Church?

Church, a building or a people? That is a question that is asked countless times across the ages. These incredible structures we build to honor a God who is really beyond our understanding and above our ability to comprehend, yet we try.

Isn't it like man to try to make the inexplicable ordinary and comprehendable? Why is it that mystery so draws us yet demands an answer?

At the heart of almost every city we find these incredible structures called churches. In most places it seems as though the city was built around the church yet, when you look at society, you wonder if the church has had much of an influence at all. Has the church become mere monuments to men or man's meager attempts to somehow reach the heavenlies? Better yet, is it man's desire to show the Heavenlies that he too is capable of the seemingly impossible? Who really knows the answers to such questions except the Almighty Himself.

What we do know is that the one to whom the buildings were erected seems woefully missing in our adoration. It seems there are more who come to give homage to the architecture and the craftsmanship than to the One who gave the architects their gifts or the craftsman their skills. How is it we have wandered so far from our need for faith? Do we still not see a rose and wonder how such beauty, delicacy and fragrance can be wrapped up in such a magnificent display? Do we not see a baby born and marvel at the mystery of life? Is it that in our intellectual quest for knowledge and understanding we have so understood that we are bereft of the mysteries in our own world?

I don't know the answer to these questions, but what I do know is these churches built for God, are too often filled with onlookers and not followers; too often consumed with profit and woefully remiss of the prophetic; too often filled with questions of history instead of repentance of hearts so that history not repeat herself.

These churches, once the lighthouses of Truth and morality have too often become museums of antiquities that seem irrelevant to our world and our culture. No longer do many of them point the way to salvation, but instead, merely serve as markers of faith lost and landmarks of mystery forsaken.

The church needs a revival, but not in architecture or art, but in the hearts of God's people. The church needs the fervor of parishioners who are hungry for the mystery of God and desire to celebrate the majesty of the One who redeemed their souls and has given meaning to their lives. The church needs to reignite the flames of passion for loving thy neighbor as thyself, and filling the world with the message of hope, peace, goodness and righteousness. The church needs you and me to move from our lives of complacency and onto the stage of this world proclaiming the Good News of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! The church needs the declaration to all men and women that no one is beyond the reach or the touch of a loving Heavenly Father, no one.

The church needs you and me and I pray that in her hour of need we might be found faithful.