Being church where you are.

As you are.

So in the 1700’s a scientist turned mystic theologian named Emanuel Swedenborg offered the following definition of church: “the meeting point between the Divine and natural realms, centered in the individual.” Alone in his study, in communication with spirits, Swedenborg experienced a new understanding of church, quite different from what his Lutheran bishop father had taught. Not a building, not even a gathering of people practicing faith in a particular way, but instead a point of connection, of resonance inside the individual where the Divine life and the material/natural life meet, where one receives the other and life is made manifest. To be the church, is to cultivate this meeting point within, to open up to the inflow of the Divine life, to receive the gifts of love and wisdom and to embody them in the world.

To be the church by this definition means to take very seriously our individual experience of life, to learn how to listen to the still small voice within, to honor our intuition, to sense ourselves and the particular way that this larger Divine life is calling us. To be the church by this definition means to choose, to recognize the power we each hold to choose who will be, and how we will be, in the world in collaboration with others.

While I have known and proclaimed this definition of what church is for almost two decades as an ordained minister within the denominational body of the Swedenborgian church, I question if the forms I have inhabited and served in have actually helped people to practice being church in this way. Instead it seems I’ve mostly been working to be church with people in a way Swedenborg’s Lutheran bishop father would have recognized. This Substack, Be Love, Be Honest, Be Useful, the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, and everything I’ve been up to these past three years have been efforts to discover how to serve, be, cultivate “church” as Swedenborg defined it. To cultivate the church within myself, and to learn how to be that church collaboratively with others.

This has been a total re-orientation. And as total re-orientations often go, messy, uncomfortable, and often chaotic and confusing.

This definition of church, as far as I can tell, means that church starts on the inside, in the inner sanctuary I cultivate to receive the Divine life, and then flows out into all of my relationships. My church isn’t a denominational affiliation, but the humans with whom I share love, speak honestly and participate in collaborative uses with.

My efforts to embody this has led me to speak more honestly with my husband, it has led to us taking new steps to improve our communication and understanding of one another. We are very much in the midst of this work and it is often NOT FUN, as we wade into difficult conversations and feelings. AND, thankfully I believe we both trust the direction we are headed, the sacred effort involved, and the possibilities that this shared inner work might open up for us.

Heather, Alex and I.

This weekend I’ve been given the opportunity to practice wading into this new way of being church with two of my oldest closest friends. It too has not been immediate and smooth, but clunky and awkward at times. AND we are finding our way to deeper connection and joy with every awkward vulnerable honest step.

This new definition of church means that we each are a the hub of a web of connections. A web of connections through which the Divine life flows through. A web of connections that ultimately have the power to connect us all, exactly as we are.