Church

So, where does this word "church" come from, anyways?
What does it mean?
Is it a building?
Is it the people inside the building?
Is the the belief system of the people inside the building?


Or, is it, perhaps
the people inside the building, working towards one purpose with a fervor: an insuppressible, unquenchable urge. 


Well, the first time the word "church" is ever recorded is, you guessed it, in the Bible!
Jesus says to Peter, "on this rock I will build my ekklesia" (eck-clay-see-ah) Mat 16:18. Some goofy team of translators decided way back when that an appropriate English translation would be "church". As in, the building. 


Nope! The English work "church" can be equated to the Greek word "kuriakee". If you see the German descendant of that Greek word, it's kirche. Now, you can see the English pronounciation, "church". 


One. Major. Problem.
ekklesia  kuriakee
In fact, they are not similar at all. Kuriakee refers to the building. Ekklesia refers to the people.


Indeed, to be a church, as Christ defined it, is not to meet together in a building.


It is to be one people. 
To meet together as a body. 
To act as a body. 


Does your right hand not bandage an ailing left hand? Does a mouth not cry out on a stubbed toe's behalf? Do your organs not survive off of one blood supply? Is there not a universal need for oxygen?


Let me decode what I'm saying:
We need to help one another. We need to cry out in prayer when others are in pain. We need to acknowledge and thank our Life Source. And, a crucial point is often overlooked: we must recognize our need for correction--for healing--for the breath of God, and we must accept such correction through God AND other parts of the ekklesia. 


"For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:4-5

Blending in. 

Something most Christians are very good at.

And why wouldn't we want to be? If no one looks at us differently, talks to us differently, or acts differently around us, that's a good thing, right? 

While there is certainly something to be said about being "among the people" to minister "to the people", Christ has not called us to fit in. Tell me: what about Jesus fit in?

I saw those blank stares! Nothing. Nothing about Christ blended in. From his "abandon all you think you know" attitude, to flipping over tables in the temple, to accusing the Pharisees (the holier-than-thou's of Jesus' time) of not following God, to being killed by the people he came to save.

So, what gives Christians the idea that we need to blend in? Is it popular media? What about the universally human desire to be accepted?

Frankly, I don't think it matters where it came from. What does matter? Our need for change. Do the people around you know you're a Christian? (In parallel, did the people around Christ know he was the Son of God?) Is there evidence in your behavior and your decisions that points towards your salvation? Towards your verbally proclaimed faith? 

OR

Are you just another statistic in the mind of the unbeliever? Are you just another hypocrite? Another phoney? Do you fit every stereotype of "Christians"? Are you "religious" or are you living for Jesus?

Here's your challenge: live differently. Take a risk in favor of the way Christ would do things, regardless of how people will treat you, talk to you, or look at you afterwards. Stand out.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." --Romans 12:2

Living Loud in Silence

af·fec·ta·tion: an effort to appear to have a quality not really or fully possessed.

So, I'm a blogger. Not.

I want to be a blogger. Why? Because I have something to say. 

Yes, I am a Christian; whatever that means to you is, frankly, irrelevant. What that means to me is that the God of the universe--the God who created atoms and galaxies, butterflies and beluga whales--loves me. I am not worth it. I am not perfect. I do not have it "all together". But that doesn't matter.

"Oh goodness, she's preaching at me again..."

This is not another "Christian" blog with an uplifting "Christian" message every day. This is real. I am what many would call "sheltered and naive". Maybe I am; I can never know for sure. But there is one thing I can say with all certainty: I am not fake. 

Speaking of fake, let's talk about church.It's one of those places that most people look at and mutter under their breath about; or they just keep walking.

Church is one of those things that should be real to Christians. Too often, we put on plastic faces and shake hands with one another while our pain, joys, and burdens remain unacknowledged. WHY?!?!?!?

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." --John 13:35

Stop doing church and start being church! How can we expect anyone else to pursue Christ if we, His body, aren't reflecting Him? Why are you even alive if not for His purpose? Stop living affectatiously (see definition above)! Start living Christ. Yes, people will oppose you. A friend of mine told me that "no matter what, if you go after what you f%*#ing love, people will see that and try to bring you down". I don't know about any of you, but I "f%*#ing" love Jesus. 

Go ahead. Try and bring me down. =)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." --John 16:33