a church hindered

With a new site and all, I thought originally I might try to ease into this thing--maybe push a few light subjects and have some laughs. I apologies upfront.

I love the church; I love the body of Christ; and I love the fact that Christ loves us in all our messiness and dirt. I just wish the church (including myself) would learn to better love this messy, dirty world we live in, also. I wish Church was less like Starbucks--corporate, well-oiled, and a defined subculture (get out of the Northwest and you'll understand)--and more like a public house (I'll try to explain later).

Every Sunday, I get to pass a guy on the side of the off ramp exit I take. He stands in the rain alone, quiet, with no one listening... no one but a sign that reads a short addendum to a long, sad story I'm sure I'll never know. I don't know his name. I don't know what motivates him to stand there. I don't know what he thinks of hope....but I want to show him Christ; I want the church to show him Christ. Likewise, from time to time I get the chance to play music at local pubs, bars, and lounges with some friends of mine. It's an amazing experience. I love music, but stepping into a pub is entering into a community quite unlike anywhere else. There are the usual barstool-sitters, boothe parties, and nomads. But very few strangers. I love it because I can hear someone's story or share my own every time I go. I'd say it's the antithesis of Starbucks--it's organic in feel and unashamed messiness mixed with love (sometime skewed...but still a fair attempt).

What am I trying to say here...hmmm. Mostly, I am wrestling with what is Church. The dictionary tells me it's usually a building or that the word originates from the Greek, meaning "House of the Lord." The bottom line is that I want church to go beyond "my" church, Sunday morning. Maybe if I used the word "Body" it would make more sense, since it is used more often biblically in terms of the universal entity of the church. But all that said, I want to be an extension of the church/body wherever I am--in a pub, in school, at work, etc. I want the man on the side of the off ramp to experience the messy love of Christ when he encounters me--because Christ is in me. I want to BE church with my brothers and sisters from the church down the street. I don't want to be separated by the local body but kept in awe by the breadth and diversity of the Bride of Christ. Shouldn't CHURCH happen wherever we believers meet? Shouldn't Christ be manifest wherever we find ourselves (especially amongst other Christians)?

As you can tell, this is raw, rough, and not exactly concluded. But I want to ask you what IS church? And more so, what (in the life of the believer) can't be church?

(For an interesting cultural look at what the church is in some parts of our nation, I would encourage you to check out my brother's blog entry, titled "Christianity and the South." You can see it by going to http://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2005/10/christianity-in-south.html )