All sorts of ideas capture our imaginations when we hear the word church. This series of posts is written to help us reimagine Church based on how it is imagined and described throughout the New Testament.

The Bible envisions the Church as a people of the Spirit. However, this means different things to different people. For many, “spiritual” brings to mind moving experiences in dark, crowded rooms amidst exquisite lighting, music, and speaking. Others imagine personal growth and development taking place on a picturesque mountainside. But, the New Testament imagines something much different – a spiritual life that is primarily relational rather than individual.

Fruitfulness. Fruitfulness is a major concept in the New Testament. Jesus can hardly get away from it. Paul repeatedly reminds his readers that we will all stand before God one day and be judged based on our fruit – how we lived our lives (2 Corinthians 5:10). In his letter to the Galatians, Paul describes what that fruit can look like and what we can expect as the Holy Spirit works in and through us:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…

Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

In other words, the Holy Spirit intersects our lives as we relate to each other. Spiritual life isn’t about emotional experiences, personal development, or heightened morality. A genuine spiritual life is about living in relationship with others marked by these spiritual characteristics.

Giftedness. A number of passages in the New Testament also address the ways that the Holy Spirit “transcends human ability and transforms human inability” (Scot McKnight, Open to the Spirit). In other words, as a people of the Spirit, we are gifted beyond our natural abilities as we learn to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.

1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Again in this passage, the spiritual life is imagined not as an individual matter, but a life together and on behalf of one another in which we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Reimagining Church. The Church is neither a building, a program, an organization, nor individual spiritual persons. The Church is people living in relationship to one another that is characterized and empowered by the Holy Spirit for the common good.