The Church as Surprise

What does it mean to be the church? To be a messy conglomeration of such very different people trying to follow God?

I think I've always reacted against the line of thought that says Christians should cluster together in a little bubble and only listen to "Christian" music, read "Christian" books, be friends with "Christian" people, etc. And I don't think most folks who think like this are trying to be isolationist, but rather trying to keep up their values in a world that quite plainly is rather crazy. And of course, most of us accumulate our closest friends based on shared values, hobbies, experiences, etc. But you know, I grew up in a setting where more than 99% of people didn't share my beliefs in God, most of my friends didn't believe in Jesus, I listened to popular music (I am mostly proud of this except for when I think of certain disgustingly trivial and sappy songs!), and I STILL love Jesus, in fact, I think I love him even more! Discovering the American christian culture bubble in the States really freaked me out, and if I hadn't previously discovered Jesus outside of that, I think I might have fled the other way.

And the more I actually read what Jesus said, the more I become convinced that to remain in a bubble is distinctly unchristian behavior. Jesus spent most of his time with low-class fishermen, healing sick and dead people who were considered "unclean," talking to women and adulterers and the poor...the list goes on. In fact, most of his messages to the religious elite of the time were "woe to you!"

David Bosch writes, "I believe that the church discovers her true nature only as she moves from one human world to another, when she crosses frontiers, whether these are geographical, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or sociological. The same discovery applies to the individual believer" (A Spirituality of the Road). Bosch's quote really gave me some food for thought when I read it. I haven't been very good at this at all points in my life. I love interacting with people from different places and different perspectives, and being a missionary kid has meant that most situations in Thailand and the States have been cross-cultural for me in some way, but it's often easiest to press into deep relationships with people who are somewhat similar to me. This really challenges me to practice and learn to be a person who establishes relationships across religious, cultural, ethnic, class, and other borders, not just for a season, but as a consistent practice for a lifetime.

The beautiful thing about crossing boundaries is that we learn more about God and his character as we follow Jesus' example in border-crossing and as we soak in the richness of Christian thought from countries around the world. Relying on predominately western upper middle class white male theologians to interpret the Bible alone doesn't allow us to understand God as fully as also listening to how Christians in Asia or South America read the Word, and how people living in the slums of Manila understand the promises of God.

To close, a great quote about missiology (the study of missions) from theologian Ivan Illich:
"Missiology studies the growth of the Church into new peoples, the birth of the Church beyond its social boundaries, beyond the linguistic barriers within which she feels at home; beyond the poetical images in which she taught her children. The Church is led to marvel about the ever new images in which her venerable knowledge can become meaningful for the first time...missiology therefore is the study of the Church as surprise."