What is church?

I've been involved in two churches over the course of my life. I grew up in RTBC, and I've been at Redeemer since I left home. In the most simple and physical sense RTBC is a mature, culturally diverse, small-town Baptist church a few blocks away from the most prominent medical center in the world. Redeemer is a small whipper-snapper of a church near a large university in a relatively young and growing denomination.

We all know that a church is made up of a lot more than physical characteristics. I guess what I am pondering is, "What is it that characterizes a church?". We can all agree that a church is made up of people who love the Gospel (i.e. God's work in us). So my follow-on question is, "Why are some churches more involved in the work of the Gospel (i.e. God's work in the world) than others?". What does it look like when a part of the Church understands what God has done for them? What does it look like for that local body to be gripped by the reality of Christ's work in a way that causes it to act?

Here's the disclaimer: I am about to brag about something in which I had no part and complain about something I have not tried to fix. This is not an attack or a boast; it is possibly a vent. Mostly, I am just trying to work though past experience and current observations. I'm not going to qualify everything I say in the paragraphs below, so consider this paragraph a blanket qualification to any criticisms I make. There are always exceptions, and nowhere do I imply more that I explicitly write.

Redeemer consistently feeds its members solid and excellent, biblical teaching, but, by-and-large, much of Redeemer is not involved in "church events". But I may be a little biased; my perception may be a little skewed. You see, I grew up in a small-town Baptist church a few blocks away from the most prominent medical center in the world. I grew up in a church where it seemed strange for any families not to participate in Sunday school, Sunday worship, and a few hours of Wednesday night activities almost every week of the year. I grew up in a church where many people participated in Mom's Day Out, Joy Program, Vacation Bible School, and church choir. By the way, these are just the events that came through the "organization" of the church. I could write for quite a while about events that came through the "organism" of the church. (For instance praise and worship at our house, Sunday lunches with college students, hosting missionaries, supporting missionaries, work days at church, and supporting widows.) I grew up in a church where for two weeks after my grandmother died I could daily pick from a dozen or more different meals in our fridge, mostly supplied from RTBCers.

Some of my potential misperception also comes from the fact that I grew up in a family that was at church whenever the doors were open. For some reason I feel like there are not many of those families at Redeemer. In fact, I think families are leery of being there "whenever the doors are open", and I don't know why. I also feel like Redeemer, as a body, is also leery of the "church culture". I think this is understandable and perhaps even necessary in Waco, but the church culture at RTBC has always been a positive thing in my eyes. I think we could use a dose of that culture at Redeemer. I know that RTBC has at least 50 year lead on Redeemer in terms of maturity, and I know that makes a difference.

The best news is that no part of the Church is any more justified than another. Nothing that is done or not done in either church makes a difference in regard to her salvation. We are all just adopted siblings to One whose work on our behalf has saved us. As long as that is proclaimed then we're all in good shape. I love Redeemer, and I love RTBC. I have learned how to talk about the Gospel from the teaching at Redeemer, but long before that I learned how to show them the Gospel from what I learned at RTBC.