then we need to stop saying, “we’re going to church”.
Words are powerful. We come from faith begun by the living Word, Jesus. But we forget our words’ power and we reduce them by saying things like, “I’m going to church”.
We need to stop saying that. We can’t just excuse it and say, “oh we know what we really mean, so it’s okay to say that.”
NO. We need to stop saying that. Because saying it makes it true in our minds, culture and practice. And we are in a culture that doesn’t get this church thing. And if they hear us say we’re going to church then they will picture the building.
We says things like…
“I missed church today” — when we don’t go to a building with pointy bits and probably a cross on a Sunday morning.
“I was at church” — describing attending a worship service done in any of a dozen flavours and ranging from 1 hour to 2 hours in length depending on your flavour.
“I was at the church”– for a meeting, class, service or anything in a particular building.
“I gave to the church building fund” — biblically that’s possibly far enough from truth to be heretical. Biblically, Jesus is the one who builds the church and He’s not asking for us to give money so He can do it. (Please Note: I’m not saying this to knock building funds) WE just need to watch the words we use and the ideas they foster.
If you are a follower of Jesus, also descibed as a Christian or a disciple of Jesus you are part of the Church. And you can gather with the Church, meaning others who are a part of it but you don’t gather at the church, either in the shape of a building or in the form of a service. Buildings are used by churches (people following Jesus) and services are worship gatherings of the church.
But if the people are the Church then it gets really interesting! Let’s look at some of the ways in the next few posts.
