What is Church?

Our last visit was to Grace Street Ministry in Portland, Maine.  Mair Honan and Elizabeth Peterson have a four day per week ministry to the homeless in Portland, making stops at three different day shelters and two night-time shelters.  On Sundays they conduct a prayer and communion service and on other days they link people to needed resources and lead spirituality groups.  At other times Mair and Elizabeth are preaching and teaching at area churches, raising funds for their continued ministry.  When I asked Mair about her ministry she said, "We're not like other Ecclesia ministries.  We don't have a place.  We don't have a church."

I challenge her (and anyone reading this) on that.  Grace Street Ministry may not have a place, but it IS the church on the streets of Portland.  The day we walked with Mair, a young woman called out, "Pastor Mair, will you baptize my baby?"  She introduced us to her infant son and talked with Mair about her desire to have her son baptized before she leaves to do some jail time.  She also wants her new home blessed.  She has known Mair for some time now and shared the ups and downs of life on the streets.  Now she is determined to raise her son well.  Grace Street Ministry will be there to support this young woman.

THAT"S CHURCH.  Mair said it best.   "We just walk in the footsteps of Jesus."  EXACTLY.  Jesus didn't "have" a church.  Jesus walked around, met people along the way, preached, prayed, taught, and healed.  He didn't have a building or committees, and certainly no hierarchy.  He just walked around and brought the kingdom of God close, very close, to the people.

Being on the streets, bringing the church to people instead of waiting for people to come to the church, has taught me and lots of others that it is time to re-imagine church.  And by re-imagine, I don't mean changing the words we use in liturgy or using contemporary music, though both of those changes are important and necessary additions to what we have now.  No. I mean that we must imagine an everywhere, all the time church.  Church-to-go, if you will.  Church that goes with us whereever we go.  Church that doesn't stop at the door of a building, but begins there.  Church that walks in the footsteps of Jesus.  Church that is so accessible that a person can call out to us from across a city park, "I want my child baptized" and it happens.

How many times have you heard someone say that they experience God in nature?  We certainly did this week as we explored Acadia National Park and the north woods of Maine.  Perhaps if you aren't ready to take church to the streets and among the homeless, you are more ready to take the church to a beautiful suburban park or to a campground by a lake.  The point is, church is where people are.  It's as simple as that.