The Church is an organism that grows best in an alien society.
C. Stacey Woods
We must remember, as a Church, as a community of believers we are one organism. We are to be, as Christ desires and as Paul tells us, a body with Christ at the head. As a body we do the normal body things, we check for bumps and bruises, scrapes and scratches. We feed our body, we exercise our body and generally take care of it (or not). If we do care for our body it functions at peak performance, ready to run jump and stretch its way into a busy world, never getting winded, never getting tired. But…if we feed our body bad food, if we get lazy and spend all our time on the couch, if we simply neglect our body we will not be ready for the rigors of the world. We will get winded, we won’t be able to keep up, we will fall behind at each step and we put our body in jeopardy of being sent to the hospital for some real care.
Our church is just like our physical bodies. If we feed it well, a diet of prayer scripture fellowship and study, it will perform well. If we fail to feed it these things and instead feast on a diet of secular radio, TV, books, crude jokes, bad attitudes, and stuff that leads us astray, we will fall behind and not be able to do the basic functions of a church (body). You see, our sanctuary, our house of worship is nothing more than a restaurant for the body called the church. We hope it is a fine food restaurant and not just a fast for restaurant. Occasionally someone will wander in that has never been to our establishment and we will feed them with the same thing that is on the menu for us, but we need to be sure we have milk for the young ones and meat for those with real teeth for the Gospel. But the important thing to remember is that this house we come to once, twice or three times a week is only a stopping point for our body. It is a place to be fed, a place to apply some medication to parts of the body that need it, but the real work of this body is done in that alien society that lies right outside the door. The question we must ask ourselves is… Is the society outside the doors alien to us or is the one inside the doors alien to us? Are we more comfortable in the world or the sanctuary? Can we operate better out there in that world than we can in our house of worship? What makes you more nervous, telling someone about a movie you saw last week or a passage of scripture you read this morning? Asking to borrow some spare change from a friend for a soda or asking that friend if you can pray with them? Passing someone by in the hallway that seems distressed or taking the time to listen to them? Where are we most comfortable? The answer to that question will tell you where you are considered an alien… Are you an alien in this world of ours or in your Christian community? You cannot be both.
We must remember, as a Church, as a community of believers we are one organism. We are to be, as Christ desires and as Paul tells us, a body with Christ at the head. As a body we do the normal body things, we check for bumps and bruises, scrapes and scratches. We feed our body, we exercise our body and generally take care of it (or not). If we do care for our body it functions at peak performance, ready to run jump and stretch its way into a busy world, never getting winded, never getting tired. But…if we feed our body bad food, if we get lazy and spend all our time on the couch, if we simply neglect our body we will not be ready for the rigors of the world. We will get winded, we won’t be able to keep up, we will fall behind at each step and we put our body in jeopardy of being sent to the hospital for some real care.
Our church is just like our physical bodies. If we feed it well, a diet of prayer scripture fellowship and study, it will perform well. If we fail to feed it these things and instead feast on a diet of secular radio, TV, books, crude jokes, bad attitudes, and stuff that leads us astray, we will fall behind and not be able to do the basic functions of a church (body). You see, our sanctuary, our house of worship is nothing more than a restaurant for the body called the church. We hope it is a fine food restaurant and not just a fast for restaurant. Occasionally someone will wander in that has never been to our establishment and we will feed them with the same thing that is on the menu for us, but we need to be sure we have milk for the young ones and meat for those with real teeth for the Gospel. But the important thing to remember is that this house we come to once, twice or three times a week is only a stopping point for our body. It is a place to be fed, a place to apply some medication to parts of the body that need it, but the real work of this body is done in that alien society that lies right outside the door. The question we must ask ourselves is… Is the society outside the doors alien to us or is the one inside the doors alien to us? Are we more comfortable in the world or the sanctuary? Can we operate better out there in that world than we can in our house of worship? What makes you more nervous, telling someone about a movie you saw last week or a passage of scripture you read this morning? Asking to borrow some spare change from a friend for a soda or asking that friend if you can pray with them? Passing someone by in the hallway that seems distressed or taking the time to listen to them? Where are we most comfortable? The answer to that question will tell you where you are considered an alien… Are you an alien in this world of ours or in your Christian community? You cannot be both.
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