Church in the Bush

Somewhere along the way Christians began to associate 'church' with the buildings they meet in. Perhaps this began when the buildings Christians met in began to not only be functional but beautiful. Efforts had to then be undertaken to keep these spaces beautiful - which meant people invested themselves in their church buildings. Or perhaps this shift began when the great cathedrals began to be built. Their towering spires inspiring awe - more awe possibly than was directed towards the one (God) for which they had been built. But whatever the reason, we lost the biblical understanding that the church is actually the body of Christ - a body that transcends buildings, locations and even time.

This truth was every apparent to me when we pulled up to a little church in a very small and desperately poor roadside village called Bitsefy. I have passed this village many times as I have traveled to other towns to minister. I always wondered how it was possible to live in those very primitive stick huts, and what they must think as the traffic passes them by on the way to Toliara.  I also often wondered if anyone had ever come to share the Gospel with them. What a surprise and joy it was, therefore, when our car pulled up at this little village a couple of mornings ago to minister at a newly planted Anglican Church. There was a newly constructed small stick and grass building with a wooden cross perched atop it, and the people were eagerly waiting for our arrival. After we arrived, they quickly packed themselves into this tiny building and began to sing with incredible joy. I thought about the people and then about the building and was reminded again that what I shared with the people here was not the building (though I loved it actually), but a unity in Christ and a family bond in the Spirit.

We spent a couple of hours in that tiny church building with its dirt floors and stick walls and watched the Holy Spirit do what he loves to do. As usual, we prayed for people and God healed them and delivered them from demonic spirits. We watched a woman begin to dance like a mocking serpent (that is the best way to describe it), and then be delivered from that demonic spirit and restored to her right mind. Praise be to God!  Another woman had fallen to the ground and lost her ability to communicate or even move much at some point after we had arrived. Yet after praying over her in the name of Jesus, she too was restored to her right mind. She stood up and began to speak normally. All the while, the church members sang on and on with great joy, led by a man with a rough, homemade guitar. God was truly being glorified that morning in that little, rough, and 'ugly' church building. All in all, it was another extraordinary Madagascar experience.

My prayer is, and continues to be, that we Christians will always remember who we are as the body of Christ -- that we will look past our buildings and our walls and to the world around us. There is nothing wrong with having a church building of course, but in the end God doesn't care about our buildings, but our hearts. And, of course, he cares deeply about whether we are fulfilling the call and command he gave us to love one another as He first loved us. I sure hope we can visit those beautiful believers in Bitsefy again. (We'll actually be driving by them again tomorrow. Sadly we cannot stop.) I saw Jesus in them and pray that they will know that they are forever wrapped in His loving arms.

-Bruce