In Croatia we ate chocolate spread. It was divine. But that’s not what this blog is about...
God’s thoughts for me in Croatia were about family. And the Body of Christ. And what it means to be part of them. To live part of them.
By halfway through our first week with the church in Split, I was struck by how part of their family I already felt. We were working with them on their campsite in Lika, a beautiful mountainy region in which the church is blessed to own about 70 hectares of beautiful mountainy land. The campsite itself is a labour of family love: the many hours of land clearing and structure building (and all the moving and carrying and stacking and digging and mowing and cutting that goes along with it) have been put in voluntarily by the members of the church, without hiring any outside workers. The campsite is theirs, and they take ownership of every aspect of it as such.
We arrived in Croatia just in time to join the church for a week-long “work camp” with their youth and young adults, a combined group that had a mammoth age range of between 12 and 35 years old. Not that you’d immediately notice. And that was the other part of being part of this family. While there were understandably different friendship groups, you could sense that there was a bond between them that found them working, relaxing, drinking coffee (lots of very meticulously, very lovingly, very seriously made cups of coffee) and enjoying each other’s company together, despite the age gaps.
In our second week we remained behind on the campsite, working and building further with a few of the church members. And then, starting that next weekend, we joined in on everyday life in Split.
As it happened, the church was having baptisms that Sunday – full water submersion, bible style. Having grown up Catholic, I had not been exposed to such “dunking” during my childhood walk with God. It was something that had been somewhere in my thoughts for a few years already, but I had been resisting it all the time. To be honest, probably because I had been allowing the enemy to mess with my mind and my heart and keep me from sharing in something that Jesus himself did.
The thought of being baptised during my GCX journey had occurred to me at the beginning of the year. But I wanted it to be something that I really felt on my heart was right. That it was the right time and the right place. My outdoor spirit wasn’t too keen on the baptism-pool-in-a-church-building-somewhere scenario, and I wanted to have people around me who were special... And that’s exactly what God gave me in Croatia. On Sunday 26th July (the day before my 24th birthday! :)) I was baptised in a beautiful, icy mountain river, and surround by my Croatian family and a few from my Global Challenge family. And both are a “special” kind of family – not family through biological relations or because we have known each other for a long time... but family because of the Blood of Jesus that binds us together, and that has for each of us washed us clean ... just like the full water emersion represents. My brothers and sisters in Christ.
Living and sharing and learning with the Split church made me ponder further on something that has been working in my mind and on my heart often this year: the absolute, complete, cannot-under-any-circumstances-be-compromised importance of The Church (captial “T”, captial “C”).
That is, after all, the point. The reason for it all. Everything in the Old Testament that points to everything in the New Testament that is, on surface level and when you dig deeper into the meat of it all, all about... The Church. Jesus - living, teaching, suffering and dying for... The Church. His Bride. His Body. It’s not placing Jesus after The Church, or putting the people that it comprises before God. It’s pursuing Jesus’ heart. And Jesus’ heart is... The Church (Ephesians 5:25-33 is not just good advice for husbands).
It made me ponder whether we’re taking that fact seriously enough. Whether we’re living The Church as number one... or if it’s “number one after me”. Are we protecting the Body of Christ above all else? Above our own selfish ambition. Above our perceptions of being ill-treated or unfairly treated or disrespected or betrayed by a member of that Body (or someone who is not). Above our own tendency towards self-preservation.
If it truly is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me (Galations 2:20), then none of that should matter. There should be no “me” to protect, other than The Church. The Body of Christ. The family of brothers and sisters that should be more a part of our lives than a hello-and-hug at the services on Sundays.
All families have problems, however. The Church is no exception. And the enemy will do his utmost to drive a wedge between those in the Body of Christ. He will try to make you think your brother is against you and put a seed of bitterness or jealousy in your heart. And since we are all works in progress, and we do still often get stuck in that “me first” attitude, we don’t always realise when we let him get away with his dirty business.
But. Jesus said to Peter that “...upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18). What’s more, He enables us to stand on this foundational promise. The Bible says that God gives us the strength to stand against our evil “me-first” attitudes (James 4:6), giving us the desire and power to do what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13). And as that Ephesians 5 reference points out, Jesus’ heart – what pleases the Son and therefore what also pleases Father – is The Church.