The Church is Beautiful

A couple Sundays ago there was a region-wide church service for a baptism celebration.  That meant that something like 31 CECU congregations in the greater Gemena area gathered together in one church, Paroisse Centrale, for worship.  The church was absolutely filled.  The pews were full.  People were sitting in the windows.  There was a shelter of palm fronds built on one side of the church that held more people.  And all around the church worshippers were gathered together in small and large groups.  Over 270 believers had been baptized the day before.  At one point they all filled the open space at the front of the church and in the aisles and doorways to publicly affirm their decision to follow Christ.  The rest of the congregation was called on to help them fulfill that calling. 

 

Yes, the numbers were impressive: 31 churches;  270 believers baptized; 1500 people in attendance; 5 hours.  But the day was special for so much more than that.  As we sat and listened to the choirs, or stood for the hour and a half offering time or prayed together and confirmed our support of our new brothers and sisters there was the constant, overarching thought, “This is the Church.”  It was like nothing I have been a part of previously in my adult life.  The singing was completely Congolese.  The beat of the drums and the dance steps of the choirs were completely Congolese.  The processional for giving offering was completely Congolese.  The swaying, the movement, the joy, the colors, the whole thing was Congolese and completely beautiful.  Here in this country that has been through so much, where there is so little hope at times and so much trouble, here in one of the poorest nations on earth, here is the true church.

 

The true church dwells also in America and in every country on earth.  And that is part of what makes it so beautiful.  For she is made to be the fullness of him who fills all in all.  She is not constrained by borders or cultures or races or languages but is transcendent like her Lord.  She is joined together in Him, one holy temple.  She is one body, made holy for one Lord, who loved her and gave Himself up for her.  And to think that one day we, the church, will be presented to Him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle but holy and without blemish. 

 

To see the Congolese part of that body has been one of the great joys of my life.  It has helped me to understand even just a small bit more what the “fullness of Christ” is.  We are all members of the same body and partakers of the same promise through the gospel.  To see the transcendence of Christ in the life of his many-cultured body is a glimpse of the glory that is to come and a testament to the magnitude of the riches of His grace.  The household of God, like His love and compassion, surpasses understanding.  There is no perfect church but a church being made perfect and rejoicing for it.