The Dictionary Got One Wrong
It is time to revise the meaning of some key terms as we understand them.
Let’s be honest. The institutional church (IC) has made following Jesus complicated and confusing in many ways. It has tried to make “doing church” an easier formula to follow, but following Jesus can’t be reduced to formulas. Relationships are dynamic and always call for flexibility and adaptation. The process is fluid. Religion, on the other hand, is static.
What we have done is defined so many things in a religious way, making them rigid and unhelpful in real life. We have also used terms to make up a false, imaginary sacred/secular distinction that does more harm than good. We can change that. We are free to redefine important concepts and practices in new ways, which we often find out return us to very old (ancient) ways as we get to their true intention. So, here we go.
Take an imaginary whiteboard in your mind and erase it clean of the old definitions you have been carrying with you for so long, especially if they are restricting or confining. If they draw you toward misery and duty, then discard them. If they move you toward inspiration and freedom, it will likely serve you well to keep them. So, let’s create a new simple faith dictionary.
In this article, we will start with CHURCH. A two-second search online1 offers us common definitions of church, including (1) a building used for public Christian worship, or (2) a particular Christian organization, typically one with its own clergy, buildings, and distinctive doctrines. It can also be defined according to hierarchy or as an “institutionalized religion.”2
Yuck! How insufficient are these definitions in how they take what Jesus built and make us think it is all about man-made organizational structures? There is no beauty, no awe, and I might argue, no God.
Here are some better definitions in my opinion.
Church - empowered people on mission
Church - followers of Jesus in action
Church - divine grace in human motion
Church - called-out community of faith3
We can no longer allow the church to be equated with stagnation, bureaucracy, and poor organizational structures, especially when they promote corruption or a certain political ideology. We must recover its original meaning of being universal and individual at the same time.
Each definition above remains true to the fact that the gospel of Christ is one that both saves and sends people. We receive power, belonging, truth, grace, and so much more through our connection to Jesus. AND we are also compelled to serve, love, and care for others. The Bible describes Jesus’s disciples as ambassadors and reconcilers who are released to tell people that God is for them. When people do that, they are being the church.
You will notice, though, that any of these definitions is an awkward, yet necessary, challenge to what we have been taught for so long. This will become immediately apparent the next time you encounter someone who asks, “Where do you go to church?” None of the above answers make any sense in response. People ask that question out of a traditional (truth be told, non-traditional and biblically inaccurate) understanding of a church as a location or an event. In reality, the church is an identity that only exists in the context of our relationship with God and others. It is like marriage or friendship. The question, Where do you go to church?, needs to become as silly as hearing someone ask a spouse, “Where do you go to marriage?”
Once we correctly redefine the Christian church in our society, we see that many of the negative perceptions about it fall away. When the church is acting as a practical force to bring about joy and peace and kindness and goodness in response to a spiritual mandate, there is no need to reject it. We find that the church includes many more people who were previously labeled and categorized as unwelcome. We get to right a very serious wrong.
Just Google “church definition.”
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-pty_maps¶m2=3881227b-5742-4fc1-8943-4648a95f39da¶m3=maps_~US~appfocus523~¶m4=bing-bb8~Chrome~church+definition~E96D668B50E549A3FE116E2BFC15D0C9~Win10¶m1=20190630&us_privacy=1---&p=church+definition&type=ma_appfocus523_cr-win-~2019-27~
May be closest to the original idea of ekklesia, which means to call out from. It was used in non-religious settings and adopted by Jesus as an appropriate way to describe the church.