Intro: What is Church?

What do you think of when you hear about “the church”?  Whether that be your local church or the Body of Christ as a whole?  Honestly, being raised in a family and environment where church was okay, if not normal, I do not get a tingly excited feeling when I think about the church.  In fact, I think back on my Southern Baptist understanding and association with “church” and I get a bunch of well dressed and well-behaved people sitting up straight in pews or very uncomfortable chairs listening to an older and wiser man preach from a pulpit that is usually twice his size.

When I think of the church doing stuff, I think of potlucks, a game of flag football in the park, mission trips, or doing yard work in a neighborhood as a youth group.  And when I consider what the church is within society, I see it as part of the community.  A place of peace and grace where with open doors inviting people in to meet Jesus and change their lives so they can fit in with the rest of the well-dressed and well-behaved people.  And I’d like to think that is a fairly accurate and okay view of the church.

I have felt a great sense of unrest recently about my views and associations with the church, its people, and its purpose recently.  I hate and reject the notion that church is for the elder and the civilized and that a wild young man with dreams of swords, kingdoms, and an epic adventure is out of place on Sunday mornings. And yet, when I look around at my generation whose life is consumed by Call of Duty video games, dating, and being popular, I can see why so many find the idea of Sunday School to be unappealing. 

I have struggled with this.  Does church have to stop being “church” or do the teens have to grow up and extend their priorities?  I have attended churches with dead or even nonexistent youth groups and I have attended churches with youth groups huge in number, and yet small in spiritual growth.  Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.  I hope to one day witness a group of people my age who, as the majority in a group, are working fervently and passionately for God within and outside the church.

But what is it that is lacking in this situation?  Is it the church refusing to cater to a new generation or is it a new generation feeling that church is old, irrelevant, and dry?  Perhaps it is both.

I am coming to a revelation about what the church used to be, is meant to be, and what it sometimes is in America.  As a young adult, I am greatly familiar with the interests, dreams, and desires, of teenagers, especially guys.  And I have a great desire to see young people my age and younger to truly be excited about church.  But truthfully, if all the people my age see in church is a Sunday Morning service where they have to dress nice, behave, and sit still…and then the occasional community project on the weekends, they will miss the point of church. 

In this short series, I will be posting my passions in life as a young man, and how I see the church, and more specifically, Christ, bringing that out in me.  I see church as a way maker, not an obstacle to achieving my great dreams and purposes in life.  I know that most people my age do not share this view though.  In fact, my generation is hostile against church, religion, the very idea of God.  And until people my age see church as something beyond boring or just tolerable, I fear greatly for the future generations and the heritage Christians will leave behind.

So again, what is the church?  I look forward to exploring this concept in my next post.