who we are

I remember the first time I heard it—every time I have heard it since then, I still hear it the way she originally said it to me. Her name was Elizabeth, and we were working together. I was in college and married and had become the assistant manager at a store in the mall, and Elizabeth was a very bright, but troubled sophomore in high school who worked part time. Elizabeth and her mom had been abandoned by her dad, and she had to work to help her mom pay the bills on their apartment. Elizabeth’s boyfriend was in and out of rehab and kept her in various emotional states of disarray. But Elizabeth was honest, and she was a true seeker—she had good spiritual questions and never had to be goaded into asking the,, especially when she found out that I was studying theology.

One day she had asked me about why I choose to go to church and be a Christian exclusively in a world full of so many other worthy religions and philosophies. I told her in my own words about Jesus and what it meant to me to be a follower of his. She interrupted me and said it: “The way you talk about Jesus is different… it’s beautiful… like you know him and he is your friend… I want to know him like that. When you say it, I can tell it is beautiful and right and true. But when you talk about the church, I simply can’t believe you. Jesus is beautiful and right and true, but the church is so… so… so… static. And judgmental, and hypocritical too. And the church is so irrelevant that it doesn’t even deserve to have Jesus as its leader.”

Have you ever wondered what we (the church) are doing here? 

Have you ever asked yourself whether or not we are missing the point? 

Have you ever been angry at the church? 

Have you ever thought that the church seems to be so busy, but so off-focus that it hurts? 

Have you ever wondered if we are missing the whole point?

I think the problem is not so much our activities (although a lot of church activities are harmful and unhelpful); rather, I think the odd or misguided activities are the symptoms... but the sickness is that we don't know our IDENTITY. 

I think many of our churches have forgotten who they (we) are... so they (we) live like we don't know who we are. They (we) lose the plot.

And we don't find the plot by finding new strategies, programs, methods, or models. We find the plot by finding the author. Because deep down, our identity is rooted not in something we have done, but in something that God has done. 

We are whose we are. We are what God has made us. God created us and will recreate us. 

And we do what we are. Identity precedes activity. Because of God's work, we know what we are supposed to do--and we do it as creatively, courageously, and boldly as possible. Because it is right, and beautiful and true.

Thank God for grace.