what the church is.

i wrote this to be featured in the blog section of the UK-USA Ministries website, but I also want to share it with you:

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.

huh.

I have probably sat down seven different times over the past month to try to write this blog post. For some reason I just haven’t been able to finish. But now is as good a time as ever. 

Today is my last day in Stockton. Tomorrow I leave for my three week adventure at Cambridge and Oxford. I could say so much about how excited I am for that, but this post is not about that. 

It’s really hard to look back on a time like the one we’ve had this summer. So much happens every single day. For me, it’s like Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret or some book like that. I can read it, and I can try to understand everything he says. But I will never know fully because I will never experience China as he did. It’s like that. I don’t think my words could adequately express my emotions or even describe the life we have lived this summer. 

Seven weeks ago, thirteen of us found ourselves in the Manchester airport after a long day of traveling. Since then we’ve seen things that most of our friends and family in the States will never see. We’ve seen centuries-old churches and abbeys, we’ve seen the North Sea, we’ve seen the beautiful English countryside. But more than anything, we’ve seen the Lord beginning to work in the lives of a few English kids, teenagers and adults. We’ve even had the chance to witness a couple of them come to know Jesus. I don’t think I will ever forget the looks on the faces of James and Jack when they are invited to join us in fellowship after a Sunday morning church service. Or the tears in their eyes when they heard the Lord call them his children. I may forget what it’s like to drive on the left side of the road. I may forget how it felt to walk through the streets of York. But I won’t forget the way the Lord orchestrated every single thing that happened here this summer. From the way our team works together to the conversations we have had with the “least of these” in Stockton. No one who knows Jesus would be able to truthfully say that they didn’t believe the Lord has had his hand on everything that has played out this summer. 

The past few months have been nothing more than a Valley for me. I have gotten discouraged. I don’t understand why it seems easier for some people. I think the biggest thing the Lord has taught me about myself this summer is that it’s not going to be the same for me as it is for the people around me. He is doing specific things in my life that will teach me better than other things would. He may keep me in this valley for longer than I think I am able to stand. But every single day I’ve got to wake up and keep climbing uphill. He isn’t going to bury me down here. I’ve realized a lot about what this part of the journey will look like. I’m walking uphill, which isn’t easy. And I may not always be able to see the peak, the mountaintop, but I know it’s there. That should be enough to keep my eyes focused on the Lord as I walk through every day. 

I think the funniest thing about life is how the Lord takes our expectations and completely flips them around. For the past three summers, I have spent my time in three completely different communities. As much as I tried to not have super defined expectations going in to it all, I did. I had a certain picture of what I thought the Lord would teach me. He just showed himself in ways I would have never expected, and every single time it caught me off guard. Perhaps it’s important to learn not to limit the Lord or think of him within out finite minds. He is so much bigger and better than we could ever think. Can't I give him a little more freedom to work in my life as he wishes?