*Part 4 of 4 in a new blog series by Matt Bridges

So What Do We Do?

We must reclaim the word “church” so that the original meaning and intent is not lost for good. And for many of us, it will mean claiming a new identity in our lives as believers individually, and collectively. Making this mental and communicational shift will be an incredible step toward reclaiming and I think practicing much of the gospel in our daily lives in brand new ways. Claiming this identity as a people equips us better as followers of Christ at the outset to live into the charge to make disciples, baptize, and as my denomination promotes “make disciples for the transformation of the world.”

I believe this shift in language and action has the power to revolutionize how we live into these lofty and faithful goals of being a relevant presence in this world for God. Living as the church enables believers to be the people who tell of the Good news anytime, anywhere, and under any condition. An unhealthy pattern we have, and even sometimes promote as leaders, is that we invite people to a place where God is talked about and that’s where “church” happens. This is an unhealthy model because it makes the evangelism limited to a place, and it allows people to pass off the telling of the good news on someone else. What to do? We embrace the church as us, a people, and we unbind the ways we’ve bound the gospel. It’s going to take work in our heads and hearts though.

We have to change our language, and sometimes that means adding words. In an age of trying to streamline much of our existence in both form and expression (virtually any form of sources we look to as a hub for communication promote expression with as few words or symbols as possible), we don’t always like to upset this norm. But I believe we must if we want to recover generations of whittling down such an important word, and meaning, and state of existence.

After all of these words, I think of my friend Daniel. My friend and brother in Christ Daniel O’Doherty, a pastor in the Assemblies of God denomination where I live, told me he makes sure to end his service each week with “Let’s go be the church!” And his congregation leaves the sacred space of worship as a people back out into a different part of the world to be the people who follow Christ, who rely on each other for how to follow Christ, and live on as the Body of Christ, the church.

So, I want to end the same way. Go be the church if you believe and follow Jesus. Don’t be attached to a building or event in time and call it “church.” If that idea of church has been weighing you down and giving you reason or excuse to not pursue a daily life of faith, be free of it. Be connected to your faith and life in Christ like never before. Invite people into a relationship with you, and then show them where and how the church lives out their faith when they meet together on occasion. Take the time to help a person become part of the church by helping them understand the power and beauty of being a follower of Christ. Go back to the beginning of this article. Have the phrases above changed for you? How?

 Rev. Matt Bridges is an ordained elder in the United Methodist church and currently serves in New Mexico as the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Lovington. Matt has served in ministry in one form or another for the last seventeen years. In particular, he has a passion for music ministry and other types of worship ministry. In all of the things he’s learned in ministry, if he were to write a book on worship right now it would most certainly be titled1001 Times (and counting)  I said “Well, I’ll Never Do It ThatWay Again” in Worship. He is joined in ministry by his wife, Corinne, and daughter Emilie. And they all love being the church together.