My earliest memories of worshipping God are two-fold. I remember the large sanctuary at the First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem. I can see the tall windows, the brass candle chandeliers- which made for great counting opportunities!- the muted green velvet on the seats and the many pipes of the large organ behind the screened wall at the front.
We often sat in the balcony because my 
parents both taught Sunday school and the main floor of the church was full by the time they cleaned up their classrooms and made their way to worship. I can visualize the choir robes, the flowers, the pulpit and the lectern for the worship leaders. I can see the people’s heads below, which I often studied.
Here is what made a bigger impact on me from those times of church: I remember the pastors and teachers who knew me by name, and baptized me and confirmed me. I remember my father leading the children’s time, sitting on these steps with children all around him. As a second grade teacher, he loved children and they loved Mr. Bates (and still do!). I remember my parents showing me how to find hymns in the hymnal and teaching me to follow along in the bulletin.
I remember my father drawing trains on the bulletin to keep me “occupied” during the sermon. I remember running down the noisy slate stairs to make it to the front of the church and then running back up after the Children’s Time to rejoin my family in the balcony. We had a separate Sunday school time so that meant I sat in worship the entire time with my family.
This is how I learned to worship on Sundays.
Several years ago, I was blessed to worship at the First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, again. As I sat on the cushions (this time with different covers) in the same pews, I realized how that church – being church- prepared me for the ministry I currently serve.
But you see, it wasn’t the building. It was the community of Christ-followers- and the patterns of being church together: the small groups in youth group and the small group adult Bible Study- formed on the concept of koininia – known as K-group- my parents attended faithfully. It was the Sunday School classes, summer camp, mission trips to France and Hawaii, Vacation Bible School and weekly worship.
Just like the followers of Jesus, Simon Peter, James and John- we helped carry each other’s nets when they got heavy, learned to trust Jesus, and were eventually sent out to serve. The Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem has sent out so many who now serve as faithful leaders around the world, presbytery leaders across the country, pastors of other churches, youth leaders and yes, even directors of camps and retreat centers.
In Isaiah 6, we read about this prophet’s exercise in listening and going. Remember that he heard the Lord saying “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” It was a bold and gutsy answer: “ Here I am, send me.” Perhaps some of you have had this experience directly, too.
You might remember that I said my earliest memories of worship experiences are two-fold. The other memory is completely different from the large indoor sanctuary I described earlier. This time, I am in a chapel in a circle of trees at my childhood camp- Camp Brainerd. The trees are very large pines and if you look up, the sky creates the ceiling overhead. There is a simple podium in front of the 2 sections of benches and behind the worship leader, the earth drops off, down to a meadow and a pond, next to the stream where we walked, finding crayfish and other little creatures.
I spent hours trying to catch the bullfrog tadpoles who came to the edge of the pond to stick their little noses up and just peek out at me. Our music was not an organ, but a guitar and our voices. We sang “They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love” and “Kum By Yah” and “Pass It On” because it was the early eighties.
We held hands around the chapel at the end of Vespers each evening and created a sacred space right there in the midst of the fields where we played night games, the cabins and lodges where we told stories and jumped on beds, and the pool where we bounced on big black tire tubes. You see, the sacred was woven in with the ordinary- and we experienced Koinonia each and every moment of our time together.
Later, I learned that this was happening in other camps too- not just where I grew up. I learned that my camp was part of a broader network of camps across the United States and Canada, who are part of the same church. I learned about the special ministry known as Johnsonburg in New Jersey. What the campers experience at Camp Jburg is very similar to other camps. And today, more than ever, it is so relevant.
This past summer, Johnsonburg engaged in the Effective Camp Research Project with a cohort of northeast faith-based camps through Sacred Playgrounds (insert website here). Here are some of the results from our campers ages 13-17 years:
– 86% of campers agreed that it was not difficult to be away from their phone or technology while at camp
– 74% agreed they learned more about God
– 92% often or always felt included in worship at camp
– 89% shared that they made a new friend during their time at camp
Feedback from our elementary campers included:
Their favorite things about camp: making new friends, their counselor, pool, zipline, lake and the giant swing.
When asked what they learned, here are a few answers that were seen on the evaluations:
– how to start a campfire
– that God is always with you no matter what That everyone is your neighbor
– sunburnt shoulders hurt so put on sunscreen
– that God and Jesus were good dudes
– to be thankful for what you have not to eat too much food
– that God loves gay people
– go under water with no goggles
– that camp is amazing
Surely, you recognize the common thread here… the common word between my stories of church at an early age, confluence and the elementary camper responses. Yes – the word is community.
There is a word that captures this and which I hope you have experienced at some point in your life- I learned it here and from what I see, it is still happening. It is a Greek noun: koinonia.
Here’s the definition: Christian fellowship or communion, with God or, more commonly, with fellow Christians.
First, koinonia expresses what we share together, what we have received together, what we participate in together. That is the grace of God the Parent, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So the apostle John, at the beginning of his first letter, says, “Our fellowship [koinonia] is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ”…
But koinonia also bears witness to what we share outward together—not only what we receive together, but what we give together. Koinonia is the word that Paul uses of the collection that he was organizing from the Greek churches for the benefit of the poverty-stricken churches in Judea. We read about this in Acts 2:45 where “All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds[j] to all, as any had need.”
It is an authentic Christian living community. In Paul’s time, the church was the activity of the body of believers; never a building. Actually, it sounds like camp! It really isn’t about the buildings or the lake or the trees. It is about the people. When Paul referred to the church, he likened the local church to a body whose members are mutually dependent. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12 we read:12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
Each time I read this verse I can’t help but think of our physical bodies…206 bones and they all work together! We need them! This is the perfect analogy for just how connected we are to other Christians, through the larger Church- with a capital C! This connection is the epitome of Koinonia. This is being church.
Perhaps some of these experiences have resonated with your understanding of being church, being community for one another.
But even more so, I would ask HOW we be church. Here is one way the Bible tells us: it is clear that “When we put what we have into Jesus’ hands, miracles happen.” Remember the fishermen who said that they hadn’t caught anything that day, and Jesus told them to put their nets in the water again? Miraculously, there were so many fish that they needed each other to pull them out.
Let’s think about how we can do this: to faithfully and openly be church.
How can you be the church each day? Jesus reminded his followers that where two or three are gathered in his name, there he is in the midst of them. Let us not forget to gather and learn together, listen and discern what is next… how we can be the church together. Perhaps it requires turning outward? Maybe it makes a difference in someone’s life that we didn’t plan for or even recognize.
Maybe it is in your community, in your school, in your office or maybe it is through a volunteer opportunity. Clearing invasive plants along a trail tends to God’s creation and provides space for others to experience God. Speaking up when someone is being treated unfairly instead of remaining quiet- now that is being an accomplice to justice- that is being church. Volunteering your time to help serve meals or drive someone to an appointment or make an extra dinner or just to listen – that is being church. Isn’t time our most precious gift that we can give?
My prayer is that our hearts would be broadened and deepened to be open to the love of Jesus, the calling of God on each of us to be church in some way, and the immense joy in experiencing koinonia. To the glory of God… Amen.