What Is Church?

There’s a war going on outside no man is safe from. It don’t matter if you 3 feet or 8’1. You’ll get eight from the 9m straight blown, wig split, melon cracked, all that on day one…

That’s Cam’ron in 2001 painting a dark picture of the world. Not everybody’s war is that dark, but make no mistake, we are at war. There’s a world outside that is constantly coming for us, and the Church should be a refuge. 

We, the people, not the building, are supposed to be a safe space, a place of harmony. In many historically Black churches, you will find everyone has a title: brother so and so, sister so and so, the Reverend, minister, and the list goes on. 

The reason for this is that during slavery into Reconstruction and Jim Crow, Black people were not treated with dignity. They were often referred to as boys and treated like they were subhuman. Church was the place where they would receive respect. They would be treated like people made in the image of God. 

Apart from Jesus, we are not what we ought to be. 

Many of us work or live in places where we are not treated with dignity and respect. Whether it’s the cruel family member or an incompetent manager, many people feel like they are fighting daily to feel valued and respected. 

We come here, in many ways, to reclaim our identity, an identity that can be attacked and questioned on a near daily basis. For some of us, the attack is from the outside. It is from the world telling us who we are and what we should be. It is from people who speak to us and about us in untrue ways. 

For some of us, the attacks are from within. Our hearts and minds lie to us daily. They tell us we are inadequate, unworthy, and destined for failure. I would argue that this is also an attack from the outside. 

I was struck by a line in the recent movie Sing Sing. This movie is about a theater company started in one of New York State’s most notorious prisons. When one of the inmates explained why he chose to act in these shows, he said, “We are here to become human again. Dance around, put on nice clothes, and enjoy the things that are not in our reality.”

On some level, isn’t that us? As members of the body, we experience our full humanity. As people who Jesus has transformed, it makes sense that we would feel alien in this world. In 1 Peter 2:11, he refers to followers of Jesus as aliens and sojourners in this world.

Here is my concern. 

It is rare for me to find people who genuinely feel as though their churches are a home. In my work with church leaders and pastors, healthy leadership dynamics and staff culture are a rarity. This is not the way it is supposed to be.

We have to be introspective enough to ask why things are this way and how we have contributed to it.

If we show up to church a little late and leave slightly, how will we foster community? If our leadership is unhealthy and isolated, what will be the expectations for our people? 

Even more, for church leaders, are we fostering an atmosphere that creates authentic connections and brings people together? Or are we putting on a great show for people to enjoy and pay their tithes into? 

The gathering of God’s people is for His glory and their good. It is among the body that we find ourselves equipped to be the people of God in this world. It is among each other that we are able to reclaim our humanity in a world that is constantly trying to erase it. 

In order to do that, we must be present, engaged, and, more than anything else, loving each other as people made in God's image.