Being the Church

Most people think of church as a location or buildings and property, or maybe even as an organization. When asked about their relationship with “church”, people usually ask “Where do you go to church?”, “What church do you belong to?” or “Where is your church”? “What denomination is your church?” Truth is, not many of those questions interest me, so you won’t hear them from me. When I meet someone for the first time, I’m more interested in who they really are — who God made them to be — and are they living that life. If so, I’m always excited to learn their story and pay attention to why God has crossed out paths.

So, while that understanding of church is common, my wife and I think of church as “those people who follow Jesus.” For some, the word church may include properties, buildings, programs, staff, and all the other stuff that goes with the organizational, institutional understanding of doing church. For some of us, it does not. 

While I find it important to gather with other believers to share the common hope we have in Jesus, we as the church do not limit that to the organizational, institutional scenario.  We try to “be the church” in the community — every single day.

What Does It Look Like To “Be The Church In The Community”?

I get asked this question a lot. I have heard story after story about who of what the Church used to be, but as I write to you today, I can assure you that the church has changed. The building certainly looks somewhat the same, but we are living a new dream of what it looks like to be a vibrant church in this beautiful community, and in doing so to live out our calling to follow Jesus. That’s it. Does that sound Presbyterian or Episcopalian or Baptist enough for you? Yeah, me either. I don’t much worry about those kind of labels. Rather than label the church, I prefer to lead a church that wants to BE the church.

A Day in the Life of Being the Church

What does a typical day  of “being the church in the community” look like for us? I doubt that there is such a thing for us as a typical day, but I will describe what it looked like for me today.

After spending the morning on ZOOM calls, I came home and changed to go help my son-in-law whose car quit on him — the alternator died. First, however, I came home and sent out a couple of emails for a few members to help with some committee work. Then I talked with another neighbor whose husband recently left her to go be with the LORD. I asked if I could be a part of her home bible study group to at least pray a similar prayer with them for their church.

After getting the new alternator in my son-in-law’s car, I talked to another neighbor in detail about her orchids she has been growing and selling. She grows them attached to the side of her palm trees (it’s amazing really). A couple of hours later, I had the outline for Sunday’s sermon and a devotion recording written for a video I will produce for our website, both due to the conversations I had just this week.

After my wife came home from work we walked through our neighborhood praying for our neighbors before coming home to prepare dinner for my daughter’s family who is temporarily living with us. From a safe distance, we waved to several neighbors, then came inside. We stopped off at the grocery store on the way home from our walk and found a wallet on the sidewalk. We opened it and found a driver’s license for a person who lives in our area. After locating the person, they were grateful that everything was intact and returned. It was a day in the life of being the church.

It Takes Nothing Big to Be the Church.

As you can see, nothing about my day would be material for a book. Yet we see days like this as a somewhat typical day of being the church in the community. 

Our mantra at First Presbyterian Church is to love others to love Jesus Christ. Being the church to us means, all we do is keep our eyes and ears open to the people around us, and try to love them right where they are..

Be the Church in Your Community

We want to be the church in North River Shores. I share a day in my life with you to give you an idea as to what it means for us to be the church in your community. What I didn’t share is that in everything we do, we are trying to bring relevance and vibrancy to our community’s daily life.

Remember, you ARE the church, and wherever you go, Jesus goes with you! My Church wants to walk with you as we are all called to be the church.