Real Hope: Back to Basics - ChurchSample

Containers

Words often serve as containers of our lived experiences rather than dictionary definitions. Your container words may be vastly different from mine. For some, the word ‘church’ has been a container of discovering a loving God, of faith, welcome, kindness, forgiveness, healthy belonging, community to join with and to reach out from, and more. For others ‘church’ has contained experiences of abuse, manipulation, broken trust, and violation. It’s no wonder that the word ‘church’ has become emotively complex.

Added to the experiential complexity of ‘church’, there remains a debate about the word ‘church’ in the Bible. Although we know the biblical word ‘church’ does not refer to a specific building as the ‘house of God’, it’s still often used to describe the institutionalized entities of denominations. The original Greek word is more commonly considered to mean a community of believers.

Despite the disillusionment today, something in God’s heart longed for Christians to gather together. Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16:18–19 that He will build His community of followers and will give them the keys of heaven to use for good. It helps me believe that God has not given up on His idea of church. My part is to know my loving God more each day and, with others, build shared experiences that fill our container word ‘church’ with so much love that it spills over in ways that feels like a touch of heaven on earth.

Written by KATH HENRY