January 30, 2005
By Jack Price

Last night, a simple prayer service was held here.  It took place in the small chapel.  The service was a time and space of quiet; an opportunity for practicing prayer and for ministering to each other.  It was a place for experiencing freedom, of being together with God in a loving space of the Spirit.  It was an experience of being church and an affirmation of what we believe about church.

The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia, meaning “a gathering” or “assembly”.  There was nothing particularly religious about the term originally.  The early followers of Christ gathered with each other in addition to their attendance at synagogue.  When synagogue became less an option, these gatherings became a primary focus for first-century believers.

The missionary apostle Paul helped establish lots of gatherings of believers, lots of churches.  He kept in touch by exchanging letters with them.  This correspondence gives us probably the earliest examples of what their lives were like; the clearest expressions of how Christian faith was forming. 

Paul wrote to the Corinthians a lot because they kept having problems.  We are indebted to them for occupying so much of Paul’s time and attention, and for prompting so much correspondence.  The Corinthian letters provide some of our best insights into Paul’s thinking on a whole range of issues.

He addresses this church, filled with competition, division, and anxiety.  Paul calls them to get beyond themselves and their perspectives (biases).  He also speaks to Christians of all generations with an encouraging and challenging message to get beyond ourselves, our biases, and our tightly held belief territories.  This is the reality of being church.

The Corinthian church is a good example of what church can be when a fun group of people keep things stirred up.  They certainly had a knack for prompting Paul’s attention.  In some ways, maybe Crossroadians  are like Corinthians.  There is a lot of questioning and lots of different perspectives prompting a lot of truth seeking.

It is the first big issue Paul address, right at the beginning of the letter.  There are divisions in the church, subgroups within the congregation.  Different members have loyalty to different teachers.  This is often true in many congregations.  It is probably even true in this one, at Crossroads.  Let me ask all of you who are part if the “in-group” here please stand up!

            Differences don’t need to be divisions.  The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians that their individual priorities are often very good.  Cephas, Paul, and Apollos were noble and worthy leaders.  It’s just that it’s vital to make those loyalties second in loyalty to Christ, to the mission of church.  That’s what  Paul believed about church.

American Baptists define church as a “worshiping, teaching, witnessing, and ministering community”.  That is a helpful understanding and seems to tracks for us.  Let’s examine the description a little closer. 

The church is a worshiping community.  We’re all in it together leaders and congregation alike.  Each of us has the freedom to express worship ourselves.  At the same time, it is all of us together who bring the gift of worship.  We are not here for only for ourselves.  In worship, we image the realm of God communally.  In our gathering, we live in that image by faith.  Each element of worship is an opportunity for individuals to embrace the Spirit presence that is found only in community.  Even when we are alone, we exist in community.  When we gather, we exist as part of a greater community that spans space and time.  We are only church only church together, related to each other as a worshiping community.

The church is a teaching community.  About three years ago, I arrived in Kansas City to begin work as pastor of Crossroads Church.  Most of the congregation was primarily concerned with no electricity and no heat because of the ice storm.  The most important sharing was the portable generator being shared between households.  Despite the hardship, you welcomed me warmly.  You have treated me, and soon thereafter my family, with gracious hospitality ever since.  Hospitality and welcoming is a real gift of this congregation when you put you mind to it.  You can be very friendly and welcoming.

You have taught me by listening to me, challenging my thinking, continuing to listen to me, and trying on some new ways of thinking.  You have blessed me by receiving what I have to give.  You are teaching me to value my gifts.  This is a teaching community.

The church is a witnessing community.  We’ve witnessed a lot in three years.  We’ve witnessed some dear friends leave the congregation and several new friends join us.  We’ve witnessed a few loved ones died and new children arrive.  We’ve witnessed the national response to 9/11, the war in Iraq, and a divisive election that continues to be frustrating for many of us.  We’ve come to embrace the power we have to face national and personal challenges as church, as people of faith.

We are learning that we don’t create church.  We discover it.  We embrace it.  We find it as gift of Spirit.  And we rarely find it until we are open to it.  Then, church becomes real and we discover we have a story to tell.  We discover we are a witnessing community.

The church is a ministering community.  We are priests/ministers to each other.  We enable each other to experience the presence of the Spirit as the gift of divine love.  We enable each other to experience the grace of anger expressed in faith and the grace of forgiveness truly given and received.  By touching one and being touched by another, we are a ministering community.

Identifying the church as a “worshiping, teaching, witnessing, and ministering community” reflects what we believe about church.  The Corinthians (remember them?) found a way to be church.  They also found ways to fuss and fight, to be divisive, and to cause Paul grief.  The real problem was not conflict per se.  Certainly Paul was no stranger to conflict for the right reasons.  What was important for the Corinthians is what is important for us as well.  We need to priest each other.  They needed to value their own gifts just as we have the need to value our individual and communal ministry potential.  Each of us needs to value what we have to offer.  There is a need as well for the community to affirm individuals and for individuals to affirm community.

Why is this so important?  The answer lies at the heart of being church, with our  mission.  When we call ourselves church, we place ourselves in “fellowship” with the Corinthian church and with all other churches throughout time -- in the past and in the future – and with all churches our world today as well -- with the radicals and the conservatives, with the weird and the straight-laced.  We identify ourselves as a “worshiping, teaching, witnessing, and ministering community”.

When we gather (when we are church), we offer meaningful, participatory worship designed and led, and congregationally practiced.  Worship is offered for everyone who’s here and for anyone who comes. 

We offer discipleship training:  solid grounding and development for everyone who comes.  There also is a need for leaders to teach and provide guidance for children’s, youth, and adults in terms of their discipleship.  This includes the importance of good facilities for infants, toddlers, and young children.  It’s important for them to find church a safe and nurturing environment just as it is important for parents to trust what the church has for both them and their children.

We offer ministries with others.  At Crossroads, there are Peace, Justice, and Missions ministries including:  Community LINC, and Neighborhood Partnership.  We offer summer mission trips for youth and a partnership with a church and community in Guatemala.  We offer support and guidance for vocation and opportunities to be involves with teams and groups that strengthen and support this church’s own organization.  Where do you see yourself fitting in this?  Will you volunteer to teach, lead, organize, support ministries in the community, or support missions trips?  All of us can participate in worship, discipleship, and prayer. 

Being church includes consistently becoming a worshiping, teaching, witnessing, and ministering community.  It also includes embracing a larger vision.  It means being partners with the Spirit.  This Spirit is God experienced in creation.  The church is an expression of the Spirit.  The Spirit indwells our gathering.  The life breath of church is Spirit.  When we gather, the Spirit is not invoked, but recognized and embraced. 

The church bears witness to the Spirit’s presence and leadership by our actions and language.  It represents the realm of God in which all of God’s children are free.  This is the good news we get to proclaim.  The realm of God, breaking into human history most clearly in Christ, is present in church and through church.  Our mission is much more than the individual salvation on which Christianity has so often focused.  It is the transformation of the existing creation, of the world community itself into the realm of God.  Church is called to be a society of grace.

Does church always do this well?  What do you think?  Still, it is our task.  Still it is our privilege.  Still it is our calling to share the radically good news that God loves us all.  You can’t buy that love,.  You can’t earn that love.  You can’t lose that love.  That’s pretty good news.  Now we just have to believe and share it

That is what we believe about church.  It is honestly what I believe about church and I invite you to believe it too.  I believe church is a.     not about us, not about our success institutionally or even in reaching people for church.  Church is about God’s action, the ongoing creation action brought into clear focus through Jesus.  It’s the wonder of divinity being known and present with all people -- of the Ultimate seeking partnership with people in creation work.  And it is about our ability to share that reality in relationship with the world:  here, there, and everywhere.  End of sermon?  Maybe?  Well, not quite.

The psalmist proclaims “One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after:  to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD.”  Commentators offer several explanations for “the house of the Lord”.  One suggests it is a foretaste of eternity, another that it is the space that facilitates experiencing the presence of Yahweh.  The psalmist suggests an almost artistic appreciation of the beauty of God forever.

            This passage inspires a paraphrase in terms of our own setting. 

The church is a community throughout space and time that facilitates experiencing the presence of God and understanding about God without being defeated by fear. 

We are church by the Spirit’s initiative and the Spirit’s gift.  We claim that gift when we find our prophetic voice and let it be heard.  The Word we echo calls us to partner with the Spirit to bring God’s realm, the new creation, into this world by how we act, by what we say, by trusting our prayers, and by giving ourselves to the love.  Let us commit our whole selves, who we are as individuals and who we are as community, to be the church here and now in Jesus’ name.