Church > Church Services

Church > Church Services

pastoral reflections on a Sunday morning in January

by troy cady

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The other day I was talking with a neighbor about the word “church.” As we sat at my desk together, I opened up my web browser and Googled the word “church.” I said, “Now, let’s look at the visual images that are associated with this word.”
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And as we looked, I pointed out that almost all of them were a picture of a building and most of those did not even have any people in the picture whatsoever…just a building. A small percentage of the pictures portrayed people in a building…at a church service. And we noted that every single picture that came up in the first round of search results fit into one of these two types of images.
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For the past 40 years, I estimate that I have spent 75 percent of my Sundays either going to church services or playing a role in the leadership of such.
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In light of this, what I want to say on this Sunday morning may come as a surprise to you: I have come to the conclusion that church services often (but not always) get in the way of God’s people being the church. I know that will likely ruffle the feathers of many churchgoers who are reading this but bear with me as I try to explain my rationale.
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In 2002, my family and I moved to Madrid to start a church. To do this, we developed a “launch plan” (that’s what we called it). It was an 18-month business plan that articulated how we would grow the church from 8 people in March 2002 to 150 people in September 2003. (And, yes: the document we developed to share the vision of this was a business plan, I’m embarrassed to say.)
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In any case, September 2003 was identified as the “launch date.” This was the time we would say, “Hooray, we did it! We started a church!” It was the day we would hold our first church service, open to the public.
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After just 9 months into this launch plan, we held some private “test services” before going public. Believe it or not, we were three months ahead of schedule when we began these test services…that’s how much the church had grown in that short time. Because of this, we had considered moving up the public “launch date” from September to Easter that year (which happened to be on April 20).
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At any rate, the test services were an opportunity to gain momentum and build the core of the congregation so that, when the launch day hit, a sense of common vision and shared values would have been nurtured already by a large enough group of people.
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To build up to these test services, however, we simply met in small groups (which we called “community groups”) to build relationships, worship together, grow spiritually, and reach out to others. In other words, all of our energy the first 9 months of “launching” this church went into helping our community group ministry flourish.
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After 9 months of seeing our community groups flourish, we noticed a distinct shift as soon as we started testing out weekly services. From planning to execution, the services themselves took most of our mental and emotional energy, leaving little energy to invest in our community groups. So, it didn’t take long for the community groups to languish…but the real problem came when the weekly services did not flourish as we had expected, either.
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So we began to ask ourselves, “What’s going on here? Why does it seem like the church has just picked up a heavy weight right as we are trying to gear up for takeoff?”
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That’s when we realized that everything that really mattered about what we had in mind when it came to “being the church” had already been happening in our community groups. And thinking we needed to add something more to be a “legitimate” church ultimately seemed to devalue the rich and authentic experiences we had been having already through the community group network we had nurtured. It was as if we were saying, “We can’t really be a church if we don’t meet each weekend for a church service…can we?”
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So, we asked ourselves, “What if we remove the ‘church service’ ingredient from the ‘church’ recipe and see what happens? If we didn’t have ‘church services’ to worry about, how would we go about embodying what it means to be God’s family?”
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And that is what we did. We experimented. You could call it a little ecclesiastical improvisation. We decided that we would gather in a large group format just once a month while still emphasizing the weekly gathering of folks in the community group format. And what we discovered about what it means to be Jesus’ followers has changed my life and the lives of so many others since.
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We found ways to worship that were diverse and fun, personalized and holistic. We learned what it means to truly be a family with one another, to take care of each other and really connect. Because our encounters with Scripture were rooted in interactive ways of engaging, our understanding of God and faith deepened significantly. We learned from one another and each person had regular opportunities to exercise their gifts from week to week. What’s more, our way of reaching out and sharing Jesus’ love with others was humanizing and playful.
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Thus, we discovered first-hand that we were better able to embody the essence of what it means to be the church…without hosting weekly “church services.”
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I wish I could say I stayed the course with this little improvisation since then. However, I didn’t. When my family and I moved back to the States in 2010, we ended up participating again in “church” as we typically think of it: an event-based place. This was not without good reason, to be sure…and, in many ways, the church we were part of was a blessing and a joy. My work with children was enriching and several people in the congregation served with heart-felt devotion and open-minded creativity. I thank God for those people.
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But as time wore on, I began to see once again how “church services” often hindered us from experiencing what God desires for us to experience as a church family.
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During this time, I recall looking across the congregation on many, many Sundays wondering what the point of it all was. As we sang together, it seemed like we were just going through the motions, mouthing the words, pleased mildly by the melodies. Our hearts were not in it. I remember feeling sad for the worship leaders who diligently prepared music for us to lift our hearts to the Lord and who often implored the congregation to really put their all into it…but the response was just, “Meh.”
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And the same was true of the congregation’s response to the pastor’s preaching, despite the thoughtful and creative ways she went about proclaiming the gospel from week to week. To this day, I can easily say that Pastor Mandy is one of the best leaders I have ever had the honor of serving with. So, it makes my blood boil knowing the kind of criticism she faced week-in and week-out from so many people. Time and time again, her calls for deep, good change in the church just met with resistance.
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The grace that could have redeemed all this was the tight-knit community that characterized the church. But, for too many people, that sense of community did not extend to them. I recall on several occasions talking with various long-time members when another person who had been attending for at least a couple of years would come up in the conversation—and the long-time member had no idea who I was talking about. And it wasn’t as though either of these people were only sporadic attenders; both of them were very regular. I wondered to myself, “How is it that two people who have been attending a small church like ours regularly for three years have never even said hi to each other? How is it that two people could literally sit 5 seats away from each other (in their "usual" spot on Sunday morning) week after week for years and not know each other's names?” It's sad: sometimes church services are the loneliest places to be in this world. Why is this, I have to wonder?
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I am convinced it is because the “church-as-churchservice” paradigm makes it very easy for this to happen. The mindset is: “I saw the few people who are important to me, I’ve sung my songs, I’ve heard my nice sermon, I’ve had my cracker and grape juice, it was nice, I feel good now and…I’ll see you next week.” After more than 30 years of ministry in church settings, I am convinced that this is more normal for most churchgoers than many churchgoers care to admit.
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And so, I have to ask myself, “What’s the point? If that is all that ‘church’ really is…why bother?” Is there no sense of reaching out, serving the common good, enfolding the marginalized in love? Where is the passion and creativity? Simply put, it is a failure of imagination.
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On this front, I would like to say, however, that this church did get one thing right: each Saturday they hosted a food pantry to feed the hungry. And it is significant that one of the key leaders of the food pantry testifies to this day that Saturdays at the food pantry felt more like “church” to him than any other thing we did as a church. It is also very telling to me that most of the people who volunteered at the pantry over the years were NOT from the church, but rather from the neighborhood. Why would this be?
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I suggest it is because the folks who served at the food pantry were really being the church. There was a sense of joy and life and family. Though no songs were sung on Saturday mornings, the atmosphere could be truly described as worshipful. And deep conversations often occurred that enriched our understanding of God and faith and life. And it was not uncommon to see one person praying with their arm around another person who was weeping, going through a hard time, in need of a friend. In short, we were being formed in Christlikeness. It is sobering to note on this front that most people who volunteered at the food pantry over the years…never stepped foot in the church building on a Sunday morning.
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And I would say for good reason: they were already experiencing the essence of what it means to be the church without ever attending a church service.
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So, what I first realized 20 years ago has come full circle to me. I am convinced that church services often (but not always, mind you) hinder many Christ-followers from really experiencing what it means to be the church.
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And, so…the last four weeks, I have been practicing and inviting others to practice with me various ways of coming together as God’s family. We’ve feasted together and built relationships with lots of time to have informal conversation over a meal where each person brings something to contribute. We have told stories and listened to stories. We’ve enjoyed children in our midst. We’ve wondered about the presence of God in the stories we’ve heard and in the midst of our everyday life experiences. And we’ve served others together: yesterday, some of us spent a good portion of the day helping at a shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
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One person who participated said afterwards, “That was so much fun, I almost feel guilty!” There was life in it, a sense of God’s goodness, a sense of loving our neighbors as ourselves.
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Later, I was driving home with my “adopted aunt” Judy (as I like to call her). We carpooled together and when we got back to my place, we sat in the car for another hour…just talking and connecting. I shared with her some family challenges I’ve been facing lately and she listened like a good friend, offering words of encouragement and reassurance. It is with deep gratitude that I note our societal roles were reversed yesterday. I—an ordained minister—had the joy of being pastored by “aunt” Judy, a retired nurse.
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And just the day before, I had the honor of spending three hours with a neighbor friend, reading from the Gospel of John, praying, and talking about…
…family trauma,
…how Jesus deconstructs our cherished paradigms of God, life, and others;
…the problem of violence in Scripture,
…the prejudice that seems to plague our society today, and
…the ministry of reconciliation.
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And that was only SOME of what we talked about. My friend has grown accustomed to referring to these times we have together as “church.” And I think he is right: it is church—in our living rooms.
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This is how more of the church should be, I feel. We should be serving together. We should really be in each other’s lives. We should dialogue and share perspectives and learn from one another. We should share food together and just enjoy playing together. We should tell stories and practice listening. We should rest together and be there for each other when we fall on hard times.
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These days, then, my imagination is coming alive again and I am experiencing it as a deep, deep grace. I have hope. In my mind's eye, I can see a whole network of small faith communities like these popping up all over...communities where people from all kinds of different backgrounds can come together to live into the simple rhythms of…
…feasting
…wondering
…listening
…sharing, and
…renewing.
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And I am happy to say that others are joining in this vision already, not just here where I live in Chicago but in other parts of the States, too…from Connecticut to North Carolina, Minnesota to California. We’re calling this network PlayWell Communities. We want it to feel playful, improvisational, personalized, and fluid.
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We’re not calling it a church, by the way, because that word just has so much unhelpful baggage that comes with it. We’re describing it as a network of small “faith communities.” Regardless, we’re passionate about what it looks like to follow Jesus in our time and in the places we live. And we want to strip away anything that would weigh us down from living according to God’s “unforced rhythms of grace.” We want to live freely…free to imagine different ways of being formed as God's dearly beloved people.
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If you’d like to know more about all this, let me know because I’d love to talk with you about it.
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St. Adamnan's Day

 

St. Adamnan’s Day

reflections by Troy Cady

In my prayer book this morning, I learned that today is the feast day of St. Adamnan among the Northumbria community.

Adamnan was the ninth abbot of Iona. In the late 7th century, church leaders in Rome were putting pressure on the Celtic church to adopt Roman customs. Because Adamnan was a peace-loving person and did not wish division with his brothers and sisters in other sectors of Christendom, he tried to persuade the community in Iona to go along with the new Roman customs.

He met with no small measure of opposition. For many years, a contingent of the community in Iona insisted on celebrating Easter twice each year: once on the new Roman date and once on the traditional Celtic date.

Though the matter seems trivial to us now, I imagine it was incredibly difficult for Adamnan to hold the community together in the midst of it all. In fact, I imagine the community felt like it was bitterly divided for quite a long time.

Viewing the situation from Adamnan’s perspective, he had an impossible decision to make. If he decided to hold fast to the Celtic customs, he would risk division with his brothers and sisters in other places. If he decided to embrace the new Roman way, he risked resentment with many of the members of the community right in his midst.

As someone who serves on the staff of a local church and as someone who is deeply concerned about the state of the broader church in America, I can relate to Adamnan.

In short, my heart aches over the issues that are dividing the American church right now, both locally and nationally.

On the one hand, my heart grieves the broader church in America. Like the Roman authorities in Adamnan’s day, it seems to me that the American church of today is intent on powering up, laying huge burdens upon people, and pressuring diverse sectors of society to conform to a particular worldview. I can’t help but feel that what really motivates the church in America is a desire to consolidate and preserve a sense of cultural supremacy. The ideological hubris is oppressive and it is absolutely astounding when I consider that it comes from those who tout “salvation by grace through faith.”

If we are to be a people who reflect the grace of Jesus, our way of engaging the world must become more gentle, understanding, and humble. We should be known not as coercive but as compassionate. Let us listen more than we speak. Let us lay aside anger. While arguing may win a temporary victory, it is only by love that anyone is transformed through and through.

The irony of all of this is that, like the Roman church of Adamnan’s day, the American church wants to cast itself as an agent of change—but underneath the desire to effect change is a deeper desire to arrange life in a way that is most comfortable for us. In other words, it’s possible that the desire to change the world around us springs from a deeper desire to secure our standard of living…without having to change ourselves.

In other words, we like life the way we like it. We want our homes and neighborhoods to be just the way we like it. We want our schools and our cities…our friends, our holidays, and our entertainment…to be just the way we like it. We even want our church to be just the way we like it.

This is what Adamnan faced from both sides…pressure from those who wanted things to be just the way they liked it. The power struggle here is exhausting in part because it is simply inescapable.

I have been saying this since long before the pandemic hit, but I revisited it in March 2020 and again in the summer of 2020 and again in the fall of 2020 and again and again and again since then:

The church in America desperately needs to reimagine what it really means to be the church. We can no longer continue arranging “church” in ways that merely suit our own liking. The invitation ultimately is to let go of power, to relinquish the need to control, to stop trying to rearrange the world in whatever way we happen to like best. Once we can really do that, we are really free to love, just love…to see others for who they are, made in God’s image, beloved through and through.

I believe the church in America is facing a crisis that is deeper than anything we have ever had to face. The question is not whether the crisis is upon us. The question is: “How will we respond to the crisis?”

Will we be willing to ask the hard questions of what it means to be the church? Are we willing to do what it takes to be a community of those who have been called by God to love others extravagantly? Will we be open to different ways of being formed? Will we hold on to what we have always known? Will we choose to be heavy-handed when God would make us soft-hearted?

On this feast day of St. Adamnan, I imagine these were some of the difficult questions he must have had so many centuries ago, though I admit I may be reading into his story a bit. All I know is I can sure relate to the no-win situation he found himself in.

That said, I am inspired by his patient, gentle, peace-loving way of holding gracious space in the midst of the tension and I want to follow his example. I want to be the kind of person who can hold the space open so we can just come together in our differences…to help each and every person experience deep within the freedom and joy of being beloved through and through. May it be so.

The Church of the Word-made-flesh

Most Christians today speak of attendance at a Sunday gathering as “going to church.” I suggest the phrase is misguided and its common use is indicative of a gross misunderstanding of the nature of the church as Jesus imagined it.

For starters, the word “church” (ekklesia) in Jesus’ day was not specifically a “Christian” or even solely a “religious” phenomenon. It could be used in reference to the synagogue as well as in reference to gatherings of various civil societies. The word, generally speaking, had to do simply with “assembling” a group of people together for a specific purpose. In that sense, any kind of  “assembly” could be called a “church.”

But the church of Jesus departed even from the first-century way of understanding the word. In the “church” that Jesus created, he was (as usual) being phenomenologically expansive with the idea compared to the way most people defined it.

Whereas each synagogue gathered people together around Scripture and the teaching of a rabbi, Jesus was a different sort of rabbi in that he claimed to be the Word-made-flesh. Thus, the synagogue he led was always on the move. It was literally embodied but, paradoxically, there was no routine physical location you could meet at during a certain day of the week at a certain time of day. It was a synagogue he could convene in any place at any time on any day of the week. Jesus’ “church” gathered wherever he happened to be at the time. Sometimes large crowds would gather by the lakeshore to hear rabbi Jesus teach and other times he’d reserve his teaching for just a few of his closest followers on a hillside or in a garden.

Thus, Jesus’ church did not extract people from the everyday stuff of life like today’s “church” does. Rather, the real world served as the context for the church Jesus established. The church that Jesus led was more like a living, holistic organism than a segregated, hierarchical organization with a special event once per week.

In that vein, Jesus’ commission to his disciples to make more disciples was intended to follow the same trajectory. Christians today translate the famous commission in Matthew 28 as “Go and make disciples” but what Jesus actually said was more like: “As you go, make disciples…” The phrasing implies that the church (those who are assembled to center themselves on Jesus) will make disciples in the course of everyday life.

Though Jesus’ followers do “gather," an indispensable aspect of Jesus’ teaching involves his “sending” of the church to be fully present to the world-as-it-is. Consequently, church in the Jesus-way is a phenomenon that is "gathered to be scattered." It’s a mystery: Jesus’ ekklesia is created through diaspora.

My prayer is that the church of today would recover the full sense of that great commission and live according to what it really means to be the church in the spirit of Jesus. My prayer is that the church of today would be and act more like Jesus, the Word-made-flesh.

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The Church of the Word-made-flesh

reflections by Troy Cady

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*Photo by Cassie Boca via Unsplash. Creative Commons License.

 

 

 

 

     

Pentecost: God Dances Like a Flame Within

Today, I remember the significance of the promise Jesus made to his disciples shortly after his resurrection. It was a promise that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit, the Church is sent to serve as Jesus served, to be a sign of hope, to reflect here and now the joy and love of the kingdom of God that shall never fade. In Acts 2, we read a record of how this new work in and through the Church was inaugurated during the Feast of Pentecost--and that good work is still continuing today. In this short video, I share the story of Acts 1 and 2 by using materials I've created to help both young and old receive the kingdom of God like little children. I hope you enjoy it.

You can also click this link to view the video onYouTube.

If you are interested in obtaining these materials for use in your church or home setting, email me at troy@playfull.org for more details.

Play is so much more than just a form of superficial escapism. It expresses something fundamental about what it means to be human and it shapes us, both individually and as a society. To learn more about the enduring value of playfulness, visit playfull.org—the site of a ministry I lead called PlayFull. I also invite you to like PlayFull on Facebook and follow us there. Thank you!

Essential Services?

Essential Services?

reflections on reimagining "church"

by Troy Cady

            Last Friday the President of the United States authorized the reopening of churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship for regular services. As we are in the midst of a pandemic, he identified these gathering spaces as places where “essential services” are provided.

            Since this announcement, I’ve followed with interest (and with some sadness) the various responses I’ve read from my brothers and sisters in Christ here in the United States. On the one hand, I am delighted by the countless ways local congregations have creatively adapted in the midst of this crisis. On the other hand, I am saddened by the way I’ve seen Christians tearing each other apart and I am saddened by actions that indicate to me little more than a selfish and consumeristic disposition. The church is called to serve not our own interests, but rather to serve the common good. 

           

A little background

I write this as someone who spent 12 years starting new churches in Europe and the past 10 years serving in various capacities vis-à-vis local congregations and regional initiatives. It is no exaggeration to say that the 12 years I spent in Europe and the years I spent as a regional coach/trainer here in the United States have transformed my vision of the various shapes the church can take.

            As a start-up leader, the teams I led had the advantage of experimenting with the way “church” looks and feels for both regular church-goers and for those who are not accustomed to “going to church” regularly. This experimental mindset carried over as I transitioned from Europe to the United States, and I am proud to say that those I have had the privilege of coaching in new endeavors have relished the opportunity to think of “church” in different forms. Though the churches these innovative folks are leading today do not resemble what normally comes to mind when most people think of “church,” I am happy to say these new forms of “church” are thriving in their own right and serving the common good in ways that are truly inspiring.

In what ways are church services “essential services”?

Because of my experience with experimental forms of “church,” I have to ask myself: “In what way may we understand ‘church services’ to be ‘essential services’?” Put another way: to what extent are “church services” essential to the life of the church, anyway?

            When I was working in Europe, I and the teams I led came to the conclusion that (at least for our context) “weekly church services” not only were NOT essential to the overall vitality of the church, they proved to be a distraction in our efforts to embody what it means to truly be the church. We discovered that churches could spend all their time planning church services (and putting so much emphasis on going to church services) but completely miss the point of what it really means to be the church.

How we experimented and what we learned

So, we decided to try an experiment. We asked ourselves: “What would it look like to strip away the ‘weekly church service’ aspect of being the church and reimagine other ways of being the church?”

            Before I describe what we learned from this experiment about the relationship of the church’s ultimate essence to the programmatic aspect of weekly church services, I would like to mention that we did not entirely jettison church services, nor did we dismiss the importance of “gathering.” Some of the churches I led met monthly or twice a month for a large group church service—and we DID practice a weekly rhythm of intentionally gathering in various formats for worship, learning, fellowship and outreach.

            With that context in mind, I can attest that nothing upsets Christians (especially evangelicals) quite like the act of messing with their cherished Sunday morning singing and sermon-hearing. It is sad to me that we have come to associate the word “church” so much with “church services” that, were I to ask 100 Christians how they could sustain life together as a church without depending on weekly church services, probably 99 of them would not even be able to envision such a phenomenon (or at least envision it in a way that is sustainable and life-giving). In fact, I wager that most would think something like: “What’s the point? What would we do without church services? Isn’t that what the church does? We hold services. That’s how it has always been.”

            I’ll be honest: this lack of imagination and willingness to try something different troubles me and grieves me deeply. It smacks of selfishness and consumerism. And it is one of the reasons I feel that in this season of crisis (and once the season has immediately passed) most churches will experience a temporary “revival” (of sorts) for a short period of time but will gradually succumb to “business as usual” over the long term—content to serve the “needs” of those who enjoy church services, but deaf to the deeper calling of the church to serve the common good over her own interests.

            Out of years of experience with alternate forms of church, I assert that weekly church services, in fact, are NOT essential to embody what it means to be the church. That’s not to say the church doesn’t gather. That’s not to say the church neglects worship. And that’s not to say the church neglects teaching and fellowship. But it begs the question as to the mode of our gathering, the form that “gathering” takes. And it begs the question as to how worship, learning, community and outreach take place. These dynamics that enable the church to flourish and sustain herself do not need to happen in the context of a “church service” and I have seen first-hand that, in fact, “church services” are one of the worst ways for these dynamics to be nurtured.

Rooting out the dysfunction

Part of what troubles me about the “traditional” form of church is that church services too often simply reinforce a consumeristic (passive) relationship between a church’s congregants and the church’s “hired leadership.” This set-up is dysfunctional in at least three respects.

           

1. It becomes a sick system whereby a church’s congregants exercise control over the paid staff to deliver a good enough service or a) the staff person will lose their job, and b) the congregant will just go find another church where they will get what they want. It’s capitalism in the guise of religion and it is a disgusting disease that has plagued the American church for some time now. You can be sure the Spirit of God grieves such a condition.

2. The other side of this sick system of control, ironically, goes the other direction, too. Some people put their paid staff on such a high pedestal that they become incapable of thinking for themselves and “feeding” themselves. Thus, in many churches, the pastor wields a level of control that borders on “abusive” (and, indeed, crosses that line too many times).

            It is idol worship “in the name of Jesus” (if that were possible). In this scenario, people equate the pastoring (shepherding) function of the church so much with one individual (usually the “lead” or “senior” pastor) that the church fails to activate the many pastors/shepherds (and other gifted individuals) in her midst.

            Ironically, this happens because we have put such a high value on the word “pastor” that the church has, in fact, cheapened the word, stripping it of its fuller meaning.

            What’s even more tragic is that the word “pastor” does not even occur in the Bible. The one place you will find it in English translations is in Ephesians 4, but some feel it is mistranslated from the Greek manuscript. In every other instance where the same Greek word is used, it is best translated “shepherd.” Yet, in Ephesians 4, we substitute the word “pastor.” It is sad to note: that single, small choice has caused incalculable harm to the church. Wrongly understood, it is one of the reasons most Christians divide the church into two categories: “pastors” and “laity” (which means, “the people”).

            But the church is not to be divided like that. Every person in every church has a gift to offer and no gifts (and no people) are to be treated as more important than others. And whenever anyone exercises their gifts they are to offer them humbly to others as acts of self-emptying service. The text in Ephesians 4 which I have referenced goes on to say that God gives these various gifts to the church (to ALL the people in the church) to “equip” and “build up” the church so she may reach full maturity (that is, so she may flourish).

            But, in a scenario wherein people put the pastor on a pedestal (and, hence, cannot function without their “pastor”) the exact opposite is happening. Instead of the church growing up to full maturity, her members continue to be dependent on this “special” individual, thereby perpetuating a co-dependent relationship that is (I must say again) sick, sick, sick.

            If one tries to change this system, people begin to protest that they need to be “fed” more and they are not being “fed” very well. This complaint, however, misses the point of what it means to grow to full maturity. When someone grows to full maturity, they should be able to feed themselves. The fact that churches today have so many congregants who need to be “fed” all the time by this one “special” person tells me the church is filled with Christians who, quite honestly, have never grown up—perhaps because they’ve never had to grow up…because they keep being fed by their “parent.”     

3. When church boils down to a few paid professionals providing a service for others, it sets up a scenario where the practice of faith equates to mere intellect and emotion. This is why our experience of church today amounts to little more than a time and place where we are reassured in simply “believing” the right things (thinking “correct” thoughts about God) and getting filled back up emotionally so we can cope with the “hostile forces” of “the world” in which we live. This is precisely why many churches fail to nurture significant relational connections between the church body and the communities in which they are situated. In other words, churchgoers are too often very good at living within their own little church bubbles.

            I contend this is why so many of those who leave the “traditional” church experience their exodus as a world-enlarging phenomenon. Sadly, many churchgoers opt to sustain “the known” (that is, the structures within which they feel comfortable) out of an unconscious desire to feel safe and secure, never realizing how the very system by which they are propped up emotionally and intellectually is the system that is holding them back from truly flourishing both individually and collectively. That is why, to most regular churchgoers, what I am writing feels threatening, dangerous, even heretical.  

            A church without weekly church services? Preposterous!

            All I have to say is: you will never know what’s possible until you try it…and you can trust that, even if you fail, the Spirit of God is still big enough to keep you safe and secure in the love and grace of God.

Church: just imagine!

The reason I am writing this now is because I believe the church has a great opportunity to try something new. What do we have to lose? It’s a great time to experiment. So, I want to encourage church leaders and churchgoers to activate your imagination as to just what the church can become.

            In my own context, I’m happy to say the congregation in which I serve has been trying something new in terms of our gathering rhythms and structures. It’s far from perfect, and we have many improvements to make if it is to be sustainable and life-giving. But we are on the way and we are learning as we go. And we can extend grace to one another (and patience) in the going.

            And, surprise, surprise…we are already seeing good fruit being borne as various members of the church use their gifts to build each other up and reach out to others. To be honest, when I have read each week what is happening in our smaller (decentralized) gatherings, I’m inspired and humbled by the amazing things people are doing. The church is coming alive. And we’ve only just begun! Just think what’s possible if we continue imagining new ways of being…months and years from now.

            Church: I invite you to re-think the truly “essential services” God is calling you to offer…humbly…creatively…not just for ourselves…but for the common good.

            Amen.

………………………

Troy Cady serves part-time at Grace Covenant in Chicago. He also runs a ministry called PlayFull whose mission is “to help people and organizations play from the inside out”...imagining new and free ways of being and living. 

reopening

I see many Christians talking these days about when their church will "reopen." And I can't help but wonder how many churches will have missed the opportunity to be more open now than ever before. That is to say: now that the doors of the building are shut, we have the chance to be truly open. If the church is not open now, reconvening church services will accomplish little. It’s possible for the doors of the building to be open but the hearts of the people to be closed; sadly, that is too often the case. Sadly, churches are often open only to themselves—and closed off to others.

When the building is in lockdown, the Spirit of God does not relent inviting the church to be open to new ways of living and blessing others. Church: put less mental energy into planning your future “reopening” and more into imagining how you can be open right here, right now…more open than ever before.

………………

reopening

reflections by troy cady

Art: “Holy Union” by Simon András

what an empty building can teach us about truly being the church

What an Empty Building Can Teach Us About Truly Being the Church

reflections by Troy B. Cady

Photo by Debby Hudson via Unsplash. Creative Commons License.

            Earlier today, a friend of mine from high school posted an article about churches who refuse to cancel in-person services, despite CDC advice to the contrary.

            I’ve heard some Christians objecting to the fact that church services have been deemed “non-essential.” They seem to be taking it as some kind of personal affront, more evidence to buttress a narrative running in their head that Christianity is constantly under attack in America and Christians need to rise up to defend our rights before they are taken from us. So, they will continue to meet, regardless of the consequences.

            As a pastor, I must say that, while I am dismayed by such a viewpoint, I am not surprised (and that gives me even greater cause for dismay). I commented to my friend that, sadly, this kind of thing serves as a potent commentary as to just how bankrupt some forms of Christianity in America have become.

A deficient understanding of worship

For starters, this highlights to me a complete misunderstanding as to the true nature of worship. It runs contrary to the Spirit of God when Christians insist on worshipping God in such selfish ways while disregarding the harm they are doing to their fellow human beings by such an act of so-called worship. In the Old Testament, the prophets denounced such worship as false, another form of idolatry—and Jesus added his voice to such denunciations. To truly worship the living God is to perform acts of mercy and compassion for one’s fellow human. It is impossible to worship God and harm another at the same time. Yet, that is what these so-called churches are doing.

The highest acts of worship do not take place gathered on a Sunday morning in a well-appointed sanctuary. The highest acts of worship occur as acts of service to one’s fellow human beings and in one’s faithful stewardship of creation.

A deficient understanding of faith

Secondly, to those Christians who view the continuation of services as an exercise in faith, I say it is an act of pride in the form of presumption. Faith unaccompanied by humility is not genuine faith.

What’s more, faith divorced from reason is little more than mere superstition. One of the greatest philosophers of all time was Thomas Aquinas—now there was a man of faith! Aquinas knew that to love God with one’s mind was in keeping with loving God with one’s heart. God gave us reason to inform our faith and we should use it.

There have been many great people of faith throughout history who have also been great scientists and doctors—and the same is true today. There is no conflict for a doctor to say we should avoid meetings of this nature for scientific reasons while also asserting we should do so for theological reasons. The latter may be motivated by the great command to love one’s neighbor while the former provides the scientific evidence to back up such a humble act of faith.

A deficient understanding of church

Third, I am grieved by how this insistence on meeting for worship services indicates to me a desperately impoverished view of what it means to be the church. It is as if we think the church ceases to exist if we cannot meet in a certain place at a certain time each week. But the church is not a place. The church is a people, a people for all times and all peoples.

I am truly astonished how even those Christians who are abiding by the guidelines not to meet still have yet to stop and think what this crisis can teach us about what it really means to be the church, what the core essence of the church is. It is as if most Christians are just concerned with how to get through this crisis via some kind of survival mode, just counting the days until we can go back to church as we’ve always known it.

But this crisis can be a great teacher, if we will just stop, take a step back and listen to what this difficulty can show us about what is enduring about the church, whether life’s circumstances are good or bad. Instead, we are content to erect our temporary measures until we can go back to consuming our comfortable little product that suits our own thoughtless, petty desires.

I challenge Christian leaders during this time to consider how this crisis can change us not only for the time being, but also when life returns to “normal.” What are we learning about the nature of the church now that can transform how we minister in all circumstances?

The church is to be a light. We are to be about the mission of mercy and care. We are to be healers, shielding the vulnerable from harm. We are to be the first to give up our rights in service to others. We are to lead the way in giving generously of our time, talents and treasures. Now is not a time to be selfish. Now we have the opportunity to imitate the one we say is our Lord: Jesus the Christ, the one who gave himself for all in self-giving love.

May it be so.

…………………………..

Troy Cady is President of PlayFull, a non-profit ministry whose mission is “to help people and organizations play from the inside out.” PlayFull offers coaching and consulting services to Christian leaders and churches, along with courses and seminars that approach learning in holistic ways. To learn more visit us at www.playfull.org or email Troy at troy@playfull.org

church in pauline thinking

I am taking a class in New Testament studies and today the students were asked to pick a topic derived from the apostle Paul's thirteen letters (to churches and individuals). I decided to write on "Paul's view of the church" (or, at least, my perception of Paul's view of the church--ha!). I wanted to share my response with you because I am convinced the church of today needs to rethink what it really means to be the church. I hope you find my nerdy musings interesting and maybe helpful! -Troy

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The Apostle Paul's View of the Church
by Troy Cady

The word “church” predates Pauline usage but Paul creatively redefines it for followers of Jesus.[i] Simply speaking, it means “assembly.” In the history of Israel before the emergence of synagogues, it especially meant an assembly where all Israel gathered to hear and honor the Word of God being promulgated (as we see in the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai), and for special national festivals such as Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost).[ii] Matthew records Jesus using the word “church” and in one instance it carries the same sense of “assembly” but it also decentralizes the notion as it references synagogues, which are located in various places.[iii]

Paul’s use of the word “church” draws on this motif: it is a decentralized phenomenon (churches, plural) even as it is a cosmic, heavenly reality (church, singular).[iv] This latter sense carries with it the idea that all believers, everywhere, in every time are “assembled” before God, with Christ, our Head, as Lord and exemplar of the church’s pattern of living (a cruciform life with one another and for the world).

For example, in Romans 16 Paul refers to “all the churches [plural] of the Gentiles” (v. 3b) and to “the church that meets at [Priscilla and Aquila’s] house.” (v. 3a) But in Ephesians Paul uses the word church in a more cosmic sense. The church is his body, “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (1:22) and the church (everyone assembled before God, not just a particular church gathering) makes known “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” the “wisdom of God.” (3:10)[v]

Integral to Paul’s view of church is the coming together of both Jews and Gentiles. Biblical scholar Michael Gorman refers to Paul’s view of church as a “multicultural community.”[vi] This is a key element in Paul’s teaching because it is connected with the eschatological hopes of Israel; namely, when Messiah comes, both Jew and Gentile will be gathered together in his kingdom. Indeed, this is what God had in mind all along: that the Jews would be a light to the Gentiles and all nations would be gathered to the God of Israel. Paul believes that in Jesus this eschatological vision is inaugurated and is coming to fruition. It is happening now, but it is still growing and will reach its fulfillment in the future.

As the Gentiles are not heirs of the Mosaic Law, this begs the question as to how Jew and Gentile will come together in this new assembly. In a typical Jewish assembly (such as in synagogue), the people of God came together to pray, hear the Scripture and be taught what it meant. Gentile God-fearers could participate in this up to a point. If they wanted to be full participants, however, they needed to be circumcised and begin observing certain “boundary markers” that distinguished Jew from Gentile (such as adhering to dietary restrictions and laws of cleanliness). In Paul’s reinterpretation of church for the new community, Paul teaches that Gentiles do not need to observe these Jewish “boundary markers” to be full participants of the new assembly. Instead, the Law of God is written on our hearts by the Spirit, who indwells all those who believe in Jesus. The Spirit of Christ crucified constitutes the new Law by which the people “walk.”

Paul references the role of the Spirit in the church through comparing the church to the temple. To the Jews of Paul’s day, the temple was the locus of God’s presence, but Paul teaches that the new locus of God’s presence is in those who confess faith in Jesus. I Corinthians 3:16 highlights this and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians makes it clear that both Jew and Gentile (whom God has “made one” by destroying “the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility”- 2:14) are being “built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (2:22)

This new temple indwelt by God’s Spirit serves as the center of life in Christ’s cosmic kingdom. Thus, the church consists of new citizens of a new kingdom being built by God, the kingdom of heaven. Paul’s view of church in that sense represents a kind of “historical chiasm” wherein the people of God:

a- assemble at the Temple in Israel, governed by God’s Law given through Moses

            b- assemble in synagogues, governed by God’s Law given through Moses

            b’- assemble in homes[vii], a household of faith governed by a New Law given by the Spirit

a’- assemble before God in heaven, new citizens of a new kingdom being built by the Spirit

The new kingdom takes its shape in cruciform love, according to Paul. The church is a sign and foretaste of the kingdom as God’s people embody the self-emptying humility of their Lord Jesus Christ.

With that as a basis, I hasten to note that Paul’s mission as an apostle was to “create a vast network”[viii] of churches formed by the Spirit of Christ crucified. In Pauline literature we often see Paul referring to this entire network as “the church” (singular). If Gorman is correct that Paul’s mission was to create a network of churches, we must ask the question: for whom does the church exist? God, itself, others or “all of the above”?

In Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, R.Y.K. Fung asserts: “The image of the church as the body of Christ looks inward…and upward…but not outward.”[ix] While this may be strictly true as Paul writes letters to various churches to address matters of internal import, it ignores the apostolic basis of the church. Indeed, the notion of an “apostolic church” bears out the paradox of a church that exists for its own edification and for the glory of Christ while at the same time owing its existence to Paul’s obedience as an apostle to be a missionary to the Gentiles. The church is a community of “called out ones” (literally), but the church without the apostles (“sent ones”, literally) would not exist. A church that is apostolic is by definition a “called out community” of those who have been “sent out.” The church is sent. If she is not sent, she cannot exist.

For that reason, in contrast to Fung, I assert that Paul does view the church as an “outwardly-minded” assembly. The church does need to be concerned with how we live out our faith in the world, not just how we live when we are assembled in a particular place on a particular day with other believers. Indeed, the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas (notice: in Christian community) to establish more churches. In that regard, Paul, Barnabas (and others) embodied the church even as they started more churches. Without that outwardly-minded emphasis, there would be no church. Indeed, this outwardly-minded thrust is predicated on God the Father sending his Son to inaugurate his church of “sent ones.” This is the very point that scholars who promote a “missional” view of the church are trying to make and it has paradigm-shifting implications for churches (and the church) today who yet possess a mindset marked by Christendom. This missional sense of biblical teaching (including Paul’s teaching) sorely needs to be recovered. In that regard, Fung needs to revise his understanding of Paul, I feel.

It is true that when the church assembles (in someone’s home or in another place) it is for the building up of those who believe in Jesus—but it is not true that the church does not concern itself with the relationship between the church and the world. Indeed, in I Corinthians 14, as Paul is addressing dysfunction in the assembly in Corinth, he notes a sensitivity to unbelievers by pointing out that, it is better for the church (and the world) if an unbeliever can understand what is being said in the assembly. (I Cor. 14:24-25)

I propose that Paul views the church as both a witness to one another and to the world that Jesus is the Messiah—and we are to pattern our lives after Messiah’s life by the power of the Spirit in offering ourselves up as a cruciform people (for one another and for the sake of the world).

Notes:

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[i] Josephus and Philo use the word ekklesia in connection with assemblies (religious or political) prior to the time of Jesus and the apostolic era. See P.T. O’Brien. “Church” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 124.

[ii] Of significance here is the LXX usage of the word ekklesia in reference to Israel “assembled to hear the Word of God on Mt. Sinai, or later on Mt. Zion where all Israel was required to assemble three times a year.” Ibid., 124.

[iii] Matthew 18:17- “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.” Biblical scholars note that in this text Jesus is speaking of "church" in reference to the synagogue.

[iv] For instance, in Galatians Paul says that he used to “persecute the church of God.” We know that Paul is not just talking about one church in this instance because we know he traveled all over doing this. Acts tells us he went “from house to house,” dragging off men and women and putting them in prison. In this reference, Paul views the church (singular) as the network of churches (plural).

[v] In a synagogue setting, the “wisdom of God” was made known through reading Torah and the Prophets; then, a teacher would offer an interpretation for the congregation. Paul draws on this tradition and applies it on a cosmic scale. The heavenly church makes known the wisdom of God to heavenly powers. The prophetic and teaching gifts especially come to mind here.

[vi] Michael J. Gorman. Apostle of the Crucified Lord, 41.

[vii] Or, wherever, really. Anywhere the people of God can gather.

[viii] Ibid., 41.

[ix] R.Y.K. Fung. “Body of Christ” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 81.

10 thoughts on the church

10 Thoughts on the Church

by Troy Cady

1.

When the poor, broken, powerless and hurting encountered the self-righteous power-brokers of society in Jesus’ day, they walked away from the encounter worse off than they were before.

When the poor in spirit found Jesus, he saw them, he loved them, he cared for them. Jesus was known by the broken as a healer, he was known by the hurting as a friend. They did not want to walk away from him. They wanted to be with him. He was like living water to thirsty souls.

The only people who walked away from Jesus sad or angry were the self-sufficient or self-righteous. 

I have seen the poor in spirit hurt by the church. When this happens, the church is no better than a group of self-righteous power-brokers who fail to perceive their own need for a Savior.

This should not be. If the church is to be the Body of Christ, she should not silence the voices of her poor, powerless prophets. The church should be a place where small voices are heard, small people are seen and enfolded in love.

The church should not be a place where people get wounded. It should be a place where wounded people receive and administer healing. The church should be a people known as Wounded Healers.

2.

I have heard people talk of getting “back-handed” by the church. That is, they share something of themselves and their comments are met with judgement or condemnation, whether implicit or explicit. As a result, the person who shared their real self with others in the church then grows reluctant to share again. Because of this, they feel inclined, rightly so, to put on a mask for fear they will be rejected if they share again what they really think.

All this because of insensitive hearts, thoughtless, hurtful comments.

Just who do we think we are?

God listens to us when we share our real self. He does not care a fig about our pious appearance. He wants us to come to him just as we are, without pretense. Yes, everyone is imperfect, but He does not reject us. It is a good thing he sees through our pretense, because when he sees us trying to present ourselves as better than we really are he simply invites us to see ourselves as he sees us, truthfully in love. God longs for us to come to him in truth…not with a pretty mask. He promises to listen when we speak to him truthfully.

So we should do likewise for one another. We should just listen when we hear another speaking to us from their true self. We should not judge or advise or put them down. We should just listen. In fact, we should marvel and count it a high honor when someone shares from their true self. It is a precious trust they give us. We should not betray that trust. We should treasure it. Such true sharing is indeed sacred.

The church should be a place of good listening and honest, humble sharing.

3.

“Let’s be sure!” That is a phrase I have heard a church use as a motto for various programs they run. I think it is because they are afraid of not having all the right answers.  Their goal is to give people (especially the young) a tool box of “answers that are certain.”

The problem is: there will always be doubt and we will never be able to know everything with one hundred percent certainty and accuracy. Only God knows everything.

Just who do we think we are?

We should make peace with uncertainty because as long as we are human we will always be uncertain. We don’t know everything. We can’t.

God invites us to worship, and our worship of God grows stronger in the soil of mystery. The church should foster an environment of childlike wonder. We should invite questions—doubting, honest questions.

We should befriend doubters. Jesus did. And he helped them in their doubt—not by giving them straight-forward answers but rather by boggling their minds with subversive parables and defiance of the laws of nature.

Remember: everything we once thought certain is called into question when we meet Jesus. He messes with your mind and shows you the limits of your understanding.

Think about it: it is counter-intuitive to bless those who curse you. Jesus doesn’t make sense to us. That’s the shock of it and that’s the point of Jesus’ ministry: we don’t know, but he does. Trust him.

Trust does not have to have all the right answers. That is the plain, simple truth. Children do not have all the right answers but they do know how to trust. Trust, not certainty, is what God invites. Certainty is not bad, but trust is better.

It is good news to know we don’t know everything. The kingdom of God is a milieu of wonder in worship. We should experience that kind of atmosphere when the people of God gather.

4.

I have heard people talk of leaving a church or leaving a certain denomination, in search of something better. I have heard people say of the church, “We’re leaving. It has been too long we’ve been here. It’s time to go.”

It seems to me that the church is no more than a prison for people who feel that.

How is it that we have appointed ourselves wardens of another person’s soul? We do not hold the keys to their salvation. Only Jesus holds those keys. And Jesus frees.

Christians like to distinguish one community of faith from another by looking at the various belief systems but the fact is: communities of faith are defined more by freedom and captivity than by creed.

Jesus came to free the captives. If the church feels like a prison, she has failed the people Jesus came to set free.

The church should be a place of freedom. If people are captivated it should be because of the presence of beauty and desire.  When we are captivated by what is good, lovely, and praiseworthy we experience real freedom. We are truly present to the good because we want to be present, not because we are coerced into presence. The church should be a place of freedom.

5.

Church attendance at Sunday morning services in America is declining drastically. I hear pastors lament this. Christians speak of “dying churches” and begin to worry: “What will become of us?”

It is as if we think the Church is equivalent to a Sunday morning program.

But the Church is greater than the sum total of people who gather on Sunday morning between 9:00 and 10:30.

Among other images he employed, theologian Lesslie Newbigin spoke of the church as a “sign, foretaste and instrument of the kingdom of God.” We needn’t understand all the details of what he meant by that image to grasp that it includes the notion that the Church cannot be contained to 90 minutes each Sunday. The kingdom of God is a vast terrain, too much for any one person or group to explore in one lifetime. And the Church is to be a sign, a taste of that trackless dominion. 

What makes us think that something as small as shrinking church service attendance on Sunday mornings can prevent God’s vision for his People from coming to full fruition? God’s imagination is bigger than any strategy we devise, schedule we keep, or attendance we tally.

I love how the poet ee cummings contrasts God’s playful vision in creation and our human attempt to control that vision.

when god decided to invent

everything he took one

breath bigger than a circustent

and everything began

when man determined to destroy

himself he picked the was

of shall and finding only why

smashed it into because

God’s breath is bigger than a circus tent! Everything that was and is and shall be owes its existence to the great Maker. So what makes us think this same God, by the power of his Breath, by the power of his Spirit, is not able to bring new life into existence?  Do not worry. The Church may change its form, but her beauty will never fade. Jesus the Groom loves his Bride too much to let her fade into oblivion. The Church shall be renewed.

6.

Speaking of imagination. The church should be a place where creativity and imagination flourish.

We live in a world where people apprehend truth through encounters with beauty. We are formed by art. The church should pursue artistic endeavors with such passion that we find ourselves continually living on the front-line of creative innovation.

Whatever one believes about the text in Genesis 1 and 2 (whether it is metaphorical or literal), one thing stands out: the text portrays God as creative.

In fact, God’s creativity is so incredible, our attempts to create are but poor imitations. He is the Master Artist.

If the Church is to reflect the goodness of God, she should seek to imitate God’s artistry.

And we shouldn’t skimp. When God makes something, he gives his best. We should, too. Church, give your best to make new, wonderful works that contain such power we feel the work has a life of its own.

7.

It’s the seed of many a joke, but I’m not sure what to think when people fall asleep in church. (Here I’m using the word “church” to mean “Sunday morning service”; forgive the misnomer, but humor me all the same).

On the one hand, I’m glad people feel at ease enough to sleep in church. It means they are at home. Besides, if someone is so tired that they need the church service to catch up on some sleep, then we have done them a great service, pun intended.

Rest. That’s good.

But sometimes we fall asleep in church for one of two reasons. One: it’s boring. And two: we’re bored.

There’s a difference between the two and neither of them are forms of rest.

I was speaking with a friend last night and she was telling me about some classes in theology she is taking at a graduate school. She’s a part time student and is sacrificing both time and money to take these classes. She’s there because she wants to be there.

But the professors and the school are blowing it. Because she’s a part time student the classes she takes are held one day a week for three hours per session. Three hours in one go. That’s strike one.

On top of it, one professor insists everyone show up on time (so as to honor his time) but then he consistently goes overtime at the end, disrespecting their time. That’s strike two.

What’s more: the professor’s mode of education is…lecture and “let me show you how to do it.” When there is a little bit of discussion, the professor uses it as occasion to see if the students know the “right answer” instead of using it to generate more wondering. That’s strike three. 

Finally, the professor has given them learning assignments outside of class time, so what does he give them for homework? Attendance at a special…lecture. Yep, that’s right: more lecturing.

That next pitch was a bean right on the noggin.

Good call, knucklehead. Don’t you know anything about effective learning? My friend told me that when these two classes are over she will seek another school for study. I don’t blame her.

I know the example above is not about “church” but it is apparent to me how the situation parallels what many church-goers often experience on Sunday mornings.

I cannot tell you how many churches use exclusively these two modes of formation on Sundays: singing and preaching (lecturing). The singing happens in two chunks (that are too long, by the way) and the preaching goes for AT LEAST 45 minutes.

Oy vey. Get over yourself already, preach. You’re not all that. I don’t care how good you are at public speaking.

This is something I love about the church we attend. Our pastor knows the value of creative communication and interactive forms of learning.  

The church should be a place of engagement and interaction. The church should value time, because time is precious. Thought should be put into how we make the most of the time we have together. If we can make the experience hands-on, that is wonderful!

That said, I have also seen instances where church leadership does a good job of providing hands-on kinds of experiences…churches where the leaders put creative thought into how to use the time…but these efforts are met with a general malaise.

I liken it to how we often approach air travel nowadays. Air travel is a wonderful thing. How incredible that we can fly from place to place like birds!

Yet, we’ve grown used to it and so we feel entitled to the marvel of it. So, now there arises competition as to who can offer the best perks for the cheapest price. If even the slightest portion of service is out of whack, we complain.

Sometimes boredom in church is due to our own deadened affections. No matter how thoughtfully leaders prepare, the response is…yawn.

The church should be a people of quickened affections, a people sitting on the edge of our seats waiting eagerly to hear a word from God saying, “Go!”   The church should be a people who are ready for action. Maybe we should take away the chairs and pews and just ask people to stand as if at-the-ready.

Just think what is possible if we all bring this kind of soft, pliable heart to our gatherings…if we say, “I want to be on time because I don’t want to miss a moment of this precious fellowship!” and “I don’t want to leave this place, because the time we have together is so, so sweet.”

8.

The English word “church” is a translation of a Greek word that is “ekklesia”.  Some people spell it with two c’s but it should really be spelled with two k’s. More later on why this matters.

At any rate, the word “ekklesia” is sometimes translated as “gathering” or “assembly.” It is a compound of two words: “ek” and “kaleo”. “Ek” means “out of” and “kaleo” means “to call” or “to name”.

The word “ekklesia” carries the notion that the church is “a people called out” to be with Jesus…together. Hence, the gathering. Jesus calls Peter, James and John to be with him. When they are all together, they are gathered, assembled.

He calls more people: Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew and Simon the Zealot. All in all, he called twelve to be his closest companions.

But he called out more people, too. Too many to count. They are all his disciples. And they are all “named”. The “naming” is like a magnet, drawing us to the side of Christ. He calls us by name and then he gives us a new name. The “new naming” is the experience of receiving a new identity now that we are in the company of Jesus and other Jesus followers. Jesus creates a new family with a new family name. He redefines us.

No matter the number of people gathered, the pattern is what matters. He calls us out to be with him and with each other. He does not call us out to be with just him and he does not call us out to be with just each other. He calls us out to be with him together.

But there’s more. I have only mentioned one movement in this “out of” pattern.  Broadly speaking, the church is a people who are simply “out of” one space into another.

The first part of the pattern is when Jesus calls us out to be with him and others. The second part of the pattern is when Jesus calls us out of that space into the space of those who do not follow Jesus yet. In the first movement, he makes us his disciples. In the second movement he names us as apostles.

The word “apostle” carries with it the notion of being “spread out.” This is when the church is “called out” from a “gathered” form to a “scattered” form. Both movements matter. Without gathering, the scattering has no substance and cannot be sustained. But, without spreading out…we are just another holy huddle.

That is why I love the word “ekklesia”. It carries both sides of this coin. It means that we are called “out of” darkness into light (to be gathered to Jesus) but it also means we are called “out of” ourselves and into the world of others (scattering so that more people may be gathered to Jesus and scattered for him).

This is the same rhythm that resides in God’s self. God himself is ek-static. He is the out-of-himself One, eternally “self-emptying”. It’s a portrait of joy. The Father leaps out of himself into the Son and the Son reciprocates. They are gathered to one another such that they are One, but they scatter themselves like seeds cast into one another. They bear the fruit of the seed that is cast: divinity.

Then, the Son, one with the Father, leaps into our world in the person of Jesus. Notice that he is “sent”, “scattered” like a seed in the earth. He is “out of” himself, ek-static.

Those called by Jesus respond to his leap. They leap to him, leaving everything to follow him. We replicate Triune relationship in this new way of being with Jesus. So…

…just as the Father sent the Son to the world, Jesus sends those he has gathered to be his presence in the world. He calls us “out of” ourselves, to leap into the world of others.  We become an “apostolic church”, which is to say a “spread out gathering”.

He does this by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

I believe the church should be apostolic. I believe we should be a “spread out gathering”. We image God when we live this way.

9.

I believe the church should take risks.

I remember talking with a pastor in Madrid who was afraid his church was going to fold. I asked him why he thought this and the conversation turned to the fact that they were on the brink of losing their building.

I said, “Why are you worried about that? The church doesn’t need a building to be the church. In fact, maybe this building is something that’s keeping you from really being the church.”

Jesus had a church that didn’t have a building. Jesus gathered people.

If it is true that the church doesn’t need its own property to thrive then it follows that the church can be a risky bunch.

So what if our money and land are taken? The kingdom of God is greater than money and land. The church, as a sign of the kingdom, has the opportunity to demonstrate that reality.

Don’t fear losing money and land, Church. That is not your power. Your power is in walking humbly, working for justice, showing mercy. Money and land are incidental to those purposes. If you need money and land to fulfill those purposes, God is big enough to provide it. If you lack money and land, you can still be about the work of the kingdom of God.

So, take risks. Dream big dreams. Enjoy thinking of new ways to be a redemptive presence in the world.

10.

Just think of all the beautiful people all around us every day. Take a moment now to see their faces in your mind’s eye.

See the color of their skin. Those colors are good. Every color…good.

See their eyes…windows to a soul so deep we can never fathom its depth. Every soul…beloved.

Some of those faces have wrinkles. The wrinkles tell stories of joy and pain, community and loneliness, loss and gain.

There is also that face of the baby: fresh and wide-eyed with wonder. The baby giggles at strange sounds and new shapes.

See all the faces: children, teenagers, college students, twenty-somethings…

…accountants and teachers, builders and boxers, planners and waiters.

Some people are rich, others are poor. Some are gentle and quiet; others are bold and loud. Some are pioneers, while others are settlers.

Everyone is beautiful and everyone has a unique gift to offer others.

The church should be a place where everyone is accepted and loved, a place where everyone can know and be known.

The church should not be a place where everyone has to be just like everyone else. Unity is only valuable in so far as we possess diversity. If we are not diverse, our so-called unity is only conformity.

We like to think of ourselves as appreciative of diversity but I think we have a long way to go to truly appreciate it. Too often we think of appreciating diversity as “I’ll leave you alone and you leave me alone and that is how we will live together in peace.”

But that is not peace. Peace is not “being left alone.” Peace is friendship. Friendship doesn’t leave one alone. Friendship embraces one another.

That is the tricky part. The embrace. The playing together.

I believe the church should be a place of playing together, a place of friendship. If that “place” is not in a church building, that’s okay: it’s in the kingdom of God.

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”  (Revelation 21:22-27)