I walked through an empty mall to meet up with one of my missionary friends the other day. As Daniel and I pulled up on our moped I could almost see the tumble weed roll in front of me as the dueling banjos started to play in my mind. We walked in the doors and I resisted the urge to look for the “walking dead” around every corner. Sure, the mall was actually really cool but no one was there.
I’m sure there is a committee around a big wooden table somewhere talking about how to get more people to come to the mall…
The nerdy guy with the thick glasses and the comb over suggests
“Maybe if we had more relevant stores?
What if we put in more coffee shops?
We could have concerts in the plaza!….
We invested enough into this big building… We figured that if we built it then people would come…..
I couldn’t help but make the connection to the modern-day western church. And for all of the buildings we have built the truth is that our young people are leaving in droves. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-building or anti-relevant or even anti-coffee shop for that matter. For too log we Christians have been identified for what we are against rather than who we are for. But that doesn’t mean that I stop imagining what the church could be…. In its most literal term the church is “The assembly.” But too often I associate that to a boring chapel assembly…
I like to think of the church as an assembly like the Avengers are an assembly of heros for such a time as this. They are not defined by a building or even by agreeing with each other in most cases. They are all unique, broken and powerful individuals that are together for a comin purpose. They are a team that has to pull it together because others are counting on them. Their finest work is not at the pulpits or in office cubicles but out on the streets of the overwhelmed cities.
Maybe that seems childish or not very theological. Maybe you are not a super hero fan. But I am a firm believer that all of the greatest truths can be communicated to even the youngest of children….
So next time I see a little kid running around in a captain America suit I am going to give him a salut and strive to be more like him when I grow up. Because we are “The assembly”…. We are the church.
