A Mending Shift

a bird sings, not because if has an answer to give, but because it has a song to sing … this is my song

What If “The Church” Was Invisible?

desolate_churchWhat if we, as the church, were invisible? What if we had no church buildings? No signs declaring a church location? No denominations or headquarters? No mega weekend gatherings? No Christian radio presence? No Christian stores? No Christian bumper stickers or other outward personal identifying stuff? What if the Yellow Pages didn’t have a “church” category and if you Googled “church” it came up with no search results? What if there was no such “thing” as the church? Would there still be a church?

What if we, as the church, were invisible? What if we simply lived the life of Jesus, speaking and displaying his love to the people we knew and came in contact with on a daily basis? What if we as followers of Jesus simply did just that? What if we gathered quietly in homes to break bread and encourage each other in Christ; where our goal would be to simply live as agents of God’s restoration, serving God and the “other” in real and tangible ways? What if church were not a weekend thing, but a people who radically lived behind the cultural scenes bringing God’s kingdom to earth?

What if God’s church was more like a tiny mustard seed instead of trying to be the biggest oak tree on the hill? What if Jesus’ church was more like a tiny amount of yeast…itself unnoticed, yet quietly transforming and restoring people and, in turn, culture? What if the Holy Spirit’s church sought to be the last and the least—a servant? What if the church daily sought self-death—dying to itself and loosing its life in order to find it—instead of doing all it can to save its life? What if God’s church chose to sit down in the least honored seat of society and culture, instead of clamoring and fighting for the most prestigious one? What if the church “thing” disappeared and all that was left was the church—people who realize they are forgiven and loved by God and who actively want to be a part of his restorative and healing work in the lives of others?

In other words, what if the church was invisible—or even better: visible, yet invisible? What if?

[Originally published 2008]

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This entry was posted by on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 8:52 am and is filed under blessing, Christianity, church, Church Re-Formed, emergent, fellowship, God, Jesus, Kingdom of God, love, missional, theology, transformation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Jeromy Johnson
I live in Folsom, CA, with my wife, Jennifer, and three kids. I am surrounded by and cared for deeply by some great friends. Their love for me is truly a moonlit reflection of Papa's love, and for that, I am deeply blessed and grateful.

Comments

  • Derek

    Hey, glad to see something new (well, old, but everything old is new again, right?)

    Isn’t that the model of the ‘early church’? It’s easy to read the current ‘state of church’ back on to the text, but reading acts and the letters, clearly the early ‘chruch’ was not a single entity. From very early on it was radically divided on important doctrine (Jesus’ divinity, the meaning of his death and supposed resurection, jewish vs helenistic revelation and other crucial issues)

    The new testament writers didn’t even use the word church (and ‘christianity only once in the greek). What we call the church was simply jewish people worshiping at the temple and in synagauge (spelling, sorry) who also believed that, in Jesus, some or all of the messianic claims of the old testament had been filled. They are reffered to as ”The Way” and clearly meet in peoples houses, certainly not massive building devoted soley to christian worship. And thier biggest concern seems to be ‘one-anothering’, or helping a brother out.

    sounds a lot like what your asking for.

  • http://fredshope.blogspot.com Fred

    Invisible like something viral, spreading from person to person. With very visible results.

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    Viral, I like that.

  • http://www.godheartministry.org Wendy

    This deserves a huge AMEN!

  • http://www.lovedmuch.com Toby

    Gets better every time I read it. Glad you posted this again!

  • Sam

    Based on the statistics I have seen, there are somewhere between 300,00 and 400,000 churches in the USA. Sounds like a lot. I don’t know how someone came up with these numbers. But if they are anywhere close to correct, how many people does that mean are on the payroll? Would it average out to at least a couple of full time positions per church? Do any of us think there is any possibility that all of those people would stand by silently and allow their churches to become invisible? Would not their paychecks disappear also?

    What would happen if all of those churches sold their billions and billions of dollars worth of property, pooled the money, along with the money in their bank accounts and set up foundations in each city or town, funded by the interest on the pooled money? Each foundation would serve its city or town, especially the poor. Each foundation would be limited to a few paid staff members. Volunteer “invisible Christians” would do most of the serving.

    Is there any chance any church will do any of this of their own free will? Is there one example of any that have?

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    Sam, I would offer that the business aspect of the church would never allow this to happen, but deeper down, I think the heart of the church longs for this. It would definitely require a rethinking of most of the things we do, why we do them, and how we do them. Some things might remain (like the IDEA of gathering together for mutual encouragement and edification) but even those would look different (no large structures, but gathering in homes, perhaps). Is there one example? I am sure there are many, but by their nature you probably don’t see or hear about them too often…at least if you are not in relationship with them.

  • Sam

    I’ve read about two or three churches that we’re folding/closing that gave their remaining assets to other churches (institutional). In some denominational systems, remaining assets and properties revert to the denomination. (Sometimes the properties are owned by the denomination all along.)

    However, I’ve never heard of a single church that has eliminated its paid staff and given its assets to the community, especially to the poor of the community. Wasn’t it last year that Jonathan wrote a “parable” about this on his blog and no one knew of any examples where it had actually happened? I was hoping that someone reading this could tell us of some group that had actually done it, and tell us the name of the group and where they were located.

  • Derek

    I don’t know of any ‘churches’ in a traditional sense that do this, but their are certainly a lot of other movements that get closer to this reality. communities like the new monastic Rubta House in NC, or the Simple Way in Philly pool money, have no ‘pastor’ and work towards the benifit of a greater community. visit http://www.newmonasticism.org/ or http://www.thesimpleway.org for more info on these groups, or to find one closer to you (there are a good number of them spread around the world)

    there is also an interesting idea you can read about at http://www.relationaltithe.com, where anyone can tithe into a big pot and request to recieve from the big pot as well. an interesting technology age way of creating authentic community. (i’ve really over simplified it, but chech it out for more info)

    Some house churches also approach ‘doing church’ in similar ways, meaning without a pastor or paid staff, pooling community resources up to and including housing for members.

  • Derek

    also, on the point of selling property, I actually remember hearing that catholic diocese, due to the incredible financial costs of the sexual abuse lawsuits, have been forced to sell off some church buildings or other properties.

  • http://asdika.org hafida

    when i visit mosques , one bigger than the other , i love the Art !……and i love that there is a place designed only to worship and as sign for the existence ….then i have this feelings i want to visit the ruins of some cathedrales ( i live in Europe) just to get the sense that once christianity was here with all the imperfections of all of us as humans.

  • http://asdika.org hafida
  • http://asdika.org hafida
  • http://brokenpilgrim.wordpress.com Aaron G

    I think the great think is that there is already many Christ followers living this way all over. We just don’t hear a lot about them, because they are invisible, and don’t announce their good works for every one to see.

  • Adam

    Derek has it!

    All I can add is “What if the word church (or chruch as Derek has it. LOL) became invisible in the vocab of followers of The Way”?

    Along with the other “nvented” words that reinforce a system of religion like pastor, deacon, bishop. Just to name a very few.

    Let’s leave all those words to the Christians and renew our minds with the words the Holy Spirit really uses in the scriptures.

  • Kyle

    Sorry, Adam, “pastor”, “deacon”, and “bishop” (also translated as overseer) are all words taken from the Biblical text, plus “elder”. You might argue that we don’t use the words for entirely the correct roles, but the fact that the language is in the Bible means that different roles in the church are acceptable and even necessary. My criticism occurs when these positions are given not to those with specific gifts that fit, but rather when they become political positions of power – not cool.

  • Adam

    Sorry, but respectfully beg to differ. The words are in most but not all bibles.

    The word Deacon for example is not a translation of the greek “Diakonos” but a transliteration. If one were to use the real translation it gives different meaning to the scriptures where it is used. same goes for bishop. There are many others. Now if everyone was told by their pastors what the word deacon really meant it would not be so bad but then maybe they would start to ask what pastor means as well and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

    Elder is slightly different as it is a direct translation. The problem comes whereby it is taken as an office and not a reality.

    The trouble with all these words is that they were designed to validate clergy/laity divide and thus do not belong to the Body.

  • Adam

    btw In the bibles that use “Deacon” they all somehow translate the word differently (and correctly) when it applies to a female — strange!

  • http://jeromyj.com/mendingshift/ Jeromy Johnson

    Adam, you bring up an interesting point. What are the two translations/definitions of deacon? The correct and incorrect.

  • Adam

    διάκονος
    diakonos
    dee-ak’-on-os
    Probably from διάκω diakō (obsolete, to run on errands); an attendant, that is, (generally) a waiter (at table or in other menial duties); minister, servant.

    But I commend our sister Phoebe to you, being a servant (diakonos) of the assembly in Cenchrea, (Rom 16:1)

    But having called them, Jesus said, You know that the rulers of the nations exercise lordship over them, and the great ones exercise authority over them.<b? But it will not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your servant; Even as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
    (Mat 20:25-28)

    Hope that helps to show that Jesus heirarchy is one of servanthood. Servant leadership. Overseeing in the sense of “looking out for” or “watching over to protect” not bossing over as we understand overseeing to be!

  • http://www.tsdi.wordpress.com mooney

    Love it. Guess that’s why I’m still linked to it from my blog. Less of me, more of Him.

  • Beau

    “I would offer that the business aspect of the church would never allow this to happen,”

    Isn’t the business end of the church the part we would all like to see disappear. Is it not the “business end” of many churches that tend to get them into trouble and veer off the path.

    IMHO simpler is better in all things. Including my church. Smaller is better. Including my church.

  • http://gracetalkwithdaveda.blogspot.com Daveda

    Hi there, I came over here from Walking in the Spirit. I enjoyed reading this post. This is something that the Lord has been changing my heart for a while now. We do still have a church, but I see things in the system I never saw before and we find ourselves going less and less. More and more we feel the Lord shifting us to simply being the “church”…feels a bit foreign, yet so very free!
    It’s been nice “meeting” you, please stop by and check out my blog, I would love your feedback.

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