Lore Blinn Gibson

I've been thinking a lot about church. Well, duh, I work in a church. But seriously, someone asked me this week if I thought someone can be a Christian without being part of a church.

That is hard for me to answer. I could go all theological, I suppose. I'd rather tell you a story.

When I was 3 weeks old, my parents brought me to Star City Methodist Church to be baptized. Throughout my childhood, we were there almost every Sunday. Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, youth ministry, camping, music - all that made up a huge part of my life. Now, there were weeks, as a teenager, when my friends and I would skip Sunday School and go down to Groom's Drugstore for a vanilla coke. For me, that was church too, slipping past our parents, hanging with my friends. We knew we'd only get away with it for a week or so before our dads pulled in the reigns, but the week was glorious.

At Star City, I played guitar and organ, I sang, I helped with the little kids. There, I learned that part of being Christian is loving some pretty nutty people, and that you don't just walk away from people because you don't like them. My gifts, imperfect and unformed, were welcomed. My time was useful. I mattered, but no more nor less than anyone else.

In many places in my life, I did not feel that same message. Awkward, stubborn, overweight, introverted, mostly scared most of the time, posturing to cover how awful I felt - that was my life. But church? They loved me, they corrected me, they treated me like someone. They were Jesus to me, and they helped me become less awkward, less stubborn, more whole, definitely loved.

Christ, through his church, saved me. When I was an anxious single schoolteacher, the church became my haven and provided me a motley crew of friends. When our daughters died, it was the church that brought us meals and let us cry on their shoulders. The church has brought Jesus closer to me at more times than any other single thing. The church has made me who I am, helped me become more than I ever would have been without it.

So, how could I not believe Church is crucial (pun intended) to being a Christian? I know that some people have negative experiences at church, heart-breaking events that push them farther from God. Their experience of Christ's body has led them to hope and pray that being part of the Church is not necessary for them to follow Jesus. I don't judge that. I can only say what I know. For me, the Church - the people of God - has been Jesus in significant ways.

Now, we may want to debate the necessity of attending worship. Or serving. Or learning. But the church? Jesus saved me through his People. How could I want any less for anyone else?