Lately I’ve started to acquaint going to church with ministry. Lower-cased “church,” that is - the local congregation you’re a member of. Upper-cased “Church” usually goes along with Catholics, the Pope, and generally speaking, the worldwide Body of Christ.

With the strict religious upbringing I had, going to church every Sunday has been something I’ve done at my parents’ insistence. When I started going to college, though, and I was away from immediate family influences, I still attended church regularly, this time by my own choice.

A few weeks ago I discovered (esp. since I now had a license and a car) that it’s really easy to skip going to church, because I “didn’t feel like going.” ‘Sides that, it was going to be the same old people showing up, the same old worship songs, and the sermon would fall along the same line of thought that the pastor uses to put together his regular Sunday message. Or so I thought.

[hijack](There was a water baptism during the evening service and apparently my youth pastor fell into the spa they were using as a baptismal. I wish I could’ve seen that.)[/hijack]

People tell me that when we want to skip out on church, that’s when we need to go to church the most. For some reason, I’m not really convinced of that. The local body of Christ serves many functions to the individual Christian, but sometimes the congregation doesn’t always help the Christian who’s struggling. It’s not a matter of wearing the cheerful Sunday morning mask - it’s more a matter of not being able to see past the good face someone puts on to see the problems beneath. I mean, honestly: what is the first thing someone you know from church asks you when you’ve been missing for the past few weeks? “Where’ve you been?” isn’t a great way to convince that prodigal churchgoer that you’ve really been thinking about them.

Something else that’s been on my mind about church is this: “congregation” and “church” are two different words. I like to think of the local congregation as an “ecclesia,” an assembly. When I hear the word “church,” I tend to think of a quaint building with a cross on the outside, maybe a steeple, and stained glass windows. And there’s more to the Church than just a good ole church.

(Cross-posted on DYL)