Ephesians 1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

To be honest, this passage comes out as very confusing in Japanese, for various reasons I won’t go into here. That said, it isn’t a whole lot better in English, because we have such a distorted view of the Church. We forget that in both the Old Testament and the New, every time we see the word, church, it is speaking of assembled people, not a building or even an organization, really. Thus, you can’t have “church” by yourself, but it doesn’t take a very big group to qualify. Jesus specifically said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20) That’s a pretty small church, but it qualifies! This isn’t to say that you can’t have times of fellowship with the Lord, just you and Him, or that worship is limited to a gathering. We should all be having such times daily, but that’s not the same thing as church. I would personally define “church” as any gathering where Christ is the Head, just as it says in this passage. Sadly, some “Christian” gatherings fail to be “church” because they fail to recognize Him and His absolute authority. A body without a head isn’t much use! Conversely, people who want to be “lone wolf Christians” are excluding themselves from the Church, and that is both sad and dangerous. What makes it more complicated, linguistically at least, is that a group of people who are connected to each other with Christ as their Head are still a church even when they are physically separated from each other. Some teachers have used the terminology of “the church assembled” and “the church dispersed” to try to make that clear. In any case, the Church is an organism, not simply an organization, and we need to keep that in our awareness.

I have tended to be a conceited introvert, thinking I didn’t really need other people, but God has really worked on me in both halves of that. He has shown me how really, really stupid, not just ignorant, I can be, and He has shown me that I cannot be what He has created me to be without other people. There was a while when I was not comfortable with that realization, but now I increasingly delight in it. I’m still not necessarily skillful at making connections with other people, but at least I realize such connections are essential. As far as this local congregation is concerned, for too much of the time it has tended to be “my church,” since I started it (or so I thought) and I did the majority of the functions in it. The Coaching teaching that I’ve been involved with for the past few years speaks of “The Seven Essences of the Church,” and one of those is “Christ-centered.” I have sought to make this church be Christ-centered, but I have had to learn that for that to happen, I’ve got to take myself out of the center. All the while talking about Jesus, I have tended to make everything revolve around me instead. How foolish! Since I am now 75, it’s obvious that I won’t be here forever, so it’s long past time for this body to indeed recognize its true Head, to be what He desires and intends.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me not just give this lip service, as I have done far too often, but truly live it out, rightly connected not only to my Head but also to the other parts of the Body, for Your name to be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!