A few years ago I was riding in the car with my best friend and some of my nephews. They both happen to be Pastor’s kids and they love talking about the future of who is going to Pastor the church when Dusty is no longer the pastor. Malachi, the oldest, was saying what he would do to fix the church up and maybe build a basketball court. Titus chimed in with all his dreams of building a gym, basketball court and maybe a football field and many other fun things. Immediately Malachi responds with, “Umm Titus church is about church not stuff”. We all laughed and brushed the comment off. However, the phrase has stuck with us ever since. Every time we think the church needs more things or we want to build something new, we jokingly say, “Church is about church not stuff”.
This phrase has been so evident while being on the mission field.
This month we have had the amazing privilege to visit different churches around the Cajamarca area. These churches have varied between large buildings to small shack-like rooms with cardboard walls. Each night my team and I would travel sometimes up to an hour to visit new churches and each time we showed up to one I was always surprised by its appearance. (I’m not exactly sure why I was so surprised, considering this is what most of the churches have looked like on the race.) These churches had dusty dirt floors and were built with dried mud bricks. They had very few benches and a small podium for us to stand behind and preach. Although these churches have very little material aspects, they were very rich in the presence of the Lord.
When I see the church members who are attending church at 7:30 on a Tuesday night, I know their love for the Lord. I know their desire to hear the word and to be around other members of the body. I know their love for the Lord by their actions; they show up to church where there might not be power that night, and they stand huddled in a blanket for warmth because of the harsh cold nights. This makes me so happy to see, but in another sense it’s so sad. I think about home and churches in America who put hundreds of thousands of dollars into a church building or into the right lighting or the sound equipment, so that their church will reach people. Now I am not saying that a nice building, lighting and sound are bad things because trust me they aren’t. However, when those things become our focus we lose the real reason of why we are going to church. It’s not about the cool music, the lights or the comfort of heat on cold nights, its ultimately about God and his son Jesus who paid it all for us.
Now when I make jokes about our phrase church is about church, not stuff, I have much more to think about. I will think about all the small churches that I preached in Peru. I will think of huddling in my blanket in the dark just to spread the Gospel to a church. I will think of the wonderful men and women that I met who serve the Lord despite their circumstances.
Here are a few pictures of the churches we visited!!
