The Church was never meant to be a building.
One of my favorite pastors always ends his sermons by saying, “Go be the church.” That doesn’t seem like a particularly innovative or groundbreaking statement unless you really think about it.
As Americans, we tend to go to church. If I were to ask you about church, my question would likely be, “Where do you go to church?” Church has become a place. It’s a building with carpet, windows, electricity, and water. It’s a place to congregate and worship.
When we think about being the church, what does that look like?
I have a co-worker who is a woman of deep faith and she and I bear witness to one another often about God working in our lives. This week, she sent me a sermon she wrote, years ago, when she was working in a prison ministry. She didn’t go to seminary. As far as I know, she has no special Biblical training, but the Holy Spirit was clearly at work, because her message was absolutely awesome, timely and it touched my soul, not to mention she was sharing it with women who were in jail.
She clearly knows how to be the church.
I have a cousin, who is also a woman of devout faith, who has suffered deep tragedy and loss in her life. Yet, almost every day, she boldly posts on social media a beautiful picture of something growing in her garden along with an intricate story that anchors it to Jesus.
She knows what it means to be the church.
I have a friend who is a sheep farmer. I haven’t seen her in couple of years now, but almost daily, she posts pictures from her farm on social media. Sometimes there are Bible verses. Sometimes there are short inspirational stories, but always they are a reflection of the God who she worships.
She also knows what it means to be the church.
On Election Day, I sent my mom a blog post I read about intentionally making a choice to add fuel to the dumpster fire of politics and social media or becoming a fire extinguisher. She shared the post to her Facebook page.
She knows what it means to be the church.
As we enter into a season of thanks alongside a season of runoffs, some Godly women in my life, have reminded me that as Christians, the call to be the church is every bit as important as the call to go to church. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do to.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 😊