Children of God, Members of One Body

Summary

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be the church lately. Perhaps it’s because there are denomination-wide discussions on what it means to be the church together, even when we disagree; perhaps it’s related to the fact that I’m currently enrolled in an AMBS online course on Anabaptist polity–the structures we have in place to help us get things done. So, that course has me thinking a lot about the church. Or perhaps it was the move across the border, between denominations and conferences, that highlighted for me the differences between different groups of Mennonites–different ways of going about being the church. I’m struck by how much our cultural context impacts what we do and how we do it–even how we think about ourselves as church in relationship to society and government.

Or perhaps it’s the 50 years of experience in various congregations–as a member and as a pastor–that have contributed to these thoughts about what it means to be the church. Experiences of belonging and love; experiences of conflict, of discernment and decision-making, experiences of care and action; of profound worship and meaningful rituals—all of these play into my thoughts about what it means to be the church.