Weekday church

I sat in our church cafe today, people watching. Such a huge range of people from so many walks of life each there for their own needs, each there for their own reasons but together they came because they knew that they would find what they needed in that place. What does church mean to people? Not everyone there today has faith in Christ yet so what do they come looking for? Why there? It got me thinking about the complexities of church. So many say the numbers on Sundays in churches are dying but are Sundays the most important part of Church? Sundays to me have always been the training day, the learning day and sure that is super important but there are 6 also very important days in the week and look at how much happens then!

When I was younger, Church was a building, a place we went (sometimes not so willingly) every Sunday. Where older people wanted to know everything about you and your parents took great pleasure in filling them in, then they would wander off telling me they would pray for me, I never was to sure if that was a good thing!

As time went on Church became a place I hurried past, I look ashamedly at as I crawled out the pub opposite. Other times it was a warm building to get a good meal in. Its purpose for me had lost any connection with faith or God it had become another building made of stone that did kinda nice things. I remember two or three times during uni just something pulled me back, something made me think well maybe I should wander in just one more time and see what happens. I even made it along to a teens and twentys group. But I went along hidden behind such a huge mask that what was said and what was done only scratched the surface, a surface that wasn't me.

But when I became a mum something happened. Cracks appeared in walls around who I was. In a fight for survival over the years so much of me had died but now here was this life, a life I now know was a beautiful gift entrusted from God. How could I who couldn't even look after myself look after something so precious.

A need to care for her, prompted by my husband took me to another church to a baby and toddler group. But here I didn't find empty stone walls here I found a God. I met a God through people, through people who opened their hearts so much to him that in them I could see him. In them I met him, through what they did and how they did it. My baby girl brought me to a place for her to make friends, but in reality I made the best friend I ever could have.

So what did that teach me about church? It is not a building, nor a group of people. It is a heart, it is journey with others who believe and who are starting to believe. It is not a place to have faith and do nothing, it is a place to learn, to grow and to share, not just with those in the building but all around. Maturity in faith doesn't produce mission, maturity in faith comes from mission. We need to take responsibility in faith, just like those in the bible Jesus so quickly gave missional responsibilities to, people from all walks of life. I soon learnt church is about engaging people through caring and loving, about establishing them in faith, about equipping them and teaching them and then about commissioning, setting them free to start their journey with the people they know.