CHURCH ON THE MAINSTREET [Part 2]: The Peter Syndrome

And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and

John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the

fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and

glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and

Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should

accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy

with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men

that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said

unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three

tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing

what he said. (Luk 9:28-33 KJV)

On one of Jesus’ many trips to the mountain to pray he took along three of his disciples, Peter, James and John [the three musketeers, you may say!]. As usual they were fast asleep while Jesus was praying! The bible says that by the time they awoke, what they saw was Jesus with his appearance changed and his cloths had become blinding white. They also saw two men talking with him whom they recognized as Elijah and Moses. Right after these two Old Testament Prophets left Jesus, peter made a profound statement, ‘master, IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE. Let us build three tents, one for you, one for Elijah and one for Moses’. The amazing part is that Peter made this suggestion AFTER Moses and Elijah had left the scene! At first, peter’s suggestion might have seemed like a good idea. After all, wouldn’t that be a sure place to experience the presence of God, a fixed place where we can come together as Christians and meet with God? I am sure as you read this you might be wondering how silly Peter must have been but before you cast the first stone consider the very action of the body of Christ [the Church] as we go about our business of being Christian. Today, when we refer to the church, it is almost always in terms of what happens in a certain building on special days! Church to many of us is the white building at the corner of main street where we ‘worship’ God on Sundays and where a pastor preaches every service day and counsels church members on how to deal with their many problems. The mindset of the average Christian considers Church as the place of meetings where we come together.

Therefore to a large extent, the focus of the body of Christ has been on our local church programmes and church activities. You may be wondering what is wrong with what I have just highlighted. After all, many good things happen in church [that is, the building and its related paraphernalia] and I agree completely. The problem however is that we have allowed our gathering in a building stop us from being and doing exactly what Jesus wants us to do in its fullness. We have allowed our church buildings where we gather become the central of God’s work in our lives and in the rest of creation. We have confined the power of God inside our ‘tents’ and are then seeking to bring the nations to it. When Apostle Peter said what he said at that time, the bible states that he didn’t know what he was saying. The Message translation of the bible says he blurted out without thinking! That may sound harsh but the truth is, the Church [the body of Christ] is not meant to be contained in buildings just like the light from a candle is not meant to be contained in a bucket.

What Peter wanted to do was create the first local church building and maybe call it ‘First Church of the Transfiguration’. Christians have developed the same mindset that Peter had on that mountain; we believe that it is good for us to be here [that is, in our various local churches] and when we leave after service on Sundays we do not extend the power and character of the God we serve to the world around us. We are not salting the earth neither are we lighting the world. We have effectively kept our candles under the buckets of our church gathering and men can’t see our good works so they can’t be drawn to Jesus. The problem is not our gathering as believers, the problem is that we behave as though all what God wants to do can and is being accomplished in the four walls of our church buildings. Too many Christians are hiding inside our church buildings.

It is this mindset that makes Christianity seem like religion. It is as though we ‘go to church’ [this is technically an aberration because we are the Church so we can’t actually go to church] to just accomplish the rituals and rite of the religion. Many believers are absolutely clueless on how to relate what the preacher said on Sunday to what they might be going through at work, in their businesses or at home. We have created a dichotomy between what we hear and do in our churches and the rest of our lives. We think the special things we do at special times when we meet on special days in special buildings are the sacred while every other thing is secular. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it separates us from the very people we have been sent to reach.

It is also no wonder then that Christians live ‘dual lives’ so to speak. Because we have our ‘church or Christian lives’ and our ‘secular lives’, we tend to do whatever we please in these ‘secular lives’. The same person who is so pious on Sundays and regularly encourages the preacher from the ‘amen corner’ might become the devil’s workshop during week days. Christians who sing in the choir on Sunday swear like devils on week days. Some greet you with ‘bless you’ at every opportunity but you wouldn’t want to have any business dealings with them because they will con you out of your hard earned money. If these people shake your hands, you had better count your fingers after the shake!

It seems to me that this paradigm of church is the very reason why there are still less than two billion people [out of about seven billion people] who are Christians. So much for evangelizing the world. This method of being church is not reaching the world with the Kingdom. When we talk about the ‘unchurched’, more often than not what we are referring to are the people who do not come to our church meetings regularly or at all.

When Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, he definitely wasn’t referring to our local church buildings and the meetings we hold in them. The reason why your local church congregation may be growing is that God is building his Church, the body of Christ and not buildings. Therefore, we need to make being Church in all creation, not the gatherings and activities in our local churches the focal point of our living. Let me share this short story with you. There were two friends, Johnson and Kelvin, who decided to go camping on the mountains during their annual leave from work. On the first day after a tedious climb up the steep slope of the mountain with their big backpack contributing to the drudgery of the climb, they got to where they could camp out for the night. After setting up their sleeping tent and eating a light meal, they retired into the tent to rest their tired body. Around 4 am in the morning Kelvin woke up to discover that their tent had been stolen. Alarmed, he woke Johnson and asked him what he saw. Johnson still very much in dream land replied that he could see a clear sky with beautiful stars above. To this Kelvin replied, “Idiot, can’t you see that our tent has been stolen?”

Just like this story, someone needs to ‘steal’ our tents, figuratively speaking! We have to move from our present way of 'DOING' church and start 'BEING' the church God will have us be. We have to pull down this mental stronghold that keeps the best of our experiences in God inside the four walls of our churches. We must put our candles on the candle stand so that it may give light to the whole room.