Lessons Learned From the Field: #3 The Church is NOT a building. : El Salvador

One of my favorite churches in the Philippines.

I'm sure your pastor has said it from the pulpit in some way, form, or fashion, that the church is NOT a building.  And I'm sure you've nodded your head in agreement or said, Amen to the notion. And although I think this is a point we could all theologically agree on, the church is NOT a building, I think it might be something we say more than something we really believe deep down.

"We can't take out the pews and put in movie theater seats! Gasp!" (If God is particular about what we sit in then we definitely need to let our brothers and sisters overseas know this because they've got some raggedy wooden benches with no seat backs, plastic chairs that don't even match, and there have been times when I had to sit on the ground or stand the whole service!) 

"Cake Walk to install more stained glass windows!" Never EVER try to remove the stained glass windows from the church, they're sacred don't you know?  The Holy Spirit wafts thru those easier than regular ones! (Again, someone really needs to let Latin America, Asia, and Africa know about this requirement, I'm not sure I've ever been to a church with window panes at all, I'm thinking they've got it figured out that the Holy Spirit wafts in through an OPEN window best of all!)

"No food or drink in the sanctuary!" I knew God was particular about the COLOR of his carpet by how upset His people get when it's changed, but He's evidently a neat freak too! (This isn't so much of an issue for the dirt floors of Merille churches!) 

"We're in church boy! You can't say that in church!" Please save all crass, inappropriate, and malicious talk for once you've exited the church building. 

I won't even talk about the use of smoke machines, secular music, several electric guitar players, a caged drummer, and skinny jeans on the platform! In church, Gasp! All perfectly okay for the concert the night before, but not. in. church!  (These are often not issues for our international brothers and sisters because of the lack of electricity!) 

Sometimes, like in the cases above, we get a little confused and think that church IS a building! But sometimes we get REALLY confused and think the church is only OUR building! Like we'll help out those from OUR building, we'll have events for those from OUR building, if someone comes from another building, what on earth are they doing here? I'll bet they're spies! As a youth pastor I used to get so upset when I would find out that my students had gone to another church just to visit and really bent out of shape if they'd decided to go there permanently! I laugh now at the ridiculousness, I mean, I was literally upset that a teenager was worshipping God in another building!!!! Opens up a seat for the kid who isn't in church anywhere!!! 

All our Western silliness is not what this is about.  I really do think we can all agree on the fact that the church is NOT a building! And I honestly didn't learn this because of sitting on a dirt floor in Africa, or the rain blowing in in Latin America, or the plastic or wood splinters in my seat from my seat in any number of places around the world. Those are just buildings like our buildings anyway! For richer or poorer!

I learned that the church is not a building on the outside of a building all together in the streets of El Salvador in 1997.  It was our first day of street ministry.  It was hot.  Half the team was to do the ministry the other half was to pray out of sight somewhere. We needed electricity for our small sound system so a homeowner let us plug into theirs.  As the people began to gather from homes and the kids began to enjoy the program, my half of the team shuffled in the alley between two homes to pray. We leaned up against the concrete sides and began to pray for the people. After a few moments I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was an older lady with a glass of water and a plastic chair which she extended to me. I gratefully took both and continued to pray.  I assumed because she had let us use her electricity and gone to the trouble of bringing out chairs from her home for all of us in the alley that she was from our church. I was wrong. Would you believe she wasn't from OUR church at all, but from the Baptist church just down the street?  I couldn't believe that a Baptist was helping ME an Assembly of God to minister in her neighborhood! Weird I tell you! Even weirder, in the end when we gathered to pray for the needs of those who gathered, she and others in the community were moved to tears and even joined us in prayer from their door stoops! Ministry happened right there in the middle of the street in the hot sun that day with people from different buildings!  

I find it funny now that I was so impacted by this in 1997 as a Bible college student and that I STILL can remember it so vividly.  As THE CHURCH this should be the norm to partner with others to help out when we can help out so that worshippers can be added to the kingdom even added to the building down the street!

I had heard it lots before, but I hadn't really seen it till that day when the Baptist lady handed me the water and chair from her home. The church isn't a building. It's not just held on Sundays. It's not a denomination. It's not a western concept or an eastern spirit. It's every man, woman, boy, and girl who has acknowledged their sinful state, repented of it, and accepted Jesus as their personal savior. 

I take great comfort when I take long road trips alone knowing that it's likely that someone from THE CHURCH lives nearby all along my route in the event of troubles, it's an immediate connection on an airplane to know that the person beside is me is going to be calling on the same God of the universe in the event of a nose dive! I've heard and made many complaints about "the Church," but truth of the matter is if there's a problem with the church we need to take it up with the person who uses our tooth brush.  If we're believers in Christ, then WE are the church, if repairs need to be made then call on the fixer Himself and place wear an "Under Construction" sandwich board for a few days till He's done what needs to be done! I'm sorry the church is in such a disarray, "He's still working on me."