The Church: Building and Body

Friends....

This message is short, sweet, profound, confirming, and so fundamentally foundational that I wanted to include it on the blog. This will prove to be the answer to what motivates us to do church as we do.

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By Graham Cooke www.grahamcooke.com
The paradox of the church as a building and a body is an intriguing one. The Apostle Paul compares the church to a building in Ephesians 2:19-22—

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

This is the absolute, ideal, intentional will of God. In our friendships and fellowship, we are to be a habitation for Him. This doesn’t mean more meetings! Jesus didn’t come and say, “I’m here that you might have meetings and might have them more abundantly.” No, He came to bring us a life, a life which is formed in the pool of relationships. God is seen most clearly in who we are together, how we share with one another, how we see each other, how we love each other, and how we support one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” Jesus said in John 13:35.

The western church has settled for trying to have brilliant meetings. Personally, I don’t think God cares too much about having meetings. In the New Testament, He only talks about meeting twice, and one of those times, He only says, “Don’t forget to meet.” That’s half the revelation right there. The other half talks about creativity: “When you meet, you could do this or this or this.” He doesn’t nail anything down or tell us when, where, and how to meet. The form of our meetings ought to be led by the ultimate creative force, the Holy Spirit.

Peter added to the building theme in 1 Peter 2:4-5—

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The spiritual sacrifice we are called to make is to put our friends ahead of ourselves. Honoring someone else more than we want to be honored is the best way to increase the meaning of our own lives. A true apostle, or father or mother, doesn’t care about themselves as much as they care about you. They want you to have the blessing. They produce thousands of sons and daughters and equip them to become fathers and mothers themselves. Their work is selfless and generous. They are consistent and intentional.

Spiritual sacrifice calls us to lay down our lives for each other. We help one another achieve great things. Their success is more important than our own. We don’t protect what we have but think of ways to give it to someone else.

The church has a precious Cornerstone, and when we believe in Him, we cannot be disappointed. We live in relationship with others the same way we live with God. How we treat them reflects how we treat Him. If we see our lives as a contribution, we cannot be disappointed. If we live as a giver, we can’t help but receive. But when we hoard, we lose everything.

In Ephesians 1:22-23, Paul compared the church to a body—“And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Sadly, I don’t know of many churches moving in the fullness of Christ. But this must be our goal. It is an amazing challenge to think about. What would the fullness of God look like in a church, a city, a region, and a country? What would happen if churches all around the world returned to their sacred purposes?

In renewal, we rediscover a passion for Jesus. In revival, we rediscover a compassion for the lost. Reformation occurs when the church, full of both that passion and compassion, breaks out into the world and starts making goodness fashionable. It becomes like Pentecost, where walls cannot contain us and we spill into the community. The walls of the church are knocked flat as the world sees a people who know how to live as a habitation for God.

I’ve watched as churches have prayed non-stop for God to move and wondered why little has happened. What is it about us that makes God hold off on answering our prayers? I suspect that He would love to birth thousands of spiritual babies but that He can’t trust us to properly care for them yet. What if He doesn’t want new Christians to be born into churches with a religious mindset? What if He doesn’t want to pour new people into a system that will gobble them up? As prophetic voices and church leaders, we need to wrestle with these questions.

Paul loved the metaphor of body life so much that he mentioned it again in both Colossians 1:15-18 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. But how can a church be both a building and a body at the same time? How can it be rigid yet fluid, immovable yet constantly moving? The church, as a building, is about being something. But the church, as a body, is about doing something. The building metaphor gets us thinking about the things we should be, the aspect of fellowship, and how it relates to our character. The body metaphor is about love for each other, and understanding that we each have unique gifts and uses.

Today’s church is built on a paradigm—a one-dimensional view of church as a functional, purpose-driven, task oriented people whose lives are grouped around meetings.

But all spirituality is paradoxical where we experience the "both/and" elements of complete opposites... such as building and body; servants and sons; relational and functional partnerships. The issue in a paradox is "what takes precedence when we are under pressure?" That must be friendships, character, intimacy and oneness of heart.