Theological Thoughts for Thursday - An emergent understanding of church

What is church?

My experiential understanding of church is a gathering of 50-5000 people, most well over the age of 80, who all feel of sense of belonging to one particular building. Everyone is a follower of Christ, most behave at least a little differently inside the building than they do outside, and children/youth/young adults are uncomfortable ... which is good for them.

The Greek word for church, Ekklesia (from which we get words like ecclesiastical) means "the called out ones."

News was delivered by word of mouth, and it was socially acceptable to stand up in the middle of a city and to begin shouting. When a particularly interesting bit of news was being shared, a large crowd would form: an Ekklesia.

So, I wonder if we have our definition of church right. Church membership is wildly unimportant to my generation. We don't mind joining a church if it is important to someone we love, but we really don't care. I was an active participant at Toccoa First UMC, but I never even considered membership there. I think that I will remain a member at Kane First UMC all of my life. I know where I'm going to church, and I know where I belong - I don't need a piece of paper or my name on a list to prove that I belong somewhere.

In the United Methodist church, we have held that anyone can attend our churches, but only Christians, people with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, can become members. This is basically an irrelevant distinction for my generation: we just don't care about membership anymore. So many churches have unrealistic membership statistics that don't line up with worship attendance. My home church has 900 members and an average attendance of 200-300. My church in Georgia also has 900 members but has an average attendance of 300-400. In the Southern Baptist convention (I've been told) you are never removed from church rolls. I have a friend who is on the rolls of 5 different Baptist churches.

So, for the sake of statistics, forget about membership. Membership in the United Methodist church will continue to decline even if we get our act together and really begin to reach out to Postmoderns. This isn't a bad thing, it reflects a generational shift in attitude about membership. The number to watch is church attendance. How many people are in worship? How many in small groups? This is a more accurate reflection of our church involvement.

Having written all of that: my generation has a secret urge for structure. We need our churches to ask big things of us. We need to be challenged creatively to tithe and give above and beyond. We need to be asked to sacrifice for the good of the Kingdom. We need to be challenged and made uncomfortable.

I'm in South Korea right now. Everyone in the South Korean church tithes. Everyone. It isn't an option. Most give large special gifts as well. If the pastor asks you to do something. You do it. No questions asked. People get up at 5 in the morning to go to dawn prayer. I don't know if this would work in America. I know one reason it works is that the congregation knows that the Pastor wakes up at 3AM for personal prayer.

Re-cap: Church is everyone gathered to hear the good news. Forget membership. Challenge us.