The Church Has Left The Building
What day of the week is it?
It could be Monday or it could be Saturday! Who knows? I’ve lost all sense of my schedule during this semi-quarantined time.
Weekly schedules, such as going to church on Sunday, are the things that help our brain keep up with what day it is. But right now, those taken-for-granted activities have all but disappeared.
I am so thankful for the technology of FaceBook live and Google Hangouts to virtually keep up with my church family and small group study. Because of these unusual circumstances, the church has temporarily left the building.
I have been pondering what the “church” really is and I think 1 Peter says it a lot better than I can:
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. I Peter 2:4-5
Living stones is an oxymoron. When we think about stones, we don’t think of life. We think of cold, hard, inorganic concretions of earthly materials. So why compare the church to a stone? It is the exact opposite of “living”.
As a teacher, I know the importance of causing some cognitive confusion while trying to teach – it makes people’s brains stand on its tippy-toes. The insertion of “living” in front of stones did just that for Peter. It probably caused the reader to do a whiplash!
The audience Peter was writing to (converted Jews who were scattered through Asia Minor) would totally track with his analogy of temples and stones. The most important structure in their religious world was the temple, made of stones.
Describing the church as living stones is a vivid word picture.
Too many times our church congregations do look like cold, dead stones looking at the pulpit. But living stones are animated and indwelt with the same Holy Spirit that brought the Cornerstone (Jesus) back to life.
It is as if Jesus is pushing us out of our comfy pews out into the world in new ways during this season. He did command us to be salt and light in a dark world (Matthew 5:13-16). COVID-19 may be Jesus’ way of getting us out of the salt shaker!
I wonder how many more people are hearing the gospel because a multitude of churches are now broadcasting using FaceBook live or other platforms. How many more people are curious about spiritual things right now?
As living stones making up the temple of God, we have the ability and responsibility to speak life, hope, and truth into the lives of those around us using whatever means we have been equipped to do so.
So yes, the church has momentarily left the building.
Even after this viral storm has passed, I pray the paradigm of creatively reaching people outside of our walls continues. Maybe God is using this virus to shake the church up and take a long hard look at how we minister to people.
No matter what medium us living stones use to present the gospel, we have this promise:
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
Isaiah 55:11
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Pastors, youth leaders, small group leaders…it may feel like you are preaching/teaching to an empty church, but God’s Word never returns empty! Thank you for reaching out even when the church has left the building.
