So, here I am taking the professional development week of my year. It’s the week I do the most pondering concerning my career. It’s the week I have the most time to myself of any of the other 51 weeks of the year. It’s the week that keeps me doing what I do along with the help of Jesus & my bride.

It’s also one of the very few times of year that I get to fly (sometimes the only time). As I make my way through 3 or 4 different airports in the week, I notice one solid repetition. Airports are always receiving, & airports are always sending out (barring inclement weather or other dreadful circumstances).

I’ve heard the local church compared to many different organizations/institutions in order to help attendees better understand many of its purposes. Follow me here.

It’s been said the church isn’t a hotel but a hospital. That’s true. We don’t pay our money in order to have services rendered as we would in a hotel. We don’t get to order up the services in our churches like a drink at a poolside bar. We don’t get to demand things be done exactly to our particular liking because we paid a certain price in the offering plate each week to be there. It absolutely is more like a hospital. People come in seeking help, some more critical than others. Some folks have a family appointment with the Great Physician in order to remain healthy. Others wait until a time of emergency to be triaged. While some circumstances are rescued, other situations are DOA when the victims of such misfortune arrive. They need help knowing where to go from that point. The concept is akin to saying, “The church isn’t a country club but rather a clinic.” I’m in agreement.

Continuing that vein of thought, it’s been said the church is not a building, but rather, a body (or family). Yes! We concern ourselves sometimes so much with carpet & wall colors that we forget that the building is temporary & fallible. We need to take care of our buildings to be as welcoming as possible to guests as well as easy to navigate. However, let’s don’t take better care of them than we do our people. As I’m reminded by a good friend of the pastor & church I currently serve, it’s not a “man-made edifice, but rather a God-created body of Christ.” What we desire is that, even in times of disagreement, we want to continue to each other be mindful that, as a recent revivalist at our church stated, it is “not a curse, it rather a blessing.”

Another friend commented on a social media post I made to help me better know what people thought of the church. She said that the church is not a place to attend, but rather a way of life. We hear it over & over again. Don’t just GO to church. Instead, BE the church. I love it. I often trip over my own shortcomings trying to do that, but I love it nonetheless. As a former student of mine in student ministry gave thought, the church isn’t ours as we so often say about where we attend, but rather we are it…the church.

There are many more trains of thought (I’m certain) along many more tracks, but I want to expand the analogies with an aviary comparison today, as I’ve been traveling the friendly skies. I want to say today that the church is not a hangar, but rather an airport. In an airport, planes bring people in & unload them along with their baggage (mostly). In an airport, planes leave in all different directions according to clear & precise directions given to them by flight control. They taxi to & down the runway with intentional destinations set out before them. They trust all means of guidance & instruments as they leave the hub. They are on mission. With a cabin full of passengers headed on a particular journey, pilots & attendants fulfill a mission of transporting safely & comfortably travelers largely unaware of the intricate details that are constantly being taken care of outside their field of vision.

As we travel through this life (after all, we aren’t staying…just visiting (1 Peter 1:1, 2:11), aren’t we supposed to act as vehicles who bring people into Jesus, then go out from Him in order to bring more people into Him (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)?

The local church is our airport! It receives us in to refuel, replenish, repair, & restore all those who enter her, then she gets us ready to go back out in all different directions to all different destinations to gather more of life’s travelers & bring them back so they can get what they need & go back out to get more!

The planes that fill the airports are only still if they are inoperable. Otherwise, they are are wheels up between the first & final volumes of the trip. They may be under a time of commissioning…being built & tested for the work, being rebuilt & retested for future work, or being deconstructed for rebuilding & retesting on aircraft in utilization behind it.

Airports have runways, & so should churches. Runways which send out people from small groups, Sunday School classes, & other ministries into workplaces, schools, homes, community organizations, PTOs, & social events to lift them up to a higher altitude of living. As they are sent out, it’s important for them to remain connected to flight control. It’s important for them to practice flight often so as not to become rusty on how to use the tools before them in completing each mission.