Metaphors of the Church

As I think about the church as a missional community, I find it helpful to identify new metaphors to help us envision what God’s intentions for our life together might be.  The Bible already has some great metaphors – the Body being one of my favorite (apparently also a favorite of the apostle Paul’s).  The idea of a building – with living stones that work together to grow upward – is a cool one, too.  But new metaphors are also helpful, especially in light of the need to counteract the all-too-dominant “church as corporation” model which has driven the church for too long.  So, here’s a couple of metaphors to explore:

 

CHURCH AS TEACHING HOSPITAL

A teaching hospital is a pretty cool idea, actually.  It’s not only a place where the sick and wounded can come to find healing; it’s also a place where young practitioners with potential can develop their skills, apply newly learned ideas, and develop into skilled healers.  The difference in the church, though, is that instead of two groups (patients and practitioners), there is only one.  The sick and wounded come to the church as a “teaching hospital community” to not only receive healing and restoration, but to themselves learn the disciplines and practice of being a healer toward others.  The church is a place of restoring the wounded and broken and transforming them into agents of blessing toward others.  Even more integrated than a teaching hospital, really!

 

CHURCH AS…

OK.  I can barely bring myself to write it, since the image seems so contradictory.  See, the band the Grateful Dead was a little bit before my time.  So, I can only speak, well, historically.  But they’ve worked their way into the consciousness of popular culture (as anyone who’s ever eaten Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia can attest).  And one thing that’s most associated with the Grateful Dead are the “Deadheads” who would follow the band from concert to concert, developing their own unique culture and community centered around the band.  While I wouldn’t want to be (mis)understood as endorsing a band like the Grateful Dead (again, before my time, I’ve never even heard their music), I find the image a powerful one:  a group of people consumed with passion for someone, always on the road following, creating a culture and community out of their shared passion.  Maybe instead of “following the Dead,” we need to conceive as the church as “following the Living.”  We would be a people consumed with passion in our devotion for the Living One, never at home, never settled, living as a people-on-a-journey, always on the road, pilgrims following wherever the Living One goes, creating a culture and community out of our shared passion for this Living One.

 

Metaphors are never perfect.  Certainly these two aren’t.  But maybe they’ll provoke some meaningful thought, new ways to view and understand the church.