4 Meanings Of Church
You might have guessed, by now, that I love to write about faith and church. I was sitting around the other day thinking about the word church and realized that, often, people mean about four different things.
Sometimes people mean a building. To some, church is simply a space that is used two or three times a week. Other than that , they may think it is a waste of valuable real estate.
Others think of it as an organization to join. They may join for many various reasons. It may be to help their standing in the community. It may be to gain business contacts. It may be so that they can use the church gym. It is simply a community organization that is there to be used.
Others, still, look at the church as a local outpost of God’s kingdom. There may be many around, but they find the one for them and join. They can discover where God wants to use them in His kingdom. They have a place where they can use the gifts He has given them. They can join on a regular basis with other followers of Christ and worship corporately.
Finally, some look at the church as something much bigger. They look at the Church as all followers of Christ. They seek the Church as Christ’s body. They believe the Church to be the Bride of Christ. They see the Church as a universal, unified unit.
How do you view the church? Do you know people who view it in each of these four ways?
Friday is my day off larry, so even though I saw this, I did not take time to comment. I am constantly cringing when people refer to the building as the church. To some it is a matter of semantics but not to me. People begin to honor the building and “worship” it when they get the wrong thoughts. I try hard to constantly refer to the church as the community of what we are a part of locally and globally. As you can imagine, I have seen all 4 example you mention.