What is Church?

I can remember sitting in Sunday School as a 4 year old and being taught
that "the church" was God's People, wherever they gathered. That was
what I was told, but through the years "Church" became defined by practical
experience of being something much more mechanical and artificial.

I soon learned that "Church" as it was practiced was not so much a
living organism, but rather a stale organization. It was a business based upon
a formal hierarchy; our product was Jesus, our customers; were believers who
had to give according to code and attend a certain number of meetings to stay
in good standard. You were expected not only to attend, but also to
"Volunteer" so that the business would grow, although we always told
ourselves that our business was to reach unbelievers.

I learned that "Church" was a complex spider web of laws. These
laws were to be found in the Bible. The particular important laws were decided
by either the Church board or the Church Pastor.

Every church I ever attended had a liturgy; an order of service, in the more
formal churches this was written out for you in a bulletin, in the ones that
considered themselves "more spiritual" the liturgy was just known
with the key elements projected on the wall by overhead. In the more formal
church we dressed-up more, with suit and tie and sang songs out of hymnals; in
the “more spiritual” churches we still dressed-up, but out of choice to “honor
God”, rather than by compulsion and we sang our songs “more freely” because
they weren’t written on paper, but shone on the wall. In the more formal church
we had a choir, in the “more spiritual church” we had a worship leader, who was
like the Mick Jagger of Church because he fronted the Praise band. In the more
formal church the songs were old, tried and true; in the “more spiritual”
churches they were new and often less true. One thing all the church structures
had in common; Church  was about how many
services you attended and how much you gave, either financially or personally
through work to the church.

Today, by God’s grace and direction, we have gone back to being “The Church”
as identified when I was a child. We are God’s People and Church happens
wherever we happen to be, sometimes in the most uncommon of situations – just
like often happened with Jesus.

When we gather, we may or may not sing; we seldom preach, there is still an
order of service as much as we try to break that pattern. Attendance,
participation and giving are out of desire not compulsion. We have no programs
or formal “ministries”. Each member of the body is a minister and participates
in the service as God leads and may function through any of the Spiritual
Gifts, which are seen as function rather than position. Our model is the New
Testament Church, rather than the religious tardyons of men. We are not “More
Spiritual” than any other form of Church; we are true to who God has called us
to be. It is exiting to be more Organic; a living organism that functions
without board, horizontal hierarchy. We don’t go to church; we are the church.