Ekklesia

 

During a recent morning drive I listened to an NPR story reporting recent poll findings that more and more Americans view themselves as “unaffiliated,” “atheists” or “agnostics,” while the number of Americans identifying themselves as “Christians” fell. The most striking changes were among young adults who in greater numbers are staying away from faith communities.

Yet interest in Jesus remains high. When the National Geographic Channel premiered its adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Jesus last March, 3.7 million viewers tuned in, the channel’s biggest audience in history. In a 2011 poll, 90 percent of Americans ranked Jesus the most influential person in history, well ahead of Geo Washington and Gandhi.

Perhaps the issue is that many Americans agree with Gandhi himself who said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.”

Or as author Dan Kimball put it They Like Jesus but Not the Church.

I’m a new kid on the block. I began serving the folks at Zoar Church in Tofte in August. Ministry is a second calling for me so I’m still quite green and they’ve been more than kind as I’ve started learning the ropes, trying to figure out who’s who in the West End and where Zoar fits into it all. We’re the only church in town and lots of folks see Zoar as their church whether they are members in a formal sense or not. Others seem less sure.

So I’m really interested in what it means to be the church in an increasingly secular nation.

The Greek word usually translated as “church” in the New Testament is “ekklesia.” “Ekklesia” has given rise to “ecclesiastical,” referring to church hierarchy, but in its original use it simply meant an assembly of the people who followed Jesus. The earliest assembly was the 11 disciples and others who gathered around the certainty of a risen Christ and who after Pentecost began to share this “good news.” At its core the Church exists to take the message of redemption in Christ from “Jerusalem… to Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

But the church is more than a mission agency and the gospel is more than eternal security, it is life “abundantly!”

New Testament apostles refer over and over again to fellow Christians as brothers and sisters. Christians are called to care for each other like family. Jesus said to his disciples “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The church is to be defined by love! Who doesn’t need love? Who doesn’t need someone else to care about them? Most folks aren’t going to come to faith through theological discourse, but because they are loved and welcomed by somebody in the church and then, because they feel love, they eventually find out about Jesus, the redeemer who makes them family.

Perhaps one of the reasons that “they like Jesus but not the church” is because the church has failed to show young adults that what Jesus intended when he formed the church was to be the ultimate authentic community—a family coming together to share life abundantly with one another.

Faith is a personal issue. You can believe without having to belong to a church. But here’s the thing—it may be that God wants you to be in the church because somebody else needs you! In our consumer driven market society we have the idea that it’s all about getting what we want. Yet the only way to experience true community is to reach out and build relationships with others, to share their burdens. The church was never intended to be an audience of people who show up, take something away and then leave. The church was intended to be the assembly of brothers and sisters coming together to lift one another up—a community of redemption and ultimate love.

Finally, St. Paul calls the church “the body of Christ.” Christians understand that in Jesus God took on flesh and walked among us. But He commanded His church to continue to do the things He did while He was here on earth. What else would it mean “to obey everything I have commanded you” if not to demonstrate love for neighbor? To feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked, look after the sick, and visit the prisoner? The church was meant to be the very continuation of Christ in the world.

The 23 percent of Americans who identify as “unaffiliated,” “atheist,” or “agnostic” won’t be convinced by clever arguments. There are 2.2 billion Christians on earth. Just think if the church were to more fully live as Christ on Earth. The world might look quite different than it does right now. And the Church itself might seem more the beacon of hope it was intended to be!

Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Daren Blanck, pastor of Zoar Church in Tofte, a former Wilderness Canoe Base guide/counselor, and a student of Beyond the River Academy, a ministry program of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.