What Is the Church For?

© By Peter T. Haas

The church is a community of persons who are in Christ.[i] The church is not a building. It is not a history. The church occurs when those in Christ gather together. As a community of individuals who are united to Christ, we experience much diversity, yet Christ, by the Spirit, is our common source of light, life and love, and the taproot for our corporate function, form and flow. As Christ shows up among us by the Spirit, we experience the gift of fellowship, or “Christian communion.” Joyfully, this mystical communion transcends many human barriers and boundaries. 

The contemplative vision of the church invites us to remember who we are and awaken to the participation of God’s presence that is available to us in our union with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.The movement of the Spirit flows into the individual, through the community and outward to the world.[ii] More simply: in the Christian, through the community and to the world. Thus, the church is relational and missional.[iii]

Because we have been given the Spirit, we can consent to the Spirit’s intention to manifest the presence of God through us. To put this another way: the internal spiritual transformation that is taking place within the individual is manifested in tangible ways – in our language, our actions, our relationships, our worship, our programs, our buildings and so on. It is the outward movement of our spiritual lives which is made visible to the world. This explodes exponentially when individuals gather together as the community of Christ and surrender to their calling to manifest the light, life and love of Christ by the Spirit.

It is the intention of the Spirit to fill and form individuals into a living organism imbued with divine life and radiating divine love. This was what Jesus began with his disciples and is what continues today by his Spirit. This living, imbued constellation of life is the church. Gathered together, networked in Spirit, connected in faith, and resonating in the biosphere, the community of Christ is an impression of love upon the soul of this living planet. Beyond buildings and names, this constellation of light, life and love rises through the centuries as an unfolding and imperfect witness to the One who draws us ever into the Life. Forever we are changed by this love, and we are drawn into the presence of divine majesty here on earth. This is the location of transformation. This is the habitat of holy energies at work in word and sacrament. This is the heritage of wisdom, guarded by angels and archangels, principalities and powers. We are this living thing in time. We are this alive, radiating constellation and nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ. Our destination is a reunion with all the saints and brothers and sisters who have fired their hearts in the furnace of the Father to the praise of His glory and honor. Then, kneeling, surrendered, our hallelujah will be our breath; our being. We will be the church. The communion of Spirit and Flesh, the bride of Christ, united to our Beloved.

We belong to God. We also belong together, and God, the relational one, pours forth from the joyful depths of divine being Love, and this active, faithful love takes the form of will: a strength of intention for us to be participants, to be caught up in divine overabundance, sharing with one another what we have received in our own hearts.

There is much we can yet be. This is the vision of God for you and me when we become us, and yours becomes ours, and mine, thine.