as if this is true. Not totally certain what made the shift in my own actions and attitudes, but over the past few months I find that is it harder and harder for me to call the building we meet in on Sunday mornings “the church”. I suppose this thinking has been highly influenced over the past few months as we have been focusing more and more on being disciples of Christ who love God with all our everything and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. You see it is those who follow Him, i.e. His disciples, who form the church, not the tangible buildings we construct. If being His disciples is about the building we tend to at least start out loving God and loving people, but we end up acting like we are just disciples for our own benefit and of course so we can get to heaven. However, the commission that Jesus gave was for the church to go and make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples and so on and so on. It appears that in making this paradigm shift from building to people we find the true messiness of the church. I call it “messy” because in paradigm one – we recognize that discipleship is about relationship – with God, with each other and with the world around us. And let's face it relationships are messy and can become very painful. In paradigm two – we find that we like the way we have always done church hold on to the “old way”, at least the last few hundred years’ way, of doing church. I guess it can be summarized as being the church vs. doing church. As a pastor I find that I will invest in people up to the level that I think/feel they are comfortable with my building relationship with them. Trust me, for me and my personality this type of investment can be difficult, and some times I have misinterpreted and not gone as deep as some have been ready for or I have pushed others deep too fast. Still learning how to do this; probably will be the rest of my life. My learning curve does not eliminate the marching orders that Jesus gave to all His disciples to go and make disciples. So I will continue to step outside my comfort zone investing in people, because life is not about me it is about Him. However, the reality is that it gets messy when we pastors invest in relationships in order to see the true church/the kingdom grow, and then those we give of ourselves to refuse to follow where we believe God is leading. It is messy when the investment is taken and crushed. It is messy when in our humanness we pastors fail to communicate to our people that all of us together, God’s people, are the church and not the building where we gather. When it gets messy it gets painful. And yet it is never about me, for I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So in the midst of the paradigm shift, the mess, and the pain let us “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I can have my desk cleaned off within a few minutes, but this messy church will always be here, at least as long as we are truly the church and the building across the parking lot is not. Hope you like messy - its here to stay! |
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