Church Revisited

A while ago I was talking to one of my professors at Multnomah. I told him that I'm on staff at Good Shepherd, and he replied, "Good Shepherd? That's Stu Weber's church, right?" I remember replying, "Stu would hate that you just referred to it that way." And I was able to say that because it is true. Stu is always greatly thrown off when people refer to our church as "Stu's church." His reply is, "There is only one Good Shepherd, and it isn't me."
Some might say that this is just a matter of semantics. What my professor meant was that Good Shepherd is the church that Stu Weber pastors. Still, there is something powerful about the words we choose. They reflect our (sometimes unconscious) thoughts. When I refer to Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minesota as "John Piper's church," I am reflecting that I think Bethlehem Baptist Church is about John Piper. That is sad (and I know that John Piper would agree with that).
No church belongs to any one person.
Things brings me back to the issue of how we relate to the churches we attend. I mentioned in a previous post that sometimes we say things like, "I didn't get anything from the sermon," or, "I didn't have a good worship time." When we say things like this we reveal that we really think the church is all about us. The perception is that the church exists to equip me to go out and live my individual Christian life.
Here is another one.
Sometimes churches go through changes and adjustments. One thing that might be spoken by long-term members is, "This just doesn't feel like my church anymore." This is troubling.
This phrase could also be spoken by us when we visit churches. "That church just didn't feel like a place we could call home. It just didn't feel like we could call it 'our church.'"
Is this semantics, or is this revealing our thinking. If someone says, "This church just doesn't feel like my church anymore," they often mean that they don't feel at home with the worship, the style, or the people involved. The fact is, if one of us says, "This church doesn't feel like my church anymore," the rest of us ought to reply, "Good. It's not your church. It belongs to Jesus."
Are we splitting hairs here? I really don't think so. We often believe that it is valid to say, "I just don't feel at home at this church, so I am going to look for a new one." This is not right! God has not called us to look for a church in which we are comfortable. If we are comfortable in our churches, that might be a bad thing. Comfort can stunt our growth and cause us to become grossly complacent.
Is Good Shepherd my church? No. Good Shepherd doesn't belong to me. Jesus is the owner of the church. He is her Savior, her Head, and her Bridegroom.