Word Vomit: What is Church

This one deals with a book, What is Church?, there are probably some spoilers from the book in here, but I try to leave as much to the author as I can. Also, the language here in is rougher than usual, but I am running on less sleep, and therefore less filter. Enjoy:



OK, well, it has been too long…for me at least. I hope maybe you feel the same way. I am sitting here like an idiot…I have a house full of sleeping women, finally (no small feat with a 1 week old, 3 year old, and recently pregnant wife). But I had to go and read a few more pages of my book before bed, and now I cannot sleep, even though I know I desperately need it.

Reading What is Church? by Mike Bishop, kinda a random connection in that I go to church with his parents, but we have never met. I have heard his dad talk about his blog, but I just waved it off, his parents gave my wife this book and she enjoyed it and told me I HAD to read it ASAP. Because she was kind enough to not read me too much of it while she was reading it, I decided I should read it and get it out of the way. It is short and much less embarrassing to take to the hospital for a few nights than the next book on MY list, Kosher Adultery (think that would have gotten a few awkward looks from people there since I was there for the birth of my second child, this still makes me laugh when I think about it). I have been reading along, and it is a great read, something that has affirmed many of my thoughts and ideas about church and how we do things so poorly. Chapters 1-5 are good, like we think alike (and really how my wife thinks about things). Carey has been upset like I don’t get it or don’t think it is good or don’t agree or just don’t want to talk about it. It is really that it is the conversations we have been having for a while now, and it is a story of his journey living through some of the things we have talked about. Nothing extraordinary and since I have never needed people to back up my position on something (at least people I have never met).

But then I got to the new, the place where he started to take my ideas further, he completed my sentences, thoughts, and connected some new dots for me. For you who have become accustomed to my writing, this is where I tend to state, “He started kicking my ass!!!!!” This is a very positive thing…I love it…this is where my growth happens…this is where I thrive…this is awesome!

This all happened here in CH 6, Apprentices of Jesus. He talks about church as a college class, where the professor is the pastor and the students are the congregation. What I loved was this concept of going to class to get fed, but our tests are individual and not necessarily covering what we have been taught. So we go to more classes or office hours or read the recommended readings not just the required, or we lose faith in the class itself…what is the point if the tests aren’t limited to the teaching? Or that the test is from a graduate level course and we are only in a first year course? This was mind blowing to me (please read this for yourself, he shares it with much more insight and length). Being a school teacher, I got this picture so clearly. What is the point of the lessons if they are not related to the tests? And then what does that mean? What do we do with that? What is Church? (Sounds like a good title for a book).

As is pretty normal for me, I just kept right on reading instead of letting this epiphany sink in completely. Within a few pages, I came to a section talking about A.A. and how it could be a great model for churches. This is something close to my heart, hence the title of this blog. I have never had any relationship with A.A….I have never been to a meeting…I have never known of anyone who has been through the program (though I am sure I know people who have been, it has never been a topic of discussion so their attendance has been just that, anonymous)…I have never had a alcoholic family member or friend whose life was in need of this program…but I have always had a draw to this group…this concept of community…this idea of hope…this honesty…this beauty of redemption…this pain and hope being shared together in love and equality…this understanding that we are all equal in that we are screw ups, each in their own unique way. It is the same things that have drawn me to my favorite organizations I do partake in, TWLOHA and PostSecret.

In this segment, Mike offers that maybe our churches should be organized more like an A.A. meeting. He also shared the 12 common traditions of A.A. They are so powerful in their simplicity and purpose. They were created so that no one could take credit or “heroship” for what was being achieved through this organization locally and on a broader scale. It was to keep the organization in check, to keep them on their message of helping people defeat their addiction to alcohol. How did the church miss this step? How do we have so many heroes and gurus and leaders and know-it-alls and founders and blah blah blahs and la-di-freakin-da’s? How do we have so many people point the way to Him is through them? Again how can the world get it so right and we get so absolutely fucked up? Don’t get me wrong, you can see from this blog I read my “favorites” and I follow certain people (writers especially) that I cannot wait to read again or hear their new thoughts. But we have to be careful to not think or more likely ACT like that person has it all together or to help them bring glory to themselves. We can use their thoughts and ideas and sometimes even their example to help us grow, but we must be ever aware that they are not the answer, Jesus is the answer, and if they ever change that thought through word or deed, we need to let them go. It is so much bigger than a person. It is a person, who was also God.

I am not going to repeat the 12 traditions here for brevity and so I do not steal too much more of Mr. Bishop’s idea (READ IT YOURSELF!!!!!). But this does bring me to meld these two thoughts together, what is the point of “church” if the tests aren’t over what we have already covered? Secondly, can it all be covered even in a lifetime or are we always going to be relegated to some cliffs notes version? And is the answer to the first part that it is about the community and the relationships, then why are we always subjected to some boring ass, I have heard this before, watered down, spun or twisted version of some historical shit shoved down my throat, interspersed by the rare exception? Why aren’t we effectively fostering relationships, enabling conversations, consistently letting people tell their stories and their history, or just share their most recent thoughts, or hopes, or dreams? Why do went a family terribly ends up in divorce are we seen as siding with one or the other? Why can’t we love both together or apart? How is it not more about the people?

I have said it before, but I feel the need to repeat myself here…I AM NOT ANTI-CHURCH…but I do believe that we have screwed up so much in church I understand why others, Christian or non-Christian, are turned away in droves. If the church is going to survive in reality or in relevance, we must start to right this ship. We must learn our lessons, we must find that which is important, and we must get it together. We must get back to the church that God intended us to be.

I am not claiming to know exactly what that is, but I know I come alive in community, I come alive in relationships, I come alive in hearing other people’s stories, I come alive in eating together and drinking together and smoking cigars together and hanging together and watching movies together and laughing together and crying together and opening the word together and riding together and in arguing together and being silent together. I come alive in firing text messages back and forth or reading the same article or knowing my friend made it somewhere safely or knowing that I am being thought about or prayed over or that I have someone to call if/when I screw up or hearing my friend’s heart in an email or baring my soul to my four friends in a blog or sharing a book. I come alive with these people that do not judge me for my occasionally crude language or comments or unnecessary thoughts or weird takes on things, I come alive with them because I KNOW they love me for many of those things, and while they challenge me to improve, they do not require it for their love. And these are things that are not happening or being fostered in church, they are typically being done with people from my church, but we have gone so far as to not-so-jokingly call ourselves the underground so that people at church don’t find out about us and our love of community and relationship. Now that was word vomit if I have ever seen it. And only 2 hours of possibly great sleep wasted. If you are reading this, I love you…I don’t say it enough, but you mean the world to me, you keep me sane (or at least my version of it). If you just happened upon this blog for the first time and you have read all of this crap, I love you too. Just to read it all means you get me in some way, and that is pretty darn cool.