What comes to your mind when you hear the term, “church”? A building, pews, pulpit, choir? Or your comfort zone, safety net, foundation, prayer partners, family in Christ, war zone? Or church hurt, gossip, judgmental religious people? What has defined your definition of church? Most commonly, it would be your experience with church. Now think, is your experience the proper way to define something? Whether it is good or bad.
Someones experience with swimming may be, “A very scary/dangerous situation in water.” That might be their definition of swimming due to their experience but that is not the correct definition. Google states swimming is, “the sport or activity of propelling oneself through water using limbs.” Thus proving, our experience of something doesn’t/shouldn’t define it. So what does the bible say the definition of church is? You. Me. Us. The bible says that we have one body with many members (Romans 12:4-8). We are the church, literally.
Physical churches create convenience and organization which allows large amounts of people to gather in a central location, which we are encouraged to do (Hebrews 10:24-25). However, our experiences/society has created a negative culture towards the term “church”, contaminating/altering its true meaning. If the definition of church is you, then you define it.
What if someone googled the term “church” and saw your name as the definition? How are you defining the term “church” in your life? Would your name being the definition of church be an accurate representation? People should experience church through us, as we are the church. And if more did, I don’t think the term “church” would be looked at the way it is today. We are walking churches. How will you define the term?
Boost of Love 