Over the course of a week I listen to several sermons. Yesterday I was listening to Sam Barrington's sermon from The Living Stones Church.
Sam said something that made me stop what I was doing and actually write down my thoughts.
I'll paraphrase here, but he asked the question; "If somebody, who had no interaction with churches or Christianity read the Bible and then, walked into church would they see it as what they read?" Would the church they walk into mirror the church they read about in the Bible?
I sat there and thought about it, and I have to say no. Not at all. Not a bit. When I read the Bible I see some resemblance to a structure, but nothing like what we have today. No matter what denomination you are talking about, from the Catholic church to the 'independent' Churches of Christ. The church today is about Sunday morning. We hire ministers, we prepare throughout the week to have a good Sunday, then we meet for about an hour or two. We go home and that's it. But I'll also say that they weren't 'serving their community' either. In fact, I'd say they were serving each other wholly and fully. Which then won over the rest of the community by their love for each other. Did they serve their community by loving their neighbor? Yes, I'm sure of it. Did they count on the bigger church to facilitate that? No.
It was just one of the moments of clarity for me. A moment of clarity I needed.