The Tidy Church

Some ramblings today about something that seems to keep creeping back into my head.

I have been reading about missional churches, outreach efforts, mission work, etc. And I think all of that stuff is great. Sometimes I am so concerned that we just hide inside our "churches" so we don't have to deal with the real world. We hide behind religious activity, spiritual feasts, small groups, youth groups, corporate worship, etc. Now don't get me wrong. All of those things are essential to our developing maturity in Christ, but sometimes they become our maturity in Christ.

I struggle with where to draw the line in "reaching out." I have these pre-set limits in me that are part of my religious heritage. These are what have been called lines of fellowship. "Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers." "Avoid the very appearance of evil." So we take this and hide in the 'church'. At the same time we need to pay attention to these words, because we are to live by the spirit and not by the flesh. A delicate balance.

But the life of Jesus is one of contrast to the way we have been doing church. He "ate with sinners", he hung around with prostitutes, he went to the tombs with demoniacs, he broke social barriers by talking to a divorced women who was a samaritan, his closest friends were fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, and a lover of money. Jesus was "dirty."

I think it is time for the church to get dirty. We need to get out of the comfort zone of safe, Americanized Christianity and begin thinking like Jesus. We need to get down and dirty with the world and "become all things to all men that we might just save some."

Jesus never prayed that we be taken out of the world. His prayer is that we stay in the world armed with the power of the Holy Spirit. How dirty is your church?