What's Your Church Look Like??

When someone says the word church to you what is the first image that comes into your mind? Some may think of the old Gothic cathedrals. Others my have a quaint one room country church in mind. Still others my have the giant auditoriums of the present day mega-church's that pops into their mind.

The other day I over heard a few women talking. They were discussing the fact that they find it difficult to worship in a church that doesn't look like a church. Apparently they were picturing a church as a building with stain glass windows, a big pulpit, hard pews, and hymnals.

This little tidbit got my brain to rolling. I began to question my self as to how I see the church. Really over the course of my life, being a PK (preacher's kid), I have seen my fill of church buildings. I have been in everything from old cathedrals in Europe to one room country churches where the bathrooms are still outhouses. I have seen the big and small and yet if someone were to ask me to describe what a church is, the building would be the last thing that comes to my mind.

As I pondered this notion I was taken to John chapter 4, where Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman by the well. I was struck by the fact that the woman at the well asks a very similar question as the one I had been asking myself. In verses 19-20 she basically says that our fathers worship here on this mountain but the Jews say we must worship in Jerusalem. I guess she really wasn't asking a question she was making more of a statement and yet Jesus replies in a wonderful way.

"Jesus declared, 'Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know: we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming wand has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worship his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
John 4:21-24

I love how God can change our selfish "us against them" mentality and turn it into a personal "this is really about you and me" perspective. Here He changes the focus from our selfish perspective of where we worship and turns it into the personal aspect of how we worship. He makes it very clear that the kind of worshipers that the Father is looking for are not in a specific place but have a certain heart attitude. They worship in spirit and in truth.

So needless to say this leads me to another question that I have been pondering for some time. What does it mean to worship in Spirit and in Truth? If that is the type of worshipers that the Lord seeks than that is what I want to be. What does this look like? How does it play out in my life?

I once had a friend ask me if I could write a book on any subject what would it be. I said that if it was fiction it would be a Historic Novel based during the Civil War, but if I were to write a book that reflected my passions I would write it on the Significance of Worship in the bible. So with all of these random thoughts rolling around in my head I have not decided to write a book, but I have decided to do a in depth study on Worship thorough out the bible. I figure there is no better place to find out what worshiping in spirit and truth looks like than to see how others lived it out before me.

All this is to say that I am going to let my readers come along on the journey with me. As I discover more and more than I will share my thoughts with you and I would encourage you to put in your own two cents. I have no shame in saying I don't know much, but I know that as I search His heart God will give me wisdom and insight into His heart of worship.