Lately, I've been thinking about "the church."  In this day and age, cultural pressures combined with information overload and numerous ways to distract ourselves make it difficult to understand what church is truly all about.   Those of us who may have grown up in a church know that the Bible explains  that the church is God's building, with Jesus as its foundation; that Christ loves the church, and gave himself for her;  that the church is the body of Christ, with Jesus himself at its head.   OK, I’ve got this part etched into my brain, and I even believe it on some mental level.  What “good” Christian wouldn’t acknowledge these facts?     

But to others, church represents organized religion, or a manmade establishment at its worst: institutional, hierarchical, ritualistic, over-emotional, and always asking for money.  Others use it more for it's quality as a social organization - a great place to meet  seemingly nice people with who one can enjoy an agreeable Sunday lunch with, or maybe even a pleasant golf outing.  Yet others seem to find it still suitable as a place of worship, of solitude - a place to commune with God himself.    

An ominous sign of our postmodern culture is that there is a group of “Christians” who are talking about not even needing church anymore – a kind of “churchless Christianity.”  Disenchanted with [insert your church’s name here], many are talking about the need for church at all!  Today, it appears that spirituality is hot, but religion is not.  The church seems irrelevant to life in the “real” world, it’s sometimes oppressive, and generally lame.   Some people will say that they like Jesus, but not the church.   This thinking has given rise to a whole group of people, armed with all types of religious information, who may even call themselves Christians,  and who see church itself as unnecessary in the life of a Christian believer.  They'd rather discuss spirituality over a cinnamon-spiced latte at Starbucks, and seem to want fellowship without commitment; they want to learn from each other, without being taught by anyone.

So what is church? A big question, to be sure. 

Well, one thing I know it’s not is a voluntary association of separated, isolated, “saved” individuals.   In our individualistic, “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” American culture, we as individuals seem to have the sole responsibility for how our lives turn out.  Therefore, we tend towards self-centered motivations and behaviors;  our entire population sometimes appears to be a population of individuals. And we are applying this concept to many organizations... including church.

Well, that’s just wrong.  And I know that you didn’t need me to tell you that.

A theologian who has been a great influence in my life and thinking is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor executed by the Nazi’s in 1945.  A brilliant mind, Bonhoeffer pointed out in one of his earliest writings that “there is only one religion in the world in which the idea of community is an integral element of its nature, and that is Christianity.”  He develops this thought from his assertion that the church is the presence of Christ in the same way that Christ is the presence of God.    The church is a so-called “community of the cross”, which contains within itself a paradoxical contradiction of representing utmost solitude (Christ on the cross, who died apart from presence of God his father – truly and utterly alone) and the closest community – specifically the Christian church community, modeled after Christ’s close community with his disciples.  Bonhoeffer develops the idea, then, that if Christ’s death on the cross is ultimately part of a definitional reality of who Christ is (i.e an atoning sacrifice), then the community of the church is the necessary definitional reality of what “Christianity” is – a community where Christ himself is found.   I’m plumbing into some theological depth here, and I’m not including some of the intermediate premises by which Bonhoeffer makes his argument.  However, I don’t want this to turn in to the type of heady blog which forces you to take a nap halfway through.

So, the church, then, is a necessary and foundational idea of Christianity – without it, you can’t even be a “Christian”.  That strikes me as harsh, perhaps, to our friends who prefer to meet on Sunday mornings at Starbucks, or have ‘church’ on a golf course, but I see it as true.   How desperately do we as “Christians” need to return to this understanding of the church?  The church is the core definition and identity of the community of the cross which is comprised of all of those who are in Christ.  And, let’s face it … we must admit that deep down within our “selves” we acknowledge this, don’t we?  Our need for relationship is as critical as our need for oxygen, and without it, we will wither and die.  God knows this, because it turns out that he created us specifically for relationship.  (Remember?)

By the way – Bonhoeffer’s ideas expressed above came from his 300-plus page dissertation for his Ph.D., which he obtained at age 21.   The name of his dissertation?   “Sanctorum Communio”, literally… “The Communion of the Saints.”   

See you in church!

Mark