I’m going to team

Photo by Abigail Keenan

Today is Sunday, which is the most typical day people "go to church." But is church something someone can go to?

The Bible's use of the word "church" never had anything to do with a physical place, building, or event people went to.

Rather, church was a people—a group of people, a gathering of people, a type of people.

Take an analogy: team. It would be weird if I said, "I am going to team." You can't go to team. You can only be a team or part of a team. A team may meet somewhere like a field, but the field is not the team.

What type of people is the church, then? It is the people who follow Jesus. When that type of people gathers together, they are the church, wherever they happen to be and whenever they happen to meet.

The opposite could be said: Although a group of people calls itself church, if they are not following Jesus, they are not really the church.

So today, Sunday, consider being the church—being part of a group of people that is trying to follow Jesus. Not going to church. Being the church.

And if you've never really read much of the Bible before and are curious about what I'm saying, try finding the book of Acts, which tells the earliest story of the church. Ask yourself whether this story looks anything like what you have ever encountered that calls itself church.