Church. Interesting word.

To some it is a place to go. To some it is a place to avoid. To others it is an identity; a people to be. To Paul and Jesus, it seemed to be the latter. Paul wrote to the church in such-and-such city (hardly one building) and Jesus called his church a bride (last time I checked my wife was a person). But to most in our society, church is a thing. We go to church. We plant churches. We build churches. We choose which church to go to (often based on the quality of the preaching, singing, or children’s ministry). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be. It becomes so when we go to church to avoid being the church. (By the way, a friend of mine, Jonathan, helped identify categories of those associated with church.)

There is a large percentage of people who do just that. They feel that if they faithfully attend the right church (as defined by them or their culture) then they have met the requirements of being a good Christian. Typically, their definition of church is an established building with an established name within an established denomination (or association). There must be preaching and singing and tithes collected and paid pastors to pray and children’s church and youth ministry and, and, and… (in fact, this definition is so ingrained in them that they feel there must be something wrong, or cultish, with a Christian who does not attend such a church). In addition to attending such a church, they feel in order to be a great Christian they must serve the church in some internal capacity and join a small group.

The Christian equation is this: Attend + Serve + Tithe + Small Group = Good Christian.

But here is the subtle deception. They feel that since they have met the requirements, they are free from being the church. They are free from true engagement with Jesus. They are free from true engagement with other people. They are free from pursing their identity as priests and saints. They are free from real life-changing discipleship. They are free from seeking God’s healing justice (not judgment) in this world and society. They are free from radically living and serving and loving and following the at times insane leading of Jesus in their daily lives as they interact with the world around them. They are free from taking up their cross daily. They are free from the demands and persecution that Jesus promised to hi followers. They are free from BEING the church, the bride, and the dynamic-life-changing-people God wants to restore in order that he can restore others through them. They are free from all of this because they park in a certain parking lot to go into a certain building at a certain time to sing certain songs and to listen to a certain man (in most churches) talk about certain topics using a certain book, and to give a certain amount (the faithful give 10% of their pre-tax income), and repeat this process week after week, month after month, year after year until they die and have entirely succeeded in avoiding being the church simply because they went to church.

There are some that are saying “enough!” They feel like there has to be more. They sense that this church-thing system is stifling them from truly being the church. They desire to be his bride without all the trappings of the church-thing. They are tired of attending church sit-n-watch. They want the radical restorative community life they read about in the New Testament. They don’t want to be counted among those who ATTEND in order to AVOID. They want to a community that helps them embrace their identity as Jesus’ bride. All the things the others want to avoid, they want—and they want it so bad they are willing to go to great lengths to get it. Often, they abandon their family’s traditional church-thing, self-ostracizing themselves from friends and family who don’t understand. Most of the time, there are no other alternatives and so they are left with an unfair choice: continue living in the church-thing tension or stop going, both of which are internally painful—and often lonely—decisions.

The there are some who are trying to build an alternative to the church-thing. A few blogs ago I compared this process to my son and I building our tree house. We are trying to dream of a third way. The options of going or not going are not good enough. We need community. We need others. But we need a different—some would argue better—approach to being the church. What will it look like? We don’t know. But it will not be for those who want to ATTEND to AVOID. It will be for those who want to ENCOUNTER in order to EMBRACE.

What of those who want to avoid being the church? I would point them to the yellow pages and they can choose a church they want to attend. A search-tip for those wanting to avoid: the bigger, the better.