We are the Church

My son's best friend spent the night at our house last night. They're both 12 and have been friends since they were 2. It was a joy to listen to them laugh and giggle as they watched angry ram videos on YouTube, shot each other with Nerf darts and played video games. Their friendship began as a result of a women's bible study more than ten years ago. Ileen and Heather became friends through that study. Early on in the relationship, Heather's husband was seriously injured in an automobile accident. If I recall correctly, I met Heather and Dave for the first time in the hospital room. Over the past ten years, the two families have strengthened and deepened the friendship in the usual ways; weekends away, holiday celebrations, get-togethers, kids events...pretty much normal Americana. We've also been there for each other through the storms of life...accidents, financial crisis and cancer. We know them and are known by them...We love and are loved.

So why do I share this with you? This story is not that unusual, right? Even in a go-go-go world, families still connect and develop deep friendships, don't they?

I submit to you that we, as people, are generally wired to desire to live our lives in community with others. And like everything else, this desire varies from person to person. Ileen is a "whole world" personality. She loves people...to know them. to hear their stories, to invest in them. There is not enough time, money or room in her Suburban!

"Can't we squeeze an extra person into the back?"

I, on the other hand, enjoy solitude. My preferred hobbies are fly fishing, woodworking and surfing...not exactly party games. Even so, I yearn for the same relationships Ileen does, if only on a smaller scale.

Our world has changed and with it, the ways we connect. We no longer grow up in the same neighborhood...and if we do, the neighbors move away. The way our lives are structured is different, too. Two income families, organized sports, music lessons, church, special interest activities...our time is governed by a calendar and a stopwatch as every moment of every day is allocated to a specific task. We're happy (and feel fortunate) to find time for a cup of coffee with the spouse. Even church, once a primary point of connecting with others, has become a scheduled to-do. Whether it's in our head or on our smart phones, life in these United States has become a whirlwind of activities and sometimes checking them off of our list is the only satisfaction we have when all is said and done.

How does all this relate to simple church? (You knew I was going to bring it back here, right?) Re-imagine your church experience...instead of sitting in a Sunday School classroom followed by a church pew for three hours on Sunday morning...what if you tried simple church? Instead of 3 hours of mostly listening and watching and a little bit of socializing, you had a half hour of socializing, followed by one and a half hours of worship, interactive study and prayer, followed by another hour sharing a community meal and the Lord's Supper. Can you see where this is going? People become more than names and faces when we hear their story, agonize with them in their heartbreak and rejoice in their triumphs. Ileen and I love Heather and Dave more than you can imagine because we were scared Heather might not make it...because they loved us even when we lost everything, including our home...because we have moved beyond the cursory pleasantries that are exchanged every day and in every setting by spending the time it took to do just that. "We" are the church...not the building...not Sunday mornings...not the pastor, choir and staff. Whether simple or institutional, the "church" is only a framework to provide structure for believers. a tool for our benefit. If and/or when that relationship becomes inverted and we are existing for the benefit of the institution, the time has come to re-evaluate.