Being the Church

I've been thinking a lot lately about church and ministry, mostly because my church's vision team (of which I'm a member) is planning a visioning retreat and one of my profs from EMU is going to be leading it. So I'm in a funky sort of ministry-student de ja vu right now.

Anyway, I was thinking the other day about the difference between being the Church, the Bride of Christ, and "doing church". As a church, we may have lots of programs, ministries and outreaches, services of all types and for all types, and lots and lots of things we "do". But how often do we really look at the image of the Church Christ created? How often do we ask "Is our church following the call of the Bride of Christ"? Like a hamster in a wheel, we can be doing a lot of stuff, and maybe feel like we're really going somewhere, but in reality we're still in the same place we were when we started. After a while we just get burned out. So, what does it mean to be the Church, the Bride of Christ? What did Christ create the Church to be? What is Christ calling our church to be? How do we become the Church?

On the other hand, you can put a bunch of people who have a good idea about what the Church is in a building that looks like a church, but unless they actually "do" something, it's all for naught. The Church body must actually function in order to be alive. And so I believe the church should be in a continual cycle of evaluating how we are "doing church" right now, going back to the Scriptural image of the Church of Christ, and discerning how Christ is calling us to become more like the Bride of Christ.

I'm finding, too, that this paradigm is also applicable to our daily walk with Christ. As Christians we can become very busy with our devotions, church meetings, getting involved in ministries, serving people around us, and just doing things, that we lose touch with the whole purpose. Who did Christ create us to be? What is Christ calling us to be? How do we become that person? Answering these questions may mean doing many of the same things, but much of the time it means slowing down and allowing Christ to work in us and through us.