Quite simply, the Church is the place where we meet with God, together with others. I don’t mean meeting God, as in, hanging out with your buddy; although God is the best friend of all, but in the sense that we are able to lose ourselves in worshipping Him, and can approach the mystery of who He is to some degree.

Some will say that the Church is really a school, a hospital, an army, or even a place of entertainment and empowerment (though the words used in these cases are probably more acceptable), but all of these things are benefits or aspects of the one true goal - of exploring and growing in our relationship with God. Meeting with our Creator so as to taint our clothes with the smoke of the eternal fire of His presence, thus empowering and healing us in many ways, and ultimately, becoming better disciples in the process. Certainly, we have a mission, as some might protest - after all, the Church is the sacrament of Christ Himself. However, we must not highjack the ultimate purpose of God as we set about our various missions and ministries.

I love what Robert Webber writes in his books regarding “Blended Worship”, and “Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail” - highlighting the need and necessity for people to meet with and worship God. Many of us Christians in the Evangelical and Charismatic streams are beginning to search for deeper worship that we have known - more than mental, emotional and functional “services”, and are becoming increasingly disillusioned with utilitarian and modernist reductions of the faith. We are hungry to worship God as the Early Church worshipped Him and prospered as a result. To encounter His majesty and mystery in the midst of our hardscrabble, daily grind, and overfed, Western World. To be nourished by His very presence - and paradoxically, His presence in His absence. Not mere knowledge and facts, (though, the mind is His gift too) but life and love - deeply grounded in an authentic encounter with the living God. Hearing from God and sensing His person, rather than just hearing about Him. We do not want to find ourselves in the quandary of trying to present the Gospel to others, yet to be found proffering a Gospel about a God whom we don’t really know.

Evangelists, teachers, pastors, and others, will all have preferences or differences in emphasis in their opinions and objectives for this important question, regarding the purpose of the Church, but I submit, that we will greatly impoverish ourselves and others if we do not clearly understand, not just with the mind, but also feel deeply, that the Church is an organism that exists primarily to foster relationship with God; which will then spill into every other area of life. To do otherwise, is to go down a road that we don’t want to end up on. Filthy rags of self-righteousness can also comprise filthy rags of, heap upon heap of dead works and dry information. He is the Truth. He is the Life as well. Just think of Job, left gabbling and stammering after his confrontation with the reality of God Himself.

I’m talking about passion for God; the true God who transcends our various concerns and yet, deigns to fellowship with us through the gentle unfurling of the wings of His Holy Spirit, manifested to us in ways that we cannot conjure up, or perhaps, even withstand.

We are to be Christ’s followers and worshippers, not just his workers, or He, our boss. No! He is our almighty Lord, and we bow before Him. He is great, ineffable, and worthy of all praise. Now, that is something to be for.

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