State of the Art

I was driving home from work the other day listening to a local radio station whose format is Christian talk. The station aired a commercial promoting an event at a local church. A nationally known speaker would be appearing at this event and something the announcer said caught my ear. The announcer invited listeners to come and hear this dynamic speaker at "our state of the art church". I thought, state of the art church?

Now, I understand what he meant. He was not only promoting the speaker, but was also promoting the venue. I'm sure it has great acoustics, top of the line audio/visual systems and professional lighting that rivals some of the fanciest theaters and music halls. He was speaking of the church building, not the Church. Today's visible church should be no more "state of the art" than the church of the first century. To me, the Church is state of the art when it preaches the truth of the Gospel from it's pulpit, in it's classrooms and through the lives of it's members as they do the will of the Father outside the four walls of the building. For the Christian, the Gospel is our art.