We ARE the church

Today I saw a t-shirt with a message that was insightful. On the front it said, "I don't go to church." On the back it said, "I AM the church." It reminded me of the statement of a pastor who was being interviewed by the media after his church burned down. The newsperson asked what he was going to do now that the church was burned. The pastor's responce was an incredulous, "All the church people were in the building?" The newsperson was confused until the pastor said something like, "that was just a building. The real church is the people. My church is just fine."

We go to the church building to worship, learn and be in the presence of the people of God. But we don't live there. We go out into the world where we are usually the only "church" people ever see. When we think the church is the building, it gives us permission to be one way at church and another way when we are not there. It lets us put forward a "church" face on Sundays and fit into the world the rest of the days. A Christian, by definition, is one who is a follower of God. That isn't something we can put on and take off. We ARE the church.

I know some folks who won't put a Christian sticker on their car because they don't want the way they drive to cast a bad light on Christians. Would you be willing to identify yourself as a Christian in such a visible way - with a bumper sticker on your car, or a t-shirt that proclaimed you as a Christian? If you did, would it change how you lived your life?