Who is Church?

The question "What is Church?" has gotten a lot of attention recently. But what if our culture has hijacked the concept of church and driven it straight off of a metaphorical cliff? Nowadays its more like a book club, a gold mine for old single people looking for a date, the only place to get a free concert (often including smoke machines and fancy lights [alright, seriously, when are we going to find something new to rag on contemporary churches about?]), or just another place to subject yourself to an hour and a half of awkward conversations with people that you barely know and who, if you were honest, you don't really know if you're even interested in getting to know.

The above paragraph has been written and read countless times on Facebook article posts and Youtube videos, but really, where do we go from here? Complaining is much more annoying if not followed up with a suggestion of how to make things better. So here's what I've got:

Daily - not weekly. The church is supposed to be a community. A community cannot live healthily if only a community an hour and a half a week. Your church is composed of the believers who are in your life on a day to day basis. Encourage them, edify them, challenge them, worship God with them, know them. Daily.

Foundation and Motivation: The Gospel. The foundation of the church should never be community, it should not be music (even worship music), it should never be service. The foundation of the church is the gospel. What gospel? The gospel of the Kingdom of God. Be children - the only way that the gospel is LIVED is through realizing the reality of this fantastical story of a God who wants to know and love man. Make this the foundation of all you think and do.

Mission. Christ left his body with a very clear, very pointed mission. We are to find those who are not living in the reality of the gospel and imploring them on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God! (2 Cor 5). People are in bondage and need freedom, freedom that only Christ offers.

Simple on paper, messy in practice. Try it out this week - every day when you know that you will be in the presence of other believers, remember that we are the church, and live out what you know church to be. Bless them, encourage, love. Be the church that you complain about never seeing in the world.