“The church is an assembly of people summoned only by God’s call. A covenant community […] whose pilgrimage has been sustained by God’s call and faithfulness […] Described in the New Testament as a new temple and a new kingdom […] So the church is a people on a pilgrimage. The church continues what Jesus began to do and teach […] to be the visible sign to the world of God’s grace that has come to us in Christ.”
Learning Theology through the Church’s Worship, Dennis Okholm (abbreviated elements from pages 183-184)
Place. Where We Find Existence.
By nature, we are spatial creatures. We tend to use our geography as an identity marker that defines our purpose and status. Our geographical placement gives us our sense of belonging and grounds us. It helps us assess where we came from, where we are, and where we hope to go. Place acts as our compass by giving us a sense of direction. As a former cross-cultural worker location meant everything in my world. Placement on the field was the goal—the where God wanted me was the first question asked by those wanting to place me for God’s work. Being placed in the world meant I’d arrived and had a purpose. But the truth is we all think in terms of placement every day. Often our first questions when meeting others sound like this—where do you work, where do you go to church, where is your passion, where are you from, where are you going for vacation, where do you go to the doctor or dentist, where are you going today, where is God working in your life? At the end of the day, we think a lot about our relationship with placement.
The where in which we exist consumes a great deal of our mental energy and seems quite significant in making sense of life and where we belong in it.
Even more relevant in this season and on a smaller scale, Christians find ourselves asking what do we do if we can’t meet at church? Where do we corporately worship, where do practice Eucharist, where do we fellowship or study the Bible together? Where do we fundamentally live out being the church, how will we be identified if we can’t meet in our church building?
Well, what if the place, the where, needs to be reimagined?
As humans, we are bound by the earth, we are created out of earth and we are created to tend the earth–we are earthy people by nature. Yet when we encounter the risen Christ, our bounded-ness begins to be loosened as we are made into new creations under Christ. The way in which we relate to creation and our created nature begins undergoing a transformation. This change ushers us into a new identity, a new way of living, a new kingdom, a new redemptive culture, a new people group, a new sense of belonging. Our personhood itself becomes a whole new place altogether—a holy dwelling of the living God. We can not think about our ordinary lives in our former, pre-Christ, way of thinking. Things have changed. Places have been altered, primarily the spaces within our soul.
You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? […] God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (MSG)
To me, this implies that the where we are worrying about doesn’t live within boundaries defined by maps or buildings. The place that now matters is the space in which our bodies have become. We, having become the dwelling place of the Most Holy of Holies, means where we go and as we go is the very place of importance. It is the fertile ground that births the movement of God’s Kingdom advancing here on earth. N.T. Wright describes Jesus as the new temple–the place where heaven and earth met. (Simply Good News) And because of the cross, the Good News lives in us. We are walking temples of redemption and reconciliation in the midst of a crumbling world. Our creatureliness is no longer separate from the realm of God, through Christ we have access to the work God is doing as he joins heaven and earth through us. (John 15 & 1 Corinthians 2:10-16) We’ve become a mobile place for the Holy Spirit to live out God’s work and healing while extending God’s love to others in tangible and real ways. It is out of that place, Christ in us, in which we live with purpose, identity, place, value, and hope for us and our world.
Grace to Reimagine
I believe we, the church, are in a season of grace to reimagine our existence. If you are in a hurry to return to “normal” church-life, may I ask you to pause for a moment and ask yourself why? I’m not implying we are all “doing” church wrong, but I am suggesting, we might be, or maybe we just need to rethink or readjust our vision of the church to mirror God’s intentions.
Some of us are comfortably chained to the church merely existing in an inanimate building. Some of us are bound by cultural (not Biblical) traditions and are unwilling to change even though the gospel is a message of transformation. Some of us are happy being spoon-fed bits and pieces of the Bible or good-advice and have never learned how to read or discern the Bible. Some of us are lying to ourselves about personal sin and need to repent and surrender to God’s reign and love in our lives. Some of us haven’t experienced grace from other Christians and therefore don’t know how to offer it. Some of us have never talked to someone different than ourselves or prayed for another person of a different faith or background. It’s time to be honest with ourselves and God. It’s time to embrace this season of grace and reimagine what it means to allow God to be Lord of Lord and King of Kings of our lives so that he may live in and through us so that we may be living places of hope.
Reimagine the Greater Image
The beauty of being the dwelling place of God’s Spirit is that we are not bound by where we meet, nor can our family get too big. God’s Kingdom can expand beyond our imaginations—not only in our interior spaces, but in the breadth of our external touch as the kingdom expands in the lives of others. This is the Church becoming the Kingdom here on earth. As we live inwardly and outwardly united as God’s people, we are visible signs of God’s grace and our geographical location doesn’t matter for God’s remnant expands the globe. The Kingdom of God continues to advance through us as we are faithful to the pilgrimage in which Christ has started and commissioned us to complete.
Our view of church and church-life is changing. Our culture as well as COVID are just a couple of reasons forcing this change. We don’t need to fear reimagining church, faith, or even our worldview. The world around us will change for good and bad, but God remains steadfast in his promise to change it for good through you and me. We must remember, that God’s business is about changing the world, so we shouldn’t fight it. I encourage us to embrace this season as a way in which God is longing to grow and mature his church.
So rather than panicking or thinking the world is falling apart, may we rather consider how this season is God commissioning us toward being more intentional and others-focused, pilgrims continuing Christ’s good work, gospel-focused, Spirit-filled temples lighting up the world in seemingly dark times for God’s glory to pierce through.
Reflective Questions
We truly begin living when we allow God’s Spirit to live fully in and through us. If you’d like to think further about what it means to have Christ living in you or how to reimagine church, below are a few questions to help you pray, journal, discuss, or reflect about it.
- Take time to consider what it means to have Christ in you, and being the temple for God’s Spirit. Read these verses to help. Galatians 2:20-21 and 1 Corinthians 2:10-16) How does that make you feel? Is there space for him to dwell in your heart or is it filled too full with your desires, wants, fears, and concerns?
- What excites you about being a place for God’s Kingdom here on earth? What causes you fear or worry?
Church
- Spend time reading about how the early church lived out the gospel throughout history. What did church-life look like and how has it changed over the years–what’s been good or bad?
- How do you see your church routine changing? What’s been good or challenging? Spend some time learning how churches gather or serve in other countries or cultures. From what you learn, what might be helpful for your local church in this season for growth?
- Do you think God is asking you to change your view of what church might look like? How? Who could you share this with?
- If your church isn’t meeting in person, what other ways have they been connecting? Are there ways you could encourage spiritual connection within your church family or help leadership to think outside the box or location? Are there new ways in which you could reach out beyond place and be the hands and feet of Christ?
- Have you considered that church communities in other countries have never been allowed to gather due to political or religious reasons? How do they live out being the church? What could we learn from them?
Join me and others along the wandering way by subscribing at the bottom of the website. We are all in a unique season of life where we have an opportunity to grow together and seek God’s wisdom on how to move forward as his church. If this blog has encouraged you in any way, would you be willing to share it with someone else as an encouragement? As always, I am thankful for you, and please reach out to me anytime.
