“ … you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house …” (1 Pet. 2:5).
The baseball diamond sitting in the Iowa corn fields is almost as iconic as the tagline for the movie, “If you build it, they will come.” Ray Kinsella, a failing farmer, heard voices telling him to convert his farmlands into a playground. They said he was crazy. They accused him of being nuts. Had he been in the sun too long? But he built it and they came. First, a slew of blackballed baseball players from the great beyond, or simply within the cornfields, emerged to play on Ray’s field. Then, at the end of the movie, a throng of spectators came to pay good money to watch these guys play America’s favorite pastime.
It wasn’t heaven. It was Iowa.
God is in the midst of a construction process. He’s not converting corn fields into baseball fields, he’s converting damaged people into a great house. He’s developing an organization, he’s creating an organism. He’s not building buildings, he’s building a kingdom one person at a time. In the process he’s hoping they’ll come . . . to him.
I love church. I’ve spent my entire life streaming in the lifeblood of church, and I’ve given my adult years to preaching in a local church. I wish building a church was as easy as converting cornfields into baseball fields. But like baseball, American churches are losing the ratings battle and under fire. Sundays stand in direct competition with so many other extra-curricular activities. It’s hard to choose church over a weekend at the lake, isn’t it? It’s hard to prioritize church when we’re worn out from a long week. It’s hard to prop church up as the best event of the week, when it’s clearly not. But I still love church.
When God builds his church, we can find a number of purposes or functions for the construction. First, he’s providing a community linked to the present and to the past. His church has been in play for 2000 years and when we gather we connect with the saints of old while we live in the modern world. We also connect with saints present and not present. When Sunshine’s group heads to Honduras, our gathering will be connected to their gathering, though in two different nations. We have each other. Church, and more specifically Christianity, was never meant to be an individual experience, but lived out in community.
Secondly, the church provides the means to express and nurture faith. When we assemble we have the greatest opportunity to vocalize our confession and beliefs. Our songs and prayers announce our trust in God. Partaking of the Supper visually represents our commitment to the Savior and to each other. With churches come multi-generational layers so that the old may stand with the young. Old folks get to witness the enthusiasm and hope of the young, while the youth get to enjoy the deep streams of faithful living. Like sharpening iron, bringing old and young together makes us sharper, not duller.
Finally, the church is where God is glorified (Eph. 3:21). Our works are conducted, not to boost our name in the community, but to boost God’s name. The world is looking for God, and his church gives the world some of the best evidence for God’s presence. So when God transforms people we don’t take the credit, but credit him for the work he’s doing in our lives.
When the church is at its best, people will look for God in church. But the loyal community, the environment for faith to grow and where God is truly glorified must be in place. Only then will people ask us, “Is this heaven?” We can humbly say, “No. It’s just church.”
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e. only God is glorified!)