What is the Church?
In my 26 years of being a part of various evangelical churches I have heard probably a half dozen or more sermons on what the church is. And every time I have heard some version of the phrase, “Church is not a building, it is the people.” I feel like most people agree, especially when you look at what the Bible says about church, that church isn’t a building but a group of people. Yet our language is filled with phrases like “Where do you go to church? Do you want to go to church with me? Trinity is building a new church. I attend the Lutheran church…” These all seem to focus on church being a place you go or something you do.
Since the Journey is just starting off as a new worship service, I think it would be good for us to dive into what the church is and what that means for us. There is another phrase that I have heard often at Trinity referring to the church, “Let us be the church.”
Depending on who you talk to and what experience you’ve had at church (there’s another phrase that seems to use church as a place or event), you can have either a very positive or negative attitude toward church. Some may have been helped in a time of need by a church and think of church very positively. Others may have been hurt or judged by a church. Still other may feel simply indifferent. What’s the point?
This week at the Journey we will dive into not only what the church is, but what it is supposed to be. Our hope is that the Journey and Trinity are the church, and that they fulfill everything that the church is supposed to be.
Fellow traveler,
Andy