What I mean by “church”
This post is part of a series explaining the categories on this site. Get future posts delivered to you for free by grabbing the RSS feed or email updates.
Time to clarify. What is church? What do I mean when I say church? What do you mean?
Talking about the church without knowing what “church” means is confusing, so I’m going to tackle that second question. (Perhaps you could tackle the third in the comments.)
Four things the church is not
1. The church is not a building
You’ve heard that first one a billion times but probably still don’t believe it. Why? Because you probably still say you go to church on Sunday. You do, don’t you? Yep, me too.
2. The church is not a group of full-time ministers
You know that second one intuitively but probably still don’t believe it either. You still think the full-timers are responsible for feeding the congregation and organizing outreach to unbelievers.
3. The church is not a group of Christians
You hopefully think all congregations serve the Lord and are part of the church, but alas, do you really? I know I don’t. I’m all about my specific congregation.
4. The church is not a group of Christians minus the full-time ministers
Finally, there’s this idea floating around that the church is everyone except the full-timers. Come on now, we are one. We are in this together. We’re working together (or should be). That might sound all Buddhist, but it’s Christian. God is monogamous.
You can probably see where I’m going with this…
One thing the church is
The church = all believers in Christ
That’s what I mean by it. The Bible does in places refer to churches as local gatherings (for example, see Romans 16:16). I’m fine with that (obviously). But here at bondChrsitian, just to standardize, the “church” is all believers in Christ.
When you click that “Church” category at the top of this page, that’s what the posts will be about.
- They’ll be about believers interacting with one another.
- They’ll be about believers interacting with Christ.
- They’ll be about believers interacting with everyone else.
And all that interaction will be about serving others. Because that’s what bondChristian is all about.
Serving Suggestions:
(1) Try using the word “church” more selectively. When you say it, be more conscious of what it means. This will help the church unify and help those who aren’t in the church really understand what its all about.
(2) What would you add to this? I mean, what do you think of when you think of the church? (I often think of those four things that the church is not if you must know.)