I have believed something with clarity. For a long time. It had been spiritually and emotionally taxing to make my case, day in and day out, even to my own husband. For a while I let go. And I forgot. Something that Carmen said made me remember.
Why do we not look for another church? Because looking for a church to coddle me or make me feel good about community and fill my nostalgia cup is not what I was made for.
I have seen beyond borders. I have felt and lived fully, in times of abundance as well as in times of drought due to exacerbated tolerance.
Loneliness doesn’t fright me. Loneliness among people is what drains me.
I long for likeminded companions. Not to be carried by them, but to run the race alongside.
We are the church. I am not seeking to become a member somewhere. I am pursuing God’s presence.
This talk about community reminded me (yet again) of my favorite job of nearly 5 years at Apple. I have changed teams, people came and went, products, managers changed over and over. Yet that has been an amazing constant in my life. It had not changed in essence. Whoever remained stayed in order to grow, to give their best. We didn’t stay for community, to be part of a cool group, repressing a cool brand. We were responsible adults keeping a job, getting paid, developing, learning, advancing our careers. We had higher goals, bigger than ourselves and we worked hard. The relationship that sustained us all was personal and individual, a contract between me and the company. The lateral connections were a bonus, it was complementary.
Apply that to church. It’s an easy concept. Relentlessly pursue God. Be right with Him first and foremost. The horizontal relationships, the body of Christ, the community, the church, are the result. We’ve been approaching it backwards.
We could stay home, isolated, like the unemployed, complaining that there is nothing out there for us. Becoming more disillusioned and bitter. Not all of us are entrepreneurial and have the knowhow to found a business (in this analogy: a church). But maybe, just maybe, the classic church is not what we are called to pour life into. But start building relationships: humble, simple, with the unsuspecting and the uncommon. “Wherever two or three are gathered in His name…”