Years ago we were having people over after church at our house. As we sat talking, the subject of church came up. One of my neighbors, who was also an elder in my church, was lamenting that church was getting boring.

“We come and have a few worship songs and a sermon and then we go our separate ways. Maybe we go to Sunday school and listen to another lecture. After you have done that for a while it gets dull.”

“What would make you want to be in church all day?” I asked. “I mean, what would be so interesting or inspiring that you couldn’t tear yourself away?”

That question still runs around in my brain from time to time. My answers have varied over the years. I thought, well, if miracles were happening, I would want to stay and see them. If revival was truly breaking out I’d stay. If crusty old sinners were repenting and giving back all the money they ripped off from customers, or tenants, or investors, that would be worth staying to see.

But that reduces church to entertainment. Church has to be more than that.

I remember when I first became a Christian and started exploring church life. Everything fascinated me. There were Sunday morning services, Sunday evening services, Prayer meetings on Wednesdays, pot lucks and family days at the park, and different ministries and outreaches. I wanted to do it all, and I got involved in a lot of things. Also, maybe because I was new to the faith, the sermons were fascinating.

I have found that it is hard to beat the enthusiasm of a new convert. They are so energized at the idea of sharing their faith and of fellowshipping with other believers that their zeal becomes infectious.

However, over time it wanes. Church becomes a stagnant pond. There are big fish and little fish in it and all manner of parasites to deal with; and sometimes a glaze of pond scum or algae chokes out the light and the oxygen. Then one day the dam bursts and the pond gets drained down into a living stream. We find ourselves alive again: out in the dangerous world but able to see and breath again.

Church was never meant to be pond; it was meant to be an oasis: a place to come in from the great big bad world for refreshment. Instead of a place to live, it was to be a stop on the road of life. I don’t mean going from church to church and never having a home church, I mean that the real life of Christ is outside of the building.

This current pandemic has been a blessing to much of the living body of Christ: the people that make up His bride. It has allowed us to return to our first love and to the zeal we first felt. Gone are the weekly lectures in the great hall with everyone remaining silent before the paid professional. Now we have to explore the wisdom already deposited in us from years of teaching, and apply it to our own lives. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We have to explore our own personal, private relationship with the living God.

Where has He brought you to and from what? What has He written about you in His book of life? Have you used the gifts He’s given you to bring His kingdom one step closer to earth?

How are you at loving your enemies? Praying for those that spitefully use you? If we hear one testimony a year from a foreign missionary that has been beaten for his faith, can we live vicariously through their experience, or are there adventures of our own to explore? Have we lived boldly enough as Christians that a world in need of Christ knows we are Christians?

Jesus prayed that the world would know us by our love. I confess I don’t feel loving all the time; but I also acknowledge that love is more than a feeling. Love without actions is just dead. Love moves you to action: to help one another, to support one another, to engage with people looking for more than the world has to offer.

So now we have a great opportunity, now that the church has left the building: an opportunity to see what it was like to be a part of that first church. Today we can hear the wisdom and testimonies of our fellow believers and pray effectively for them, because we will have a limited and concentrated focus to do so. People can explore the Word without an “expert” in the room; Jesus told us that He would send Holy Spirit to lead into all truth. Through the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, ministry can be done.

These are exciting times.