When Jesus showed up church seemed to happen right there. It did not matter if He was at the local watering hole and a woman with a bad reputation joined Him; church happened. Amazingly church happened without a program, without a building, without a 3-point sermon, and without a worship team playing the latest CD that is the 'next best thing to really being in heaven' (Remember the Memorex commercial$%:--Is it heaven or is it Hillsong$%:).
Like it or not we are the church: you and me. As simple as that sounds, as odd as it may seem, and as ugly as it looks we are called to be the church. The 'church' is not a building, a program, or a day but a people: you and me. When we show up church should happen and no amount of programming and marketing and spiritual shuck and jiving is going to change that.
Is there ever a time in recorded history where Jesus invited someone to church to receive the truth, sight for blind eyes, or for any healing$%: I don't think so (feel free to let me know otherwise). He was the first fleshly temple of mankind that all of us are meant to be today but we strain so hard to calendar and program what a living, vital, intimate relationship with Almighty God looks and feels like.
Number of examples
(Sometimes it all just feels like compromise to me; like I have traded in an incredible vibrant relationship available 24/7/365 for a scheduled weekly meeting with Someone I love).
And trust me when I say it does not look like attending church on Sundays! Vain repetition is hated by God because it breeds staleness. God is real and alive and desires for us to know him relationally in the everyday smallness of life.
I think it was that crazy Christian writer Donald Miller who said (and I hate to ruin what he said so blame me if I get this wrong) that if we have a relationship with God than it is going to be uncomfortable and messy and always changing.
And, I'd like to add, just because we have a sense that we know Him now does not mean that after one-minute in His presence or one-minute in conversation with Him won't make my head spin, my heart go pitter patter (Or is that Santa's feet on the roof top$%:), and make me feel like I don't even know this amazing Father that is so dazzling that He can only give me little tiny bits and glimpses of Who He is.
God is huge. He cannot be contained within tens of thousands of Sunday morning services or even in millions of Christians. His reflection is seen in every good deed that was done today and His hand is seen as the sun rise, the moon shines, and the wind blows.
God is so massive that He is even seen in the unbelieving (another story altogether).
God is huge so for Christ sake get Him out of the church.
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