Church

We have a lot of different ideas of church.

Church as bunker: It's where the elect go to be safe from the world.
Church as aid station: It's where we go to be healed.
Church as service provider: Give us programs.
Church as social outlet: It's a place to hang with others like us.

The problem with all these views is that they make us, the already churched, the purpose of the church.

Reading in Romans this morning (15:21-33), I saw Paul touch on what I think the real purpose might be.

Paul is describing his plans, first to go to Jerusalem to deliver offerings for the poor from the churches in Asia Minor. Then he plans to travel to Spain, a whole new mission field. On the way, he hopes to stop again in Rome.

We're talking a lot of work here. Travel in that day was hard -- there's a reason the term comes from the word "travail." And Spain wasn't going to be a lot of fun; Paul would be the only Jesus-follower on the whole peninsula.

That's why he wanted the stop in Rome: in verse 32 he says he will be refreshed in their company.

I think that, done right, that's what church is. We go out in the world, work hard, pour ourselves into ministry, and then come back together on Sunday to be refreshed. But the purpose isn't to pursue our own ends, it's to enable us to get back out there on the mission field. We talk about recharging our batteries, but the purpose of batteries is to put out energy, to do work.

Do we spend so much time doing church for ourselves that we forget our role in the Great Commission? Maybe sometimes we do.