If Jesus returned this Sunday, what would He find you doing – watching church, or being the church?
That was the question I posed this past week as we finished our summer study of You Are a Theologian by Jen Wilkin and J.T. English.
The two topics we covered were, to borrow some more “Fancy Nancy” terms (as I explained in my previous post) ecclesiology (the study of the church) and eschatology (the study of last things). On the surface, these two topics might seem separate from one another, but the truth is, they are inextricably linked.
For many of us, church has quietly become something we attend, evaluate, stream, or fit into our schedules when convenient. We ask whether the music suits us, whether the ministries meet our family’s needs, or whether the preaching keeps our attention. But Scripture gives us a far weightier picture: the church is not a building, a program, or a weekly event. The church is the bride of Christ, a unified body of believers, living stones being built up together into a temple for the glory of God.
Most of us know the ache of wanting to belong. Some of my earliest memories include the first day of kindergarten, looking around the room and wondering where I would fit. But what takes longer to learn is that this longing is only truly fulfilled in Christ. In Him, we are not merely welcomed into a place; we are joined to a people – His body, His bride, His church. And that kind of belonging is never passive. To belong to the body of Christ is to have a place within it, a purpose for it, and a responsibility to it.
And if Christ is coming again, as we believe He is, then our role in His church is not optional. We are not called merely to participate when it suits us, but to take ownership as members of His body – serving, encouraging, giving, praying, and proclaiming the Gospel with urgency until He returns.
The question presses us to confront one of the most dangerous assumptions in modern Christianity: that we can belong to Jesus without belonging deeply to His people.
One quote from our chapter discussion of the book captured it well:
“Christian individualism is an oxymoron.” (You Are A Theologian, pg.160)
We were immediately confronted by the modern cultural assumption that Christianity can be lived as “me and Jesus” without deep connection to Christ’s church. A personal relationship with Jesus is real, but it is never merely private. To belong to Christ is to belong to His body. If you are a believer in Christ Jesus, church can never be merely a place you attend. It is the body to which you belong.
If you are a believer in Christ Jesus, church can never be merely a place you attend. It is the body to which you belong.
– Cory Wise
The church — the ekklēsia (Greek word most commonly translated as church), the called-out ones – is not defined by a building, service, program, or weekly event. The church is the people of God, living stones joined together and built up into the body of Christ, our Head. Paul says very plainly: “Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). A hand cannot say to the foot, “I don’t need you,” and one believer cannot say to the church, “I don’t need you either.”
One Christian alone is not the church in full expression; he or she is one living stone. But when believers gather as Christ’s people, the church becomes visible. Peter describes believers as “living stones” being built together into “a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). A stone by itself may belong to the temple, but it is not the temple in its full expression.
When the church gathers, our purpose is not to sit and consume spiritual content. We gather to worship together, to be challenged through teaching of the Word, to encourage one another, and be strengthened to go back into the world as witnesses of Christ Jesus and makers of disciples. Then, we come back weary from the world to be refreshed by the body so we can be sent back out and do it all again. Hebrews gives us this same pattern: “Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together…but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24–25). We gather because we need encouragement, and because Christ is coming.
We also gather because we need one another’s correction and care. Left to ourselves, we are prone to blind spots, discouragement, false teaching, and self-deception. Life in the body gives us brothers and sisters who can remind us of truth, call us back when we drift, and help us persevere.
So when we think about our life in the church, are we more often asking, “What can I get?” or “What can I give?”
For most of my adolescence, my family was part of a very small church in a little town most people have never heard of. I still remember the first time we averaged 50 people in attendance every Sunday for a month. Our pastor was so delighted that he gave everyone a commemorative 50-cent coin.
There are many things about that little church that were formative in my teenage years, but one of the most important lessons pressed upon me was this: I had a place. A purpose. Even as a young girl.
Over the years, I watched many people come and go. Some participated in church activities but never seemed to take ownership of their place within the body. They attended, received, listened, and benefited from the work of others but did not always stay long enough to help build something themselves.
For many years, I was the entirety of the “youth group.” I watched families come in with teenagers, realize we did not have a thriving midweek youth ministry, and then move on in search of a church that already had what they were looking for.
One year, while helping count the visitor logs for the end-of-year review, I realized just how large our youth group could have been if even some of those families had stayed. At least from my teenage perspective, it seemed that many saw only what was lacking, rather than what we might have built together.
That realization stayed with me. Sometimes the very thing we are looking for in a church may be the very thing God is inviting us to help cultivate.
Sometimes the very thing we are looking for in a church may be the very thing God is inviting us to help cultivate.
Cory Wise
Every believer has a role in the body of Christ. Not everyone needs to teach, lead music, work in the nursery, or hold an official position, but everyone is called to serve somehow. And not only is every believer called; by the power of the Spirit, every believer is also equipped. Our spiritual gifts are not given for self-expression, platform building, or personal fulfillment, but as Paul says they are given “for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7), “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12) until He returns.
If we withhold those gifts, the whole body suffers.
Peter writes, “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others” (1 Peter 4:10). In other words, gifts are not possessions to be stored away; they are stewardships to be poured out.
Too often, we begin to view church as optional, supplemental, or even replaceable by podcasts, livestreams, and personal devotion. This is especially tempting in bad weather, busy seasons, or when gathering with the local body conflicts with recreation or sports schedules. For those who are sick, homebound, or physically unable to gather, these tools can be a genuine gift. But for most of us who are fully able, they can also make it easier to drift into convenience, isolation, passivity, and a self-centered view of what it means to follow Christ. The fact is, if you are a believer, you have a gift. And God intends that you put it to use for the building up of His church.
This is where our personal ecclesiology (our beliefs about the church) and eschatology (our beliefs about end times) meet. What we believe about the church cannot be separated from what we believe about Christ’s return. When we think about the return of Christ personally, not just debates about timelines, charts, or symbolism and meaning in the book of Revelation, it pushes us to live each day with urgency, hope, holiness, and mission.
The church gathers as a bride in waiting, serves as a body on mission, and lives with eyes lifted for the return of Christ. Paul tells us that “Christ loved the church and gave himself for her” so that He might present her holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25–27). The church is not an optional association of like-minded individuals; she is the bride Christ died to redeem. As the bride of Christ then, we are not merely waiting for an event – we are being prepared for our Bridegroom. That means holiness matters. How we live, speak, serve, forgive, gather, and represent Christ matters.
Preferences are not meaningless, but they cannot be ultimate. Rather than choosing a church primarily by music style, coffee flavor, convenience, or programming, we should seek a local body centered on the things that will last: the Gospel faithfully proclaimed, the Word of God treasured, baptism and the Lord’s Supper practiced, prayer offered, disciples made, and the saints equipped for ministry.
So we ask: Who needs to hear the Gospel from me? What obedience have I been putting off? How has God equipped me to build up His church?
The church is not a religious service I consume. The church is the body and bride of Christ to whom I belong, for whom I have been gifted and am responsible to serve, and with whom I eagerly await the return of Jesus.
So I ask you again: if Christ were to return this Sunday, what would He find you doing?
Watching church — or being church?
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