Always the Bride, Never a Bridesmaid

Did you know that the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality? They grace the entrance to many driveways throughout the state of South Carolina and for some reason they are supposed to be our way of saying welcome. I’ve never understood this. Take a look at the pineapple. It looks like a barbed hand grenade. The spiky little fruit doesn’t necessarily scream hospitality to me.
Anyway. I’ve bee thinking a lot about the church lately. Not a specific church, but the church in general, all of us. In 1 Timothy 2:15 Paul describes it as, “…God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” This portion of a verse has had my mind spinning for a few weeks now. When I set what the church currently seems to look like, what it stands for, next to the words, “the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth”, I can’t help but feel a little foolish.
First of all, these are just my thoughts. I am in no way an expert on the church, I’m 24 years old for crying out loud, these are just observation, mostly questions.
I’m not a big fan of bashing the church. I’ve heard people say, and even myself at one time, “I love Jesus, I’m just not down with the church.” I’ve learned that this is a contradiction. Whatever you do in the name of Jesus you do as the church, whether you call it church or not. When I read through Scripture I find that Jesus seems to be quite fond of the church, even despite its weaknesses and failures. He refers to it as His bride. Most grooms are pretty fond of their brides and probably would take offense at people bashing them. Girls can be very critical of other girl’s weddings, even if it is one of their closest friends. After its over you can hear them talking about what they liked and what they didn’t like, that sort of thing. It seems to be the liberty of the bridesmaid to be critical of the brides wedding. Here’s the thing, we’re always the bride in this story and never the bridesmaid. The church should be something fought for and not against. There is only one hope for this world and it’s not the republicans. It’s not the democrats. It’s not liberals, or conservatives, or even the United States. Nope, it’s not Oprah either. It’s God’s household, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. It seems to me that either you’re just adding to the noise, or you’re doing something about it.
With all that being said when I look at the church right now after reading Paul’s words in 1Timothy, I have to wonder if we have it right. Is this the pillar and foundation of the truth? We’re approaching Easter and I saw on the news a local church getting ready for their Passion play and I couldn’t help but ask, “Is this the best way to communicate what happened at Easter?” I don’t know. It just seems that we so often do a little dance, sing a little song and hope people pay attention. Or there are other churches who are definitely cutting edge, who know how to put on a good show that is very appealing, and very creative, but it sometimes feels like a corporation, or just a good show.
I just see one of two tendencies, both in myself and in others. Either we whore the church out in order to build a kingdom for ourselves, or we enslave it to dusty traditions that really aren’t effective anymore.
Its when I read those words, “the pillar and foundation of the truth”, it just really makes me want to be sure my heart is right. How much of what I’m doing is about me? How much of it is about communicating the realest of realities, the deepest of truths, something that is supposed to change everything?
Church isn’t about buildings, strategies, methods, or rock shows. It’s about people. My little experience with church planting here in the states makes me wonder about a lot of church planter’s motives. A lot of times people plant a church because they are unhappy with the church they’re in. It’s not the way they think church should be done, the music’s not loud enough, or whatever. So they decide to go plant a church where they can do things the way they want to. Then what happens is the church seems to attract other people who are unhappy with their church and how loud the music is and there you have it, a church is planted. Really? I wonder if it starts with a heart for a group of people. I hope to plant a church that reaches those who haven’t been reached. Who have never had the opportunity to complain about how loud the music is.
We have to be careful with how important our identity is to us as a church. I get a little nervous when things are said like, “This is who we are”, or, “This is what we do.” Are we supposed to have an identity? Doesn’t Paul say, “I become all things to all people?” If we’re to have an identity, there it is. Compromise the Gospel? Never. Do what it takes to reach those who haven’t been reached? Yes.
One more thing and I’m done. I promise. I can’t help but wonder, “what if the church was united?” I get really excited when I think about that. What if we weren’t so isolated? What if we understood the idea of the universal church? What if we were organized? We could honestly change the world. Our differences are pretty lame aren’t they? I mean compared to a bleeding world that is looking for something to put their hope in.
I’ll close with this beautiful passage of scripture from Romans 15 and then I’ll be done. “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”