Church with a Capital "C"

When did “The Church” become like “Big Oil?” You know what I mean. We say things like, “I wish ‘The Church’ would get its act together and get on with the Jesus stuff,” and “‘the Church’ needs to feed the hungry and help the poor,” or “‘The Church’ is not doing what it is supposed to.” We have turned taken the term “the Church” and put it on the same level as “big oil.” Are they both big faceless corporations bent on keeping the status quo? In the eyes of we railers against the bs bastion, it is now “the Church,” the monolith that does nothing, the corporation of christian culture, the mega marketed st*rbucks Mega-Church.

The Mega-Church sounds like a Power Rangers villain. Sure, everyone wants to slag the mega-church. How can a gathering of over a thousand people be church?How can it be community? How can you connect? Its not what the early church did. I’ve travelled a bit and have attended a prominent mega-church for a time. I am sure you know it. The pastor was relieved from duty for visiting a male prostitute and purchasing meth. Then almost a year later an angry young man shot and killed two sisters there. He shot a few more people before being shot by an armed church security guard (this is a whole other issue). He killed himself when he realized it was over. I cried. I prayed. I felt for these people that are my family, including that poor guy with the gun. The mega-church isn’t perfect but people everywhere are imperfect.

Three things to think about, first, there are only a little over 1200 mega-churches in the USA and less in Canada. That means that the percentage of churches that are “mega” is pretty low. Second, you can find more people with similar interestes in the larger pool that is a big church. You may very well be able to belong and connect to the smaller circle within the big circle of the mega-church. Third, the early church had gatherings in the thousands. As inferred in Acts 2:41 and 4:4. Or when Jesus fed the 5000 in Matt 14 and Mark 6 or 4000 in Matthew 15 and Mark 8. So don’t gripe about going back to the good old days. Unless you want to get eaten by lions or nailed to a cross. The world has changed and moved on in history and it is okay for “The Church” to have grown and changed. Also, it is okay to want the smaller community of believers to hang out with. It takes all kinds.

I am looking for a church that has a community that I can connect with so that I can do something that affects the world around Me. Oh wait. Am I being too self-centered? Ask not what your church can do for you but what you can do for your church! Yeah, I don’t like that either but there is something there. What else have I forgotten in the Church equation… oh yeah, Jesus.

The Church exists to glorify Jesus. I don’t know a non-churchy way to say that. Some people call it “showing off Jesus.” I mean it is all about light. Our actions are to bring light to Him. His light on the whole planet to all people especially to those who have no light at all (the places that have no church or believers). We are not supposed to be alone in it. We are supposed to work together. All of us are called bride and body and brothers and sisters. That means we are supposed to be connected.

Sure, sometimes I get really sick and tired of hanging out with Christians every Sunday morning. Sometime I just head to Timmy’s with the rest of the heathens. The thing is I have this hope deep down that “The Church” will become all it is supposed to be. “The Church” can be Jesus’ agent on the planet that can end poverty and hunger. “The Church” can stop human trafficking. “The Church” can live out the love and light of Jesus to all the world in every group of people—whether insiders or outsiders. I try and do those things and I am “the Church” so “the Church” is part of those things—though not the whole “the Church.”

Don’t leave “the Church!” If you leave then you will no longer be an agent of change there. Also, it may show that we (Jesus followers) don’t love each other when we bail just because we don’t really like something. Many people work jobs they hate, are part of families that are dysfunctional, and yet remain connected.

I guess it comes down to you’ve got to love Jesus, got to love “the Church,” hell, you even got to love “Big Oil.” Here’s to figuring out how to do that together.