Thinking about Church with a capital "C"

Good morning Trinity Tribe!

What is the character of the church? What is the church like? As with any human organization, the church has not yet reached perfection. We are imperfect people in an imperfect band of believers. However, many wonderful things exist because of and have become real through congregations of people who believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The intrinsic qualities of the church are love, forgiveness, embodiment of the Gospel, and servant hood.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body. He writes, “12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” We are all part of the body of Christ through our baptism. No matter our denomination; we are all connected through our brother, Christ, and washed in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The church is already but also not yet. We are already living into the Kingdom of God. However, the Kingdom has not fully come in Christ. We love God and neighbor, but we cannot fully love either until the kingdom has come which will enable us to love fully without our human reservations. We act in the world with Christ as our power source and as our guide, but our selfishness still prevails. Through us God is bringing about God’s kingdom. However, we are imperfect but are made perfect through Christ’s sacrifice.

Many people who are not Christians look upon us with disdain. We, as the Church, have done many things wrong and against our own teachings. After all, the Church did almost nothing to stop or at least protest against Hitler, we led the Crusades, we have turned a blind eye to hatred, suffering, and evil. Churches are full of hypocrites. Church is full of scandals be you Evangelical or United Methodist or Roman Catholic. Church cannot fix the world’s ills alone. We are certainly imperfect. Yet, we oftentimes pretend that we are perfect and everything is just fine. How often have we experienced someone being truly vulnerable at church? How often do we let other people help carry our “private” burdens? Could we work harder to live our beliefs in all that we do rather than from 11am-12pm on Sundays? Can we work harder to respond to pain, tragedy, and brokenness around the world but more importantly in our neighborhood? We cannot, as one congregation, wipe out all negative opinions and judgments about church. However, we can change perceptions one person at a time, as we love them as our neighbor.

What do you think the nature of the church is?