Quench my thirst, please.

So a friend brought up the questions, who is the church? Where are they?



These questions brought me to the past and present frustrations that come with thinking about church.



Some people go to church as a ritual, thats all. They go and put on their sunday best for an hour or so and then go home, back to their regular living. Most likely the people who fit into this category would, in a definition of the word church, describe church as the building or meeting area where people gather to read the Bible and do good things. This is sad.



Church should not be and is not just a building. It is the body of Christ.



Growing up in an Evangelical Lutheran church, I had the mindset that church was just the building, thats why we say "we are going to church", right? We would stand up, sit down, open the hymnals to sing songs, and as I sat board, I noticed the multitude of people sleeping through out the room. We would then get up when the service was done and leave right away.



When I came to college, I went to a Baptist church for a few months, and the same thing happened. Go, sit, stand, sing, listen, leave. I then switched to a Christian Missionary Alliance church, and it was a little better, wasnt as boring. I enjoyed the songs a lot more and I was actually learning something for once, but there was something missing still. And there still is. Community



In the dictionary the definition of community is:



~ a unified body of individuals

~ an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location



The words that stick out to me in these definitions are unified body, and interacting population. We were made to be with others. We were made to be in community with one another. And going by the definitions of the dictionary, I honestly do not see and have not seen community within the church. Some people do have that community from the church body, and thats great! But what about those who come for the first time? Are they getting to feel and experience that community as well? I have been going to this church for about a year and a half now and I still dont really feel apart of the community. Yes, I know people that go to that church, but that is mostly because I know them from InterVarsity.



And if someone who has been going to the same church for a year and a half still has the feelings of being new and out of the loop, how much more will those who come for the first time, or those who are not followers of Christ, feel unwelcome and afraid?



I see more of what the community of the church is supposed to be like, not in the church itself, but through the community of those involved with InterVarsity. My family is there, with them.



I am guilty of not introducing myself to those I dont know at church, but that is going to change from this point on!





I find myself looking for satisfaction in those communities, whether that be in a church building or from a small group of friends. Things seem to go great! There isnt any conflict, people interact with one another, we get to know each other on a deeper level, but then something happens. Someone forgets about a lunch date, someone talks behind your back, or just plainly disappoints you in some way. And that is when I am painfully reminded that even though friends and family are great and we need them, they will not entirely satisfy my desire or quench that thirst.



That makes me think of how much more we need to cling to the Only One who can quench our thirst. We were made for community, but even over that we were made to worship and love God.





Matthew 22:36-40



"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ' Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two things."