“… the church today is more enculturated, more taken captive by the dominant culture, more comfortable in the empire, than that radical group of young converts in the first century.” (Walsh & Keesmaat, Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire)

When I was a child I was taught bad theology (ecclesiology)! It was really an innocent mistake. Using my folded hands, I followed their instructions as to how I could form a church — with people inside: “Here is the church, and here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.” Many still portray that faulty ecclesiology (teaching regarding the nature of the church). People say, “We are going to church.” They might mean well, but their statement suggests that they are headed to a building known as the church. The reality, however, is that the church is not the building. You don’t see people in the church; we are the church!

What do we see?  A 2014 study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 70.6% of the American population identified themselves as Christians. Do you honestly believe that our country in any way, shape, or manner exemplifies what it means to be “Christian”? It is not surprising that the percentage is down 7.8% from the 2004 finding of 78.4%. People have just chosen to be honest about who they truly are.  Maybe they understand that they have been “enculturated… taken captive by the dominant culture.” Have we become comfortable with our culture? Do we somehow believe that this is a Christian nation?

Being the Church

Therefore, we need to renew our understanding of what it means to be the church.  I love the words of Paul to the Christians at Colossae… (Colossians 1:9-14)

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

It is time to (1) “be filled with the knowledge of his will”; (2) “to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”; (3) “to be bearing fruit”; (4) be “strengthened with all power;” and (5) be “giving thanks to the Father.”

What a great start for understanding what it means to be the church!