Almost three weeks ago, I left Teesside and met seven other University of Arkansas students in London to begin a short study abroad trip. Now, even at the end of the three weeks, I’ve had plenty of time to think and reflect, and it is still incredibly difficult to sit here and put thoughts on paper to successful explain my summer as a Barnabas intern.
So, instead of trying to tell you everything, I will just tell you one thing that was revealed to me just this past week. A friend and I were in London on Sunday night, and we were able to attend the evening church service at Hillsong London. It could have been mainly a result of me being tired and extra emotional that day, but as soon as we began worship, I was weeping. I was completely overwhelmed by the energy of the body of Christ giving Him the praise He deserves. I think this response was brought about by a realization of what the body of Christ really is.
Coming out of a pretty spiritually dry semester this past Spring, I think I was hoping the Lord to show up to fulfill my expectations this summer. I’m not sure he did that. But I am sure that he showed up to fulfill HIS expectations. What I wasn’t expecting to learn about was the nature of the body of Christ, the Church. As an team of interns, we quickly became a living, growing image of the body of Christ. It was obvious that the Lord had picked each of us up from whatever we thought we might do this summer and set us here for a specific purpose. As we began to work and serve, we began to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses and were able to use those to fulfill His work better.
Although we had a pretty good little picture of the body of Christ inside our home and within our team, if I looked out beyond us, into the small group of believers in Teesside, I saw a completely different picture. I am very blessed to come from a community in America where there is a strong church “on every corner.” It’s not like that here. Yes, there are believers, and yes there are churches, but community looks completely different. “Church” in the Tees Valley isn’t just a building that believers travel to once a week. Most churches in the area don’t even have their own buildings to meet in. For these people, church is the interaction between the body of believers that they belong to. I think that’s what it is supposed to be. I got the privilege to witness a completely different kind of church. I watched as the believers and laborers here encouraged one another personally and walked through life together. In the midst of such darkness, that level of personal fellowship is so important.
So I guess at this point I understand the work that UK-USA Ministries is doing as taking care to encourage the body of Christ in the Tees Valley. With several different outreach projects among kids and teens through Youth for Christ, we (as interns or gap year workers) have had the opportunity to come alongside the local believers and serve them in any way we can.
Ephesians 2:19-22 says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
So, I think when I was standing in a room full of passionate followers of Christ last Sunday, I was overwhelmed because my new realization of church was one step closer to being completed. The church, the body of Christ, is in existence to bring glory to God. Whether that involves worshipping to upbeat music with a few hundred other people or fellowshipping in a cafe with two other believers, all that matters it that the Lord is glorified, that he is the main point. My time in England has taught me that maybe church doesn’t have to look like I thought. Perhaps church is, in a sense, simply a word to describe the act of glorifying God, in whatever way possible. Whatever trains believers for godliness, that’s what church is.
However believers become built up into a dwelling place for God, that’s what church is.
read this and others or watch some intern interviews here.
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