What is CHURCH?

church

  [church]  Show IPA

noun

1.

a building for public Christian worship.

2.

public worship of God or a religious service in such a building: to attend church regularly.

Question: "What is the church?"

Answer:Many people today understand the church as a building. This is not a biblical understanding of the church. The word “church” comes from the Greek wordekklesiawhich is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.” The root meaning of “church” is not that of a building, but of people. It is ironic that when you ask people what church they attend, they usually identify a building.Romans 16:5says “… greet the church that is in their house.” Paul refers to the church in their house—not a church building, but a body of believers.
From Got questions .org
 

There has been an on-going pattern of discussion for us, my husband and myself, in regards to this word "CHURCH". It has really been made clear to me that alot of people seem to think they  have some sort of ownership of this word so much so that they can dictate what CHURCH is for everyone. If you look at the basic definition of the word CHURCH above it is pretty clear that it means a building for public worship, but of course as believers or people of faith we know that our definition should come from the truth of God not simply what the world says so I dug some scripture up about that too, although there was definitely more than that to go on I thought I would include a description that had translations of the  Greek words also since some of the push back about what CHURCH REALLY is comes from people who are of course much more educated than myself or my husband( neither one of us ever attending seminary or university of any kind) but what is interesting is that the bible often talks about the CHURCH as being in someones house, not a building designated at all for CHURCH but simply a body of believers gathering together to worship. I am pretty simple I know but even in my simplicity this really does scream to me that the CHURCH is anywhere, maybe where a few people are gathered in His name ( Matthew 18:20), where they worship and praise God.

Let me tell you about my CHURCH, there I said it I have been afraid when I am asked this question by others, "Where do you go to CHURCH?" to even say where I go out of fear of the next questions that start to arise.....

1. What denomination is that?

2. Who is the pastor?

3. DO you have a board of elders?

4. DO you take an offering?

5. How many people attend?

6. Is that OKAY? Did you get wise counsel for that?

7. Who overseas you ? (translation: who is making sure your not making grape Koolaid)

I have never before had to explain these many questions when attending a "corporate " CHURCH you know the one who meets in a building that can hold a nursery program and at least 200 people. One that is lead by people who are much smarter than me and therefore must know more of what God wants for me. I never got asked any of these questions because it fit into today's standard of what the CHURCH looks like. The problem was, God was calling us out of there and our spirits were drowning.drowning. Thais what happens when God is telling you to do something and you don't listen. 

We attend a CHURCH called RAW (Real Awesome Worship) at Helping Hands Street Mission

I guess the best way to explain my CHURCH is to answer the questions we get asked by our concerned fellow Christians. Here goes:

1. We don't have a denomination we just try to follow scripture,the teachings of Jesus.

2. My husband is the pastor, sometimes I am , sometimes we have "on-paper" pastors and reverends come in and sometimes our friends at the mission are the pastors depending on the topic but we all learn from each other. 

3.We do not have a board of Elders I guess we try the old biblical way of keeping each other accountable.

4.We do not take an offering, the fact is most of our "parishioners" don't have any money left after they pay for rent , utilities and food and some of the others don't get a cheque at all but the funny thing is the amount of giving they actually do , for cookies and coffee supplies etc is well worth MORE than the 10 percent we tried to live up to at CHURCH.

5. Well sometimes there is 2, sometimes there is 12 sometimes there is 22 but some of the best times is when we have 2, those are some really great discussions. I love having the freedom to not worry about the butts in the seats.

6. I think what we are doing is OKAY....I read it somewhere in the bible that it was in fact I thought it was a command to go and make disciples. There was actually a big chunk in a place in the book called ACTS that talked about small groups of people gathering with one another to worship God....that's what we do so I think it is okay. The bottom line is I guess I will wait to see what God says about it one day. 

7. We have a community of many people who we have built relationship with over the last 10 years in ministry that we keep in contact with, ask questions to . We are also not thinking up our own stuff here , we try to keep it simple and use the book that God asked us to learn from, the Bible. I don't even like Koolaid and we record every sermon that is preached just in case anyone wants to make sure we are not taking on extra wives, stealing peoples money or any cult like things.

The truth is we gather on a Sunday, listen to worship music, listen to the word of God , ask questions, argue with each other, interrupt, drink coffee, fight over donuts, pick our favorite chairs, get up and leave if we feel like it, run in late,dance our faces off, shout out to God and sometimes our neighbor and try to love the Lord as best we can in a world that can sometimes be really crappy.

Tom and I love our mission family and love that God called us to love them right where they are and wanted to spread the Good News to them in a place that they could call their CHURCH in an environment where all of the above things would be safe to do. Where they could wear the same clothes from last week without changing in between and still feel welcome. Where they could repeat the same song over again just because they love it and it was their choice.Where they could ask for prayer out loud for their disease called AIDS, their child who was working the streets, their friend who was addicted, their mother to speak to them again and for forgiveness for the terrible things they did to their own children. For all the things we would NEVER say out loud to the body of believers in corporate CHURCH. Where they can ask questions and be mad at God right there in the middle of the "program". Where they can invite their dealer in for a coffee to tell them about this place that's a CHURCH but not like a regular one. Music to my ears and most of all to my heart.

CHURCH a place to get your FREAK on ....Your JESUS FREAK on. Where you can gather somewhere and worship God wherever God leads you to go, whatever space makes you feel like home, and with never having to explain what it is to anyone else except to say its your place to meet with God and your fellow believers.

I hope everyone reading this has a place like that, big or small , corporate or not, a place to worship the Lord with YOUR community and have it all spill out into the rest of your life.Lets start embracing the unique communities that God is working in to create a space for people to hear the Good News . Lets stop trying to take ownership of CHURCH and give it back to God.