My heart wasn’t in it…
Have you ever had to watch one of those policy and procedure videos for a job? You know the ones that over-dramatize the basic elements of work and safety to “equip” you to handle yourself properly no matter the emergency or circumstance? Yeah – think about those right now. How do you approach your time with them?
My guess is this: your head is there – because you probably had a quiz on procedures afterward – but your heart is nowhere to be found.
Church.
That, too often, is where many weekly attenders are when we start talking about “What is Church?” Their heads are in the game – thinking, asking questions, bringing an offering, taking communion, nodding at the appropriate times in the sermon – but the heart did not quite make it to the gathering.
During football games (your choice of College or Pro or Amateur) our heart rates spike, adrenaline surges, dopamine fires hard and fast in our brains, and we engage in a manic way that can only be described as passion. In those instances we’ve been prone to yell things at a referee we would never say to someone in a quiet room or to their face. Your heart is in the game – but your head checked out when the crowd roared for the first time.
Worship – and being the Church (the Body of Christ) – requires both your head and heart. Just coming and sitting in orderly rows, following an orderly order, and being quiet at the right times does not define us, Church. It defines the base minimum activity required to call ourselves ‘church’ in the Western Culture.
Church, here are words that epitomize the maximum possibilities for a church: hospitality, peacemaking, forgiveness, compassion. These words express themselves in the person or group that are intent on simply imitating Christ in this world. These aspects of imitating Christ are not things that can be done in secret… meaning they are not something that occur only inside us.
These things exist when we gather, when we move and speak from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us. If these things sound a little measly or too small to really make a difference in whether or not a church is maximizing itself, simply look at the opposite. If we ever wonder if hospitality is important, let’s try having ZERO hospitality. Stoney silence and broken eye contact. Will that maximize any of our efforts? No. I see the arms of Jesus as welcoming, and protecting, and embracing.
Peacemaking. Striving for peace, and the joy of understanding. They sound nice, but without them making an appearance, we are nowhere near the maximization of the church and what it was built on from the very beginning.
John Piper writes this as a part of his on-going series of posts for Desiring God:
“Churches are dying today because they are not doing anything which the world should look at and say: ‘There is evidence that God is real and that he is glorious.’ Many churches have forgotten why they exist: namely, to do good deeds in the name of Jesus so that people will be moved to give God glory (Matthew 5:16). And when a church forgets that it exists for others and for God, it becomes in-grown and self-satisfied and can go on year after year like a social club with a religious veneer. But its life is ebbing away, and people are no longer saying: ‘Look at all their good deeds and the humble spirit of love in which they are done; their God must be a glorious God of encouragement.'”
What has the world to say about us?
Matthew 16: 13-18 13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” 15Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. 18Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (NLT)
This verse gives us a clue about what is supposed to be happening with that Church that Jesus is founding: ATTACKING HELL. The gates of hell will not stand against us – are we moving, living, breathing, forming ranks, and charging into those places where we are needed most? Because those gates will not hold us back. Let’s stop pretending we are hedged in.