For Wilshire Baptist Church
Spending the week transforming Wilshire’s community hall into Bethlehem for One Starry Night, I’ve been reminded again what it means to “be the church.”
When I was younger I heard often that a church is not the building but rather the people. And now I’m reminded that it’s not just the people sitting shoulder to shoulder in the pews for worship or sitting in Sunday School rooms discussing the interplay of the gospel and current events.
This week, it’s creating a village together. It’s raising tents and standing on ladders to hang fabric. It’s digging through boxes that haven’t been rummaged through in four years and trying to remember what goes with what. It’s moving furniture and hanging signs. It’s mixing paint and making homemade play-doh and drying herbs and cutting thread. It’s taking a break to eat sandwiches and talk about life and mutual acquaintances and vacations we hope to take someday. And before all that, it was meeting together on Sundays at noon and planning months in advance for a crowd that may or may not come.
It’s people doing mission together by building a village to welcome a community to touch and feel and see the real story of Christmas. Friday night, it will be putting on robes and sandals and inviting neighbors we don’t know to spend a starry night with us in Bethlehem. And whether or not those people come back on a Sunday to worship with us, on Friday night they will “be the church” with us.
A few weeks ago, to “be the church” was to sit in pews together and select a new pastor to lead the church. As it turned out, 99% of us were in agreement about that, which is beyond wonderful. But when the new pastor comes in January, he won’t be coming to a church that is just people sitting in pews to worship and hear him preach. He’ll be coming to a church that likes to build community together — whether it’s sharing our faith and our resources with neighbors in ways that will last a lifetime or building a village that will share a story of hope and grace for just one starry night.