“Why I love the Church and the location where the Church lives”

I love the Church. It’s not perfect, but is a work in progress, an ongoing creation of God. I’m fortunate to be a participant of God’s redemptive narrative, through the Spirit of reluctant power, grace, and love, in the hearts and minds of little boys and little girls, men and women, the poor and the vulnerable.

I love the ghetto because the church lives there.

I love the city because it is the location of the Church and God’s chosen people.

I love the countryside and the farmland because they’re the place where the church was born and first learned how to crawl.

I love the Church of little boys and little girls for no one will see and enjoy God if she does not have the attitude of such innocent creatures.

I love the Church of the poor and the vulnerable, and of the weak and the disfranchised, because of God’s special attention to them.

I love the Church because it reminds me of the calvary of darkness, pain, and suffering, and the worth and dignity of the substitutionary and sacrificial death of my Lord and Savior: Jesus, the God-Man, who died for the safety, godliness, and beauty of the Church.

***The Church is not the city, but lives in the city. The Church is not the ghetto, but the ghetto is the location of the church, the people of God. The farmland or the countryside is not identical to the church or with the redeemed people of God; it is the milieu wherein the Spirit moves, creates, and establishes the Church. The Church is who you are in Christ and what you are becoming in God.

The church is in fact a unique location, a very special place in which the Spirit-God moves, works, and indwells. This location of God’s rest is you.

#Ilovethechurch

#thechurchiswhoyouareinChrist

#thechurchisnotaplacethechurchisyou

Rev. Dr. Celucien L. Joseph, PhD