A Simple Definition

Over the years of ministry I considered many different definitions of the church.  Some of them used the language of Scripture.  A few of them probably could have been something borrowed from Wall Street or Hollywood.  And, there was a time when I saw the church as a hospital where everyone was seeking wholeness.  Some were further along than others, but everyone was seeking it.  In the latter years I came to a place of simply speaking of the church as "a spiritual community centered on Christ."

 

I discovered that this definition was not contemporary sounding enough for some and too churchy for others.  Some likely figured it to be too vague and a word which affected folks like water rolling off a duck's back.  And, maybe it is true.  Maybe we all come to our own working definition which enables us to see a dimension of the church which is most important to us.  At times the church seems like the elephant the blind men of the fable touched.  Each touched the same animal and spoke of it differently. 

One of the reasons I have carried this definition for such a long time has to do with a core belief that the church is not an institution to be managed like a business, nor a community civic club working to do good, or even a fellowship of like minded people who enjoy being with one another, but a community which is both visible and invisible.  Its business is not prosperity, but service.  Its essence is not physical but spiritual.  It belongs not to me, or you, or any denomination, but to Christ.  Its health depends not on human creativity, but upon the energy and power of the Holy Spirit.  It is not just a community.  The world has many of them.  It is instead a spiritual community centered on Christ instead of me or anyone else.  There is nothing like it in our midst.  May it always be so.