I've been nurtuing a radical thought in my brain (and what's new about that?). It floated into my mind recently like a breeze and seemed to answer so many questions, and yet, the more I pondered it, the more I realized that the gentle breeze might be the beginnings of a hurricane! The thought was this: Church is relative; the Kingdom is absolute. Now let me rush to the disclaimer, so some of you won't abandon me. I believe in the local church--it is the place I have invested my life and energies. My extensive study of postmodernism has, unlike some others, convinced me that this time and season can be the best days of the church EVER! This church versus Kingdom distinction that I am seeing is NOT about usefulness or purpose, but rather about EXPECTATION and PERSPECTIVE.

Let me backtrack a bit. A few years ago, in Brighton, England, I was praying for someone in a church there, when I heard myself say, "What was hurt in church will be healed in the Kingdom." I now think that neither I nor the prayee had a clue what I meant. It was one of those statements that is so spirit-borne that the mind doesn't take it in. But I did remember it. Over the ensueing months, when I thought about it, I reasoned that the pain sometimes caused in relationships in a local church often does find healing by Kingdom relationships beyond the local church. This is especially true for leaders who desperately need another set of eyes that have not grown myopic with the local responsibilities and logjams. To be the best we can be in the local church, we need translocal relationships and that is a benefit of belonging to a broader Kingdom. But, still, I knew that what I was seeing went deeper than that.

More recently, when someone in our own local church who seemed to be on the upswing succumbed to an old struggle, blindsiding many of us, it saddened me greatly and left me wondering how our local landscape could be such a mixed bag of resounding victories mixed with surprising defeats. And then those words came floating back to me: Church is relative; the Kingdom is absolute.... My distress and attempts to process the disappointment were opening new vistas of understanding to me. Church versus Kingdom is not a geographical difference. It is not just referring to local versus translocal. Rather, it is a qualitative difference...one that really does need to be considered for maximum damage control!

The Kingdom of God is heaven invading earth. It its redemption spread across humanity in panormaic proportions. When the Kingdom has come near us, God's reign has manifested on earth and wrongs are righted, bent things are straightened and all things flourish as they were originally intended to. The Kingdom of God is what Jesus described as the remedy for all that had fallen. He who brought redemption to earth through the cross seemed to indicate that his own goal was God's Kingdom taking over the wayward ways of man! The Kingdom of God is where everything purchased for mankind on the cross is in full manifestation. It is a spiritual reality--no wonder we are told to seek it first!

The church (yes, the church universal, but specifically gathered in geographical clusters that we call "local") is the only agent for the release of that dynamic Kingdom. The church's function is to more and more reflect the invisible Kingdom. All our structures, governments, programs, gatherings and improvements should be leaning us more and more into incarnation of the vast array of Kingdom realities. (If you really know what I mean and you are called to church leadership, that sentence should inspire at least a whispered "wow", for it is a lifelong, breathtaking challenge...). The church--through individual people and through local cohesive congregations--is the broker of heaven on earth, working with the Holy Spirit, of course. (But the Holy Spirit rarely breaks in on those who aren't already attempting to pursue...)

BUT, this is where the distinction comes. Some of us who are idealists still have trouble shifting our eyes back and forth from the perfection of Kingdom truth to the flesh-wrapped spirits that are endeavoring to connect with that truth. In other words, the CHURCH is on earth and therefore exists in people--messy people who are mixtures of revelation and retrospection; grace-filled and yet at times guilt-hounded; worshippers who forget to worship; believers crying out, "help my unbelief." The Kingdom is absolute--because of the incarnation of that Kingdom, the church is relative! Sometimes in church we must shift methods to accommodate people's journey, but we never shift our conviction that the shining perfection represented by Jesus' rule and reign is available to us in its entirety! We may not see it played out in actuality as we saw it when our spirits came alive to the possibilities, but it DOES NOT MEAN THE KINGDOM IS DIMINISHED.

The Facebook status line is a great thing when people use it. Wouldn't life be more interesting if we all answered the proverbial "how are you?" with something like a Facebook status response. "Needing a curry," or "pondering the event horizon" would be so much more interesting than "fine". But, even if we don't say it, every time we come together for any type of church gathering, we all carry status lines. Sure, we, the redeemed are all truly, in the Spirit ALREADY more than conquerors (yes, that is our status), but our consciousness of that conquering status may or may not be in full manifestation on any given Sunday! So, though the Kingdom has come within us already, what would it look like as we gather for the Kingdom to come AMONG us? It looks like our individual conditions changing to more approximate that conquering status! The church becomes the Kingdom when the Spirit of God shows up and heaven manifests among all our circumstances. The Kingdom is the absolute victory--each individual in the church is on a relative journey.

How does this distinction help? When I get disillusioned with behaviors, ignorance or stubborness in the church, I pray with new understanding, "Your Kingdom come..." I no longer just send that prayer "out there" into places where Jesus is unknown. I now pray it also over those who mean the most to me--my local church. I call for the local body of believers to "look like" the Kingdom, not just like a lot of people raising their hands, listening to a preach, and then living their lives by their own wits the rest of the time. I am no longer disillusioned when someone's flesh "gets the best of them," rather, as the Foo Fighters sing later in that same song, I will patiently point them back to "the hope that starts the broken hearts"--the Kingdom breaking through, reminding them that God cares. ("Has someone taken your faith? It's real the pain you feel...your trust, you must, confess..." more Foo)

It all has to do with expectations: If I expected the local church to be at all times all that the Kingdom is, I would live frustrated. As a leader, I would grow either pushy and driving or bitter and resigned. It was never supposed to be anything but messy. Just as the Old Testament manifestations of the eternal Kingdom involved the blood and ripping of the animal sacrifices, and the death of Jesus that birthed the church was gross and disfiguring, so the process by which a local congregation actually demonstrates heaven can at times be disorienting to life. BUT, if we keep our eyes on the Kingdom, not on church size, status or structure, and not on the personal success of each and every attendee, all things will in the big picture ultimately be added to us. The church is God's prized possession, but the Kingdom--in all its forms--is the compass, goal and sustenance of the church.