The “fourth wall” in theatre and cinema is the imaginary boundary wall separating the actors from the audience – they perform as though the audience does not exist. On occasion, actors “break” this imaginary wall, turning to the audience, acknowledging their presence, or speaking directly to them. Shattering this invisible barrier enables actors to build intimacy and connect more personally with the audience as partners rather than passive observers, implicitly involving them as an integral part of the unfolding drama. This theatrical image offers us a fascinating way to reflect on the Church and its purpose.
Too often, the Church, the collective body of Christ, appears engrossed in performing behind its own fourth wall. It gathers, worships, conducts programmes, organises activities and attends to its institutional concerns. All these are essential to the Christian life. Yet, as Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann reminds us in For the Life of the World, the Church itself is on its way into the Kingdom of God, receiving the world as a gift and offering it back to God in communion and thanksgiving.
What connection is there between the Church and the world? In John 15:19, Jesus is clear: his followers do not belong to the world but to him. And yet, in John 20:21, Jesus says, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” How can the Church not belong to the world and yet be sent into it? Precisely because both belong to the Lord, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Thus, the Church is not simply an audience – a gathered community that assembles around Jesus – but also a sent community by Jesus. Gathering and sending are two indispensable dimensions of its existence.
The Church, though not of this world – not belonging to it – is sent into the world because it belongs to the Lord, who claims the whole world as his own. We must remember that being sent is not just an additional activity reserved for its pastors, leaders, and missionaries, but central to the Church’s identity. Christians must acknowledge the world as their audience, and move into it, extending an invitation to join the unfolding drama of God, not merely as outsiders but as the very context in which the church exists and its calling is lived out. The Church is much more than theatre. It does not merely perform a religious drama, but it participates in God’s work in the world.
What if the church recognised that the world outside its walls is the very heart of its calling? A people not of the world, yet in the world, and eager to break the walls that separate: walls of caste and social hierarchy; of isolation and hostility toward those of other faiths; walls between worship and everyday life; walls of denominational divisions; and walls of indifference towards creation. They are a people who do not merely exist for their own preservation and expansion, but bear witness to God’s love and participate in his mission of renewing the world.
Perhaps, then, breaking the fourth wall is not another new programme on the Church’s calendar as it moves towards the Kingdom of God, but a rediscovery of why the church exists in the first place: for the life of the world.
