Do We Go To Church Or Are We The Church?

Many times I stop and I think about "church life" and the state of the "church." Many times I ask myself these questions: "what are we doing?" – "What’s this all about?" "Just what is this thing called the church?" Have you ever asked yourself these questions? Well I do. You see, we have thousands of church buildings throughout our country, most of which are empty during the week. Then they fill up once or sometime twice on Sunday’s and possibly once more in the middle of the week, while people in the surrounding neighborhoods live and die without God and when they die they are cast unto an eternal Hell! And I ask the question, "What in the world are we doing?"

What makes us think that going to a building, singing a few songs, listening to somebody preach and giving some money is going to change the world or fulfill the Great Commission or impact the community or threaten the kingdom of darkness?—Even if we sing at the top of our lungs, even if we raise our hands and stomp our feet and run aisles, even if the pastor preaches gets load and preaches until his throat is hoarse—We still must ask ourselves, "How is this affecting the world?" "What impact is this having to those lost souls out in the world?" No wonder the devil pays so little attention to our in house antics. He don’t mind it at all when we swing from the chandlers or roll around on the carpet or laugh like a hyena. As long as we keep it within the four walls the devil is smiling.

Our present state is a very poor representation of the glorious Church for which Jesus died. We hardly demonstrate the power and majesty associated with being His body, the "fullness of Him who fills everything in every way" (Eph 1:23) Our corporate potential in Jesus is mighty—We are called to be His fullness on the earth—yet our realization of this potential is meager.

The simple act of moving from a big meeting in a church "building" into a small meeting in a "home" will not change us in the least. The physical location or structure in which we meet is not the primary issue. The shift in our mentality is the primary issue. Do we go to church or are we the Church? Do we go to a building to watch a religious performance—or, If we are more spiritual, to participate in a religious service—or are we salt and light in our communities, fishers of lost men and women, witnesses for Jesus on a divine mission to rescue the doom and the damned? Which is it?

If we go to a building, let it be to meet with the Lord in intimacy and power; to be stirred to action and encouraged in our faith, and to strengthen our common bond in Jesus. If we go to a building, let it be to magnify and praise the Lord, then to go into our neighborhoods and workplaces and schools and the streets to continue to magnify and praise Him and make Him known there!

This will require a major change in most of our spiritual thinking. This will change our spiritual orientation, this will force us out of just merely attending meetings in "church" buildings once or twice a week and into building relationships as "the Church" in homes and in neighborhoods, in jail houses and anywhere lost souls are at. This change of spiritual orientation will force us to be the "Church" wherever we live! Amen! Let’s do it!

-Igy