The Real Church

I just found an old lunch receipt on my desk. About a month ago I was in the centre of Birmingham and had lunch at EAT. Their receipt has, below the company name, the sub-title "the real food company". It's a bit like Coca Cola which is, of course, the "real" thing. There is certainly a blossoming industry in marketing things that are real or authentic. Maybe tomorrow I will find myself writing about organic church - or even church without preservatives! Authentic food is full of genuine flavour. That's a good image for the church. There is a bit of a link with the image of salt, which is there in the New Testament, though it is a slightly complicated link because salt is, of course, a preservative. But the real point of salt is that it brings out the flavour. It's also true that too much salt is damaging. The challenge to the church is to bring out just the right amount of flavour in life. Flavours are good. They enhance taste. They also vary. If I go for an ice-cream, may choose chocolate, vanilla or strawberry or, in some outlets, from a whole huge range of other choices. Sometimes I fear that we seem to want a single flavour of church - which then means that we miss out on all the riches of difference. The real church hits the spot. How many churches like that do we know?