Church

For years my life revolved around this thing that we call church. My office was at the church, people called me at the church, and I spent bunches of time planning for church. But here's where it gets weird:

Church is one of the most misused words in the English language. 

When we talk about church we say things like, “I’m on my way to church,” or “What time is church?", things like that.  

But here’s the problem: the word “church,” not surprisingly, comes from the Bible. In fact, it’s used something like 113 times in the Bible. But the word "church" is never used even one time in the ways that we use the word. 

Half of the time when we talk about church, we are talking about a building. A place with a sign out front and a cross inside, and we call that place a church. That’s what we mean when we say things like, "I just drove past the church."

And the other half of the time when we talk about church, we are usually talking about an event. A church service where people sing some songs and shake hands and listen to a sermon. That’s what we mean when we say things like, "How was church today?"

For us, when we think about church and when we talk about church, the word "church" almost always means either a place or an event. 

But in the Bible where the word "church" comes from, the word is never used even one time to describe a building or an event. To the contrary. 

Every single time that the word "church" is used in the Bible, it refers to a group of people.

In the Bible, church is a community—a group of people who may be totally different from each other in about every conceivable way, except that they are all connected together because they are all connected to God through faith in Jesus.

So church, technically speaking, is not a building and it’s not an event, it’s people.

And that’s important because words shape how we think. 

If we think that church is important and church is a building, then we care about a building. And if we think that church is important and church is an event, then we care about an event. But if church is important, and church is people, then we should care about people.

And when we do that, a really cool thing happens. We find ourselves caring about the thing that God cares about.

if you acknowledge the fact that Jesus came and died for your sins to save you, and you have accepted that gift, you are a part of God’s church. And He is building you, and me, and all of us, into something beautiful. So go out and be the church today. 

And if that’s not you yet, then I have great news for you. 

God cares about you. People are God’s favorite thing that He ever made, and that includes you. 

Maybe it’s time for you to accept that, and trust God to work in you and on you in some really great ways.