Church Culture

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy                                          I Peter 2:9-10

I spoke to the Care Ministry Team at my church yesterday about the history of that ministry at the church. I was responsible for developing and training that aspect of ministry for 20 years. I spoke with them about our former pastor, Mike Slaughter, who had emphasized that the ministry of caring for one another was not the job of the senior pastor, or really any of the paid staff at the church. He emphasized the priesthood of every believer.

Yes, nearly all churches of any size have a staff member to coordinate the ministry of calling on those who are sick, leading prayer groups, hospital and nursing home visits etc. But in truth, the responsibility of caring for one another in the church body is- everyone’s responsibility.

This means that people need to be connected enough with one another to know when and who needs extra help. It is interesting to me how the concept of church in Western culture somehow evolved into the structure that we now accept as “how church is done”.

Don’t get me wrong, churches make honest and heartfelt efforts to care for their people and to live out the commands of Jesus to love one another. However, we also have come to see the local church through the lens of our culture. What did the early church look like? It was set up in homes where small groups gathered to pray, learn, worship, and encourage one another. Gatherings were small and intimate. The church grew because people told the stories of the transformation of how Jesus had changed their life.  People outside of those gatherings saw the dramatic examples of love shown toward both fellow believers and those outside of the faith.

We have become acculturated to understand “church” through a particular Western lens. Sometimes it is good to reflect that we are creatures of our culture, and that there have been models of church that exist throughout the world that may look very different than our churches in the United States.

Not a criticism by any means, just some food for thought.

Prayer: Lord, you have given us a diversity of how to worship and organize our faith and we are thankful for that, Amen