"Doing Church"

Throughout the last semester or so, I've been participating in the gospel choir on campus, an experience that undoubtedly deserves its own post. But there's one thing that I haven't quite figured out how to get past. There's an idea in gospel choir culture called "doing church". A revved up song begins and you can hear someone in the choir say, We're going to show you how to do church today! The enthusiasm is great, but the theology is all wrong.

You see, God doesn't call us to "do church". He calls us to be the church. "Doing church" indicates that it can be something that is started and stopped, picked up and dropped off; it's the idea that church is an action to be done rather than something to be a part of like a finger is a part of a body.

And frankly, I feel like this idea is perpetuated outside of the "church" experience as well. I see students all the time that come to gospel choir rehearsals, pray aloud while holding hands (and twice a rehearsal, mind you), then walk out the doors and immediately say a nasty word to someone, remove one too many articles of clothing, curse like sailors, or cop an attitude. And I suppose, if your idea of church involves the idea of "doing church" then after church has been "done", it can be turned off or left in that room, and life can resume as if nothing ever happened. For those that "do church", it seems that God can only live where church is "done".

But, oh, how visibly He does live there, where church is "done". More than once in any given rehearsal, I can hear someone say, Whew...I feel the Spirit, or, The Spirit is movin' here today, or something to that affect. Peoples' bodies move, their voices escalate, songs grow ever longer...and longer...and longer. Now, please don't misunderstand me here. I do believe that the Spirit can move a person (to dance, to sing, to cry, to whatever...), and I believe that the Spirit can move someone through music. I have been moved by music more times than I can count. But I find it a bit too ironic that the Spirit doesn't move these same people outside of rehearsals or performances in any such visible ways. Does the Spirit only act in a certain way at a certain time?

The picture of church that the Bible paints is drastically different than this idea. 1 Corinthians 12 clearly defines the church like a physical body, and each person having their own gifts like unique body parts. We're interwoven together into a community that is all the time. You can't decide when to "do body". That concept makes absolutely no sense. That's how much sense this whole "doing church" thing makes to me. On the days you decide not to "do body" will you not eat, not sleep, not breathe? Will your heart not beat? See? It just doesn't compute. 

When I first joined the gospel choir, I thought that maybe "doing church" was just cultural, but I've seen it unfold as much more than just a saying that tags along with a exuberant song. And the longer I am in the group, the more it bothers me. These students really believe it's okay to just "do church" at church and not anywhere else. We joke a lot about how the gospel choir needs extra prayer because many times we're not prepared for the performances that we do, but the fact of the matter is that the gospel choir needs prayers that go way beyond the performances...and I'm not sure they'll ever know just how much I pray for them.