Visions of Church

During a required teacher's in-service today, the speaker made a joke that we, the audience, were staying with him pretty good. "It's like I'm a Baptist preacher and it's 12:30" he said, implying that he was boring, but we were trying to listen. He stated that there are a few places that you sit quietly facing forward including church and presentations. He also commented that we knew we weren't at church, therefore didn't bring our Bibles and have them opened.

Church - a place where you go sing boring old songs and try to stay awake while you sit still facing the preacher (a man who may or may not be wearing a costume) who talks about all the things you do wrong and why you are going to hell if you don't get saved/do the right things/go to church (all three of which sometimes seem to be synonymous). Oh yeah, and it usually starts around 10 or 11 on Sunday morning and better not go past 12 or people will be angry because the neighboring church people are getting all the cheese dip at the Mexican restaurant.

How close am I? Did I forget to mention the part after church where you go out to eat and talk about what everyone was wearing and/or what you (and other's in the church including the preacher, his wife, and/or kids) did on Saturday night -- the very things that were probably part of the sermon things you do wrong and you would have known that had you been awake?

This seems to be church for a lot of people. And if it's not quite accurate, it is at least the perception some people have of church. While church has been a place where 'Christians' gathered and sat to listen to the preacher for years, I'm not convinced this is what church should look like.

What if church was a 'place' you wanted to be, not somewhere you felt obligated to be? What if when you went to church, you sat facing each other, or you didn't sit at all because you were doing something for others? What if church was really a place where you felt like you could be yourself and not have to fake behaviors or emotions? What if during church, you didn't just listen to the preacher, but participated in a discussion?

I have a "vision" of sorts of church as a group of people participating in service ministry (cooking for homeless, packaging stuff for hurricane victims or soldiers, writing cards to homebound, etc.) and discussing the sermon of the day. I recall a conversation during a recent Bible Study group (details sketchy and may not be completely accurate, but point is the same): one member shared that her sons worked in restaurants and cooked on Sundays therefore didn't go to church. She also mentioned that they volunteered at the local soup kitchen. Our pastor mentioned why couldn't that cooking be part of worship.

I shared this with a few coworkers this week and each time I wonder, "could this be church? would it 'work'?" I don't know if it can or will. I know it won't without the Spirit of God guiding it, but neither will the way we do church now.

What do you think church should look like?