Real Church
01/21/2008 02:57 PM
| Christianity
In an article in
Relevant Magazine
this month, Rob
Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, was being interviewed on his thoughts on
the church and its role in society. One thing that
he said in there that really stuck with me was,
"We have these giant services with thousands of
people, and I think that public gatherings beyond
10 or 20 people should be questioned." He was
talking about what church really is, and was
saying that the best example of real church he
ever experienced happened in his living room with
a relatively small group of people who were
gathering around someone who was in trouble.
There's a lot of truth to that, and it's
refreshing to hear someone who is the leader of a
megachurch say it.
In the past month, with everything that Eric and I
have been through, we have seen that idea firsthand.
We have always loved going to our church here in Bloomington, and while
we've always been involved there, we've never
really had a chance to experience the true love
that is available to the members of the
congregation (and beyond)....until now. While we
absolutely love our Sunday morning services and
classes, real church has happened to us on the
phone, in hugs, in messages sent to us, or in time
spent with us, not necessarily on Sunday morning
in the sanctuary. We've been overwhelmed by the
loving response of people around us -- not only
from those who attend our church, but also our
other Christian friends and family who know us. We
hope that someday we'll be able to pour out this
kind of comfort and love on someone else who is
going through a rough time.
It seems like that's what Paul was talking about
in 2 Corinthians 1
when he said,
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of
all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with
the comfort we ourselves have received from God"
(verses 3-4). We've received such an amazing
amount of comfort from God through other people,
that maybe someday we can take this tragedy that
we've walked through and use it to encourage
someone else. Based on our recent experiences, it
seems pretty clear that that's one important
responsibility of the Church as a body and one
major way to live out "real church."
--Lisa