Dwelling Places

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

In the course of my work, I get the opportunity to speak with folks from different congregations all over the country. For all of the diversity in the Episcopal Church, the frustrations and challenges of church life remain remarkably constant -- aging congregations, decreasing Sunday worship attendance, increasing expenses, deferred maintenance on century-old buildings, and all the rest. In our anxiety-driven fixation on institutional survival, we easily overlook one very important reality -- the Church isn't the sum of its real estate holdings, endowments and credit rating.

The temple of God isn't in bricks and mortar,
But rather it is in the flesh and blood of the Baptized.

Imagine that!

God's Spirit howling through the recesses of our hearts!
Setting us free to do the work God has given us to do!

Sometimes I wonder...
What would the Church be like
If we actually began to live into our identity
As the dwelling places of Holy Spirit?

And what would happen...
If we began to treat each other like
Being the Temple of God was their identity too?