permanent residence at the zoo...

The past few weeks of trying to find a church to intentionally sow into while I live in Alberta has felt like an old game played on first nites of camp. Everyone would get a piece of paper with the name of an animal on it. At the flick of the light switch, you would walk around the room, giving your best impression of the animal in attempts to locate like-sounding suckers.

So the lights have been shut off, and I'm bleating like a sheep, wondering why I can't hang out with the horses for a while...
The church is a phenomenon of the modern age...a walking paradox of beliefs, understandings, practices, experiences, convictions, externals. I find it fascinating that ONE body unified by ONE God can host such extremes! The funny thing (and scary thing at times) is that there is no stereotype for Christians. We are not bound by a limited demographic, class, gender, or style. We bear the artistic brush of a unique God using different mediums to paint a portrait of His bride that lies beyond human definition.

I have walked through the doors of countless buildings, all perfectly content with the thought that the way they "do church" is "the way" church is done. And as they sit comfortably in the pews of their understanding, they often can get caught up with thanking the Lord they are not one of "those people"...

The ones that sing only psalms.
Hymns.
Choruses.

"Those people"
The ones that stand poker straight.
Raise their hands.
Fall on the floor.

"Those people"
The theology driven.
The emotionally experienced.
The emergent.

"Those people"
Old-fashioned.
Trendsetting.
Modern.

But if we will only open our eyes a little wider, we will realize we all fall under the category of "those people"...

We have tidy labels that try to define "us" from "those" people...
Charismatic.
Baptist.
Reformed.
Alliance.
Pentecostal.
Lutheran.
Countless threads of differences, all claiming to follow ONE risen God.

As I've sat in the back rows of churches I am a physical stranger to, I wonder at what God's thoughts would be of today's church. What He thinks of the lines that divide us...the styles that separate us. I often wrestle with the reality of what the body of Christ looks like...
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ..."

We have all been baptized into ONE body by ONE Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit...

but our bodies have have many parts, and God has put each part just where He wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part..." I Cor. 12:12ff

Thankfully there are those who long to see the body of Christ function as a whole.
But there are those who amputate body parts that are not like them.
There are those who are ignorant of any part but their own.
There are those who don't care for anything outside the lines they've drawn in the sand.

There are those within the body that are so tightly laced, they cut off circulation - not only to the rest of the body...but to their soul. On the flip there are those so loose in their beliefs, they are tolerant to anything and everything crawling into bed with them. Being a part of the body means celebrating the mosaic of differences, while maintaining the truth that has set us free.

Being a Christian involves an action on our part: an intentional connection - not just to Christ, but to His body. His bride.

And what a bride she is!
The honeymoon is definitely over...and waking up beside her has been a little bit scary at times...
and yet I need to see her and love her as Christ does.

And so I find myself in places I may not necessarily have chosen for myself,
but I'm growing. I'm learning. I'm sowing...
I'm hanging out with another species, appreciating the differences, and recognizing we are all a part of the same zoo!

Anybody wanna hang out with the chimps next?!!