Unity Project Week 7-9

What in the crap do we mean by “the church”??

Maybe you’re wondering why is this dude writing about “the church”.

I’ve had a few people tell me, I’m not religious, so I’m not into church. What is someone really saying when they say, I’m not into religion? You see almost all of us are religious in the sense that we have a set of rules or beliefs that we live by. Just like we all have a diet and have a budget. The question isn’t whether we do or don’t have these practices, it’s about the choice to be actively refining these things or just “letting them happen to us”. This thought of rejecting religion, a diet, a budget, etc… Is really just planning to not plan, which is still a plan, it’s just a bad one.

So, we all have a plan, a diet, a religion, and a budget. Right, wrong or indifferent.

The question then becomes; what are we choosing for our source of the plan we are following?

It’s too bad that the word church has become synonymous with a meeting or a building.

Here is the redefinition from the last few weeks of ‘the plan’.

God made a pledge to bless the earth and its people through a partnership with humans. The church is the partnership between humans and Jesus Christ. What is the source of the church? It is the crazy idea that the creator of the universe actually came to earth in human form and then was killed and then resurrected and then He released His spirit on earth and then left in bodily form and now is waiting to return to earth to restore all things as He intended in the beginning. Whether you think this is crazy or foolish or other, it is the source of ‘the church’.

So, what’s the hold up. If this Jesus guy is real, then where is He at? Why doesn’t He show up?

The answer I think is that He is waiting on us to make good on this partnership that I was talking about earlier. What is our end of the bargain?

Our part is to bless and not curse.

If it is the church that Jesus partnered with they will be people who have received the blessing of forgiveness and peace and joy and are actively trying to bless others with this love.

So, what is the church? It is people with Jesus’ love, forgiveness, peace and joy who are giving what was given to them; a blessing.

He is still waiting for us to hold up our end of this church thing, it goes way back to Genesis 12:3…., “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD”

We are called to be a blessing to others, period. It’s not fancy or complicated.

And our hope is that one day, Jesus will return to join and lead, not just with His spirit, but in a physical, visible way—until then we as “the church” are to use His spirit to bless and not curse.