From the Pulpit: Where is your church and who are members of your church?

Friends in the Community,

Grace, mercy and peace be to each and every one of you from God our loving Heavenly Father and our living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that this article finds all of you well now that we are flying through the month of May!

Where is your church? Who are the members of your church? These are two fun questions that we, as Christians, get to wrestle with a lot during our lives in this world. Now, I know most of you have already decided that you are not wrestling with these questions because you can easily tell me the name of your particular congregation or denomination. When someone asks where your church is, you can give them the address or the location. This is also the case when people ask about the members of what we consider our churches. We usually talk about the members as being the people who sit next to us during worship and those who contribute regularly to support the budgets that are mainly focused on the buildings that house what we consider to be our congregations.

What if I told you that these definitions of church and church membership are far too narrow? Let’s consider these items in reverse order for a second. Who are the members of your church? When we read the pages of Scripture, the members of the Church are not necessarily those who think of themselves as belonging to a certain congregation or denomination. In fact, the writers of Scripture refer to certain congregations, but when they do so, they are writing to entire communities. We see this in Romans chapter 1. Paul does not address that letter just to people who attend worship in a certain congregation. He sends the letter to all those who are loved by God and live in Rome. When I read the Bible, I see this as being every sister and brother I have in Christ. We are all God’s beloved children. The members of the Church, then, are people who are loved by God. This means that everyone we get to meet and have the opportunity to get to know in this world is a member of the Church that matters, which is the entire Church of Christ. They may not attend worship with us, and they may never put their names in our parish databases, but they are all still members with us in the body of Christ! That covers church membership.

Now, let’s move to the other question. Where is your church? The first place every one of our congregations and denominations belong in is the body of Christ. We are all members of the same Church. We may not carry the same earthly labels, but we do all carry the same name that matters. This is the name that is placed upon us in the waters of baptism when God calls us his daughters and sons and says we are his!

Why does this matter? This matters because when we believe every member of our community is a member of the Church, we work together to find ways to meet every need in the community. This means it is the Church’s business when any person or organization in our community needs help. When the Church meets needs that have never been met by the Church before, amazing things happen. People see the love of Christ emanating in and from us.

This also matters because we can build unity around how alike we are rather than look for differences. Right now, the world needs unifying voices. Since we all belong to the same Church that matters (the body of Christ), we can model unity for our friends and neighbors.

Where is your Church? In the body of Christ. Who are members of your church?

Everyone of God’s children. Just a thought ...