Just imagine a church that...

A hindrance for many Europeans is their perception of the Church. They avoid churches in order to stay pure! They want to keep themselves clean from guilt by association (see Jan. 06 entries “Smoke, mirrors and incandescence”).
Others eschew church because it feels like meetings and school, when they are seeking spirituality and community.

One might say, “They can think what they like, but our church is not like that!” But you cannot convince them of that for as the adage goes, “Perception is reality to the one who perceives.”

A week ago, I attended a DAWN / GEM / Kontaktmission consortium in Basel, Switzerland where directors of European church planting missions deliberated various questions. One of those discussions centered on, “What is church?”

Paul Morris presenting the Christian Associates' philosophy of ministryBasel - November 2006

How would you answer the question, "What is church?" (I admit to being less than satisfied when the consortium's discussion group recommended John Nelson Darby's definition of church as a worshipping, witnessing, working - social impact - community.)

Geoffrey Bromiley says that the Church can be “described in several pregnant phrases.” ("Church" in ISBE, vol. 1, p.693). Could it really be that simple?!
He asserts that the Church is the:
? people or Israel of God (Eph. 2:12; cf. 1 Pet. 2:9-10),
? household or family of God (Eph. 2:19; 3:15; 4:6),
? planting of God to bring forth fruit to His glory (1 Cor. 3:9; cf. Jn. 15:1f.),
? temple of God (Eph. 2:21f.; cf. Jn. 2:19f.; 1 Cor. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:4f.),
? bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25),
? body of Christ (Eph. 4:15, 1 Cor. 12:12, 27).

Other pictures of the Church include:
? a building (1 Cor. 3:10-15; Eph. 2:21),
? a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5),
? living stones (1 Pet 2:5),
? a city on a hill, salt and light (Mt. 5:13),
? a shepherd and his flock (John 10:1-18),
? a wild olive branch (Ro. 11:17),
? dough (1 Cor 5:6-7),
? an ambassador (2 Cor. 5:20),
? a virgin (2 Cor. 11:2),
? a golden lampstand (Rev. 1:20),
? a chosen lady (2 Jn. 1),
? a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9).

Does your church look like any of these 18 pictures? Of course no local church fully embodies all of the essential elements depicted in Scripture, but are your church's priorities moving it toward a resemblance of these images? My guess is that Jesus thinks they should!

Blaise Pascal said, “Imagination decides everything.” Could you imagine starting all over to begin a church that embodied the meaning embedded in those images? What would you do differently? What would it look like? What would your unbelieving acquaintances think of such a church?
What if you were to release and resource some under-twenty believers that seem bored with church, to begin a church where they lived out the essence found in the above Scriptural images, what might be the result?

Just imagine…