Almost one month ago I was struck by a conversation focused on church.  In fact, the discussion was directly related to ministry, to the relevance of church.  The statement that church had become irrelevant in today’s culture caught me by surprise.  Why a Pastor would make this type of statement was beyond me.  In fact, what might be even more shocking was that I found myself agreeing with him.  This agreement led to introspection and research.

What hadn’t been revealed in the conversation a month ago was that not more than ten years ago, I was one that not only believed that church had lost its relevance, but I began to defend the idea.  In my world it was easy for me to separate faith from religion, commitment from process, and a building from the omnipresence of God.  In fact, my limited knowledge of theology, Christ’s plan for the world, and the English language allowed the enemy to have a foothold in my life and the life of my family.

In retrospect, I could certainly see the enemy using these half-truths as wedges between me and the fellowship that would have edified me and fortified my relationship with Christ.  The separation started around my wedding and continued through the first years of my marriage.  I found myself caught up in the emotional whirlwind of a wedding, one that I dreamt of for an entire year.  As the plans started, we tried to engage my Pastor of twelve-years to perform the services.  His annual vacation took precedence in his schedule and he asked for us to find someone else or change the date to another part of the summer.  I allowed this to hurt my feelings and it became the crack in the tree trunk in which the enemy firmly planted the sharp edge of the wedge.  Over the following few years the wedge was driven further and further by continual justification for using this lack of personal commitment to walk away from the seemingly dogmatic and superficial process of the Lutheran Church.  Satan had a foothold that continued for several years until the Lord’s call started to get louder and loader. 

To make matters worse, I was a fairly new believer of only seven years or so, young, naive, and previously on-fire for the Lord.  All of these were seen by the enemy as threats and opportunities.  After all, I had been involved in bible study for a few years, I was previously confirmed in the church, and I knew it all – or so I thought.  I simply stated that I didn’t need church; after all I had faith in the Lord and knew he would never forsake me, even if the local church would.  I began to profess the omnipresence of God as justification for not needing a place of worship.  In fact, I took the world view of church and strapped it on like a Kevlar vest.  I used it to protect my heart from more pain, my weekends from endless rituals, and the droning of boring hymns.  I had a problem with Christ’s vision of the church; my problem was that I adopted a definition for a single word that changed my life.

The English language can sure get us in a bit of trouble.  This certainly seemed true when I was having the Pastoral discussion a month ago.  I was so taken by the conversation and where my head led my heart that I had to do a little investigation.  What I found was that our speech has a knack for built-in confusion.  For instance, did you know that there is something called a capitonym in our language?  A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning when it is capitalized.  I think this is where my confusion started.  Let me give you some examples of capitonyms.  Capitonyms include words like alpine, arabic, calorie, catholic, china, God, and certainly church.

An interesting illustration of the cultural influence of word definitions might be seen in Arabic.  When capitalized, Arabic has to do with the geographic region of the Arabic nations.  When the lowercase version of arabic is used it means a gum-like cooking ingredient.  Even the word china may have a different meaning this year as we progress into the Olympics.  General conversation with the word china may no longer refer to dinnerware, or at least until this fall.  Where I think my confusion started was in the verbal communication of the word church.  I differentiate the capitalized Church and the lowercase church as being two completely different things.

In my mind, Church is the Body of Christ and lowercase church is the meeting place.  With this being said, and in my current walk with Christ, I default to the word Church.  For me, I was hurt and appalled that I was having a conversation regarding the irrelevance of the Body of Christ.  Now, to this day I still don’t know in what context we were having our conversation.  However, I do suspect that God’s heart hurts when he hears that we have worked church and Church out of our common vernacular for those things that are Holy and just.  I suppose God is hurt because He created both forms and our world is turning its back on His creation.  Let’s take a look at Scripture to really understand what His will is regarding the relevance of Church.

During Christ’s conversation with his disciples in Caesarea Philippi, he challenges them with verbalizing their understanding of his identity.  Upon a solid affirmation from Simon Peter that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus confirms his statement.  During the confirmation He indicates that Simon Peter knows this through divine inspiration, not by the common world view.  Simon Peter was provided a blessing by Christ, then Christ stated…

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." (Matthew 16:18, NIV)

To better understand this sentence, let’s remember that our Lord is talking to Peter.  It’s important to understand this to understand the second portion of the scripture.  The statement “…and on this rock I will build my church…” is not about Peter, it is to Peter.  I understand this statement to be that our Lord was talking about Himself upon which he would build his church.  This is supported by:

"having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone," (Ephesians 2:20, NKJV)

"The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone." (Psalm 118:22, NKJV)

" As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—" (1 Peter 2:4, NIV)

"So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed." (Isaiah 28:16, NIV)

"For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”" (1 Peter 2:6, NIV)

"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:11, NIV)

It’s also important to understand the difference between Petros and petra.  Peter, or Petros, is a little piece of stone.  Petra is bedrock.  Therefore, Petra describes Christ and Petros describes Peter.  Peter was a little piece of stone.  Perhaps, Jesus was trying to contrast the two objects.  Petros is in the image of Petra, but it is not Petra.  Although both are of the same substance, they are dramatically different in function, power, and longevity.

For me, it is important to remember that Peter had an important role in the church.  As with the rest of us, we have a role in the Body of Christ.  Peter had a role of leader and spokesman for the apostles during Christ’s ministry on the earth. Our role, although different is no less important.  In fact, we might find ourselves more similar to Peter than we might like.  Even though we have and will sin against God, we’re still loved and cherished by God.  The Body of Christ is comprised of individuals, imperfect by nature.  This is where some of our trouble comes in.  The enemy would have us believe that the church must be perfect to be effective.  In addition, the enemy would have us denounce imperfection through alienation from the church.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God’s grace allows the church to be whole and perfect in his eyes while forgiving our sin.  If we are to be godly, we must understand that the congregation of the church must be allowed grace by us in its imperfection.

Jesus understood the heart condition and the conviction of Peter before Peter joined the group of disciples.  As a matter of fact Jesus also knew that Peter would deny Him before the foundation of the world.  Before diving deeper into this Scripture, let’s remind ourselves that these disciples didn’t have the New Testament in their hands.  They didn’t have an organized group to call a church, and the church wouldn’t take on the congregation until after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  I suspect that they didn’t understand what Jesus meant by the “church”.  They couldn’t even imagine at that time what this single statement meant for the rest of humanity.

It is interesting that Jesus uses the word ἐκκλησία / ekklēsia “ecclesia” for what appears to be the first time in His dialog.  This word has a unique meaning in the culture of the day, defined as “a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly.”  Here Christ introduces the idea that He will be the foundation for this “called-out” group, the Church.  While Peter was instrumental in the life of the church, as we are, he was simply part of the Body of Christ.  For me, this is important, we find here that Peter, like others of us, will deny Christ, yet Christ still wants to use him and has a unique role for him in the Church.  God wants all of us to take part, he didn’t create the Church for a select number, and He’s made it accessible to all of us.

Not only does the Lord state that He will be the foundation for this new entity, the church, he also indicates the innate power given to the church through the chief cornerstone.  Christ was in building mode.  He had just spoke the church into being – His creation.  This creation has the power to overcome Hades, or death.  The Church, the Body of Christ, this group of saints, has power over death through the unifying faith in the grace of God that would be demonstrated at the Cross by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.  The Christian faith not only benefits from the Church, but the Church is vital to our fellowship and perfection in the love shown to us through our salvation.

The relevance of the church from this passage is twofold.  First, the church is God’s creation.  Being God’s creation automatically makes it relevant.  Our lives are surrounded by His creation and we seem to more readily recognize the significance and relevance of His creation when it’s a tree, stream, ocean, mountain, or other natural element.  The creation of the Church is no different, He spoke it into being for our benefit, praise God!  The second is the power of the church over death.  Through the establishment of the Body of Christ, of which Jesus is the head, we gain our salvation, or ability to escape the penalty of death.   The enemy has certainly found the right places to attack in our society.  He’s trying to break down our understanding of God’s will and manifestation of his Kingdom and grace here on earth.

As followers of Christ, we have an obligation to uphold the reverence for and relevance of the Church.  We have the command from Christ himself to participate in His building of the Church and expand the numbers in the Body of Christ throughout the world.  Christ stated …

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”" (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV)

The Church, a congregation of saints is established through the vision and work of Christ.  This work of Christ is the manifestation of power over death provided to us through our Savior.  The world has lost the relevance of the Church by redefining the word to simply mean a building or gathering during which religious ceremonies are performed and chastised by its imperfection.  In Christ’s time, he describes this for the first time as the group of believers that inherit the kingdom of heaven and defeat death on earth.  To me, the world has crafted a lie that we must fight against.  The protection, growth, and love of the Church are incumbent on the Body of Christ.  We are charged by our Lord to “…go and make disciples of all nations…” – grow the Church by spreading the gospel.  It is through the Body that the Kingdom of God is developed, nurtured and perfected.

Jesus Christ is building the winning team with Himself as the foundation.  By not reinstating the relevance of the Church, we are simply denying God’s creation.  I pray that we have a renewed call to change the world’s definition of the Church and reinstate it as the foundation for our communities for the glory of God.  The next time you are quizzed about the relevance of your Church, I pray that you would respond that the Church happens to meet at a building, but God spoke the Church into being as he did with the earth so that the congregations around the world could spread the good news of our salvation through Christ Jesus.