I’ve struggled with this language and idea that we “go to church.” Have you thought about this too?

Authentic “church” is not something I go to; it’s something I am. Even the word “church” speaks of a people who are called out by God. They are the people of God as a state of being. 

We need to watch and renew our language. We’ve reduced the whole concept of church to something very event-centric; like church is a sports event or concert thing held in a stadium environment or a trip to the mall. Jesus didn’t die to make something so cheap, so plastic. He died and rose again for his bride and his family.

So, instead of saying, “I (singularly) go to church,” we could more accurately say, “we live in this church, together.” And this state of being and living comes from the special identity that’s given to us in the Gospel. We live through our identity in Christ. Therefore, we gospel one-another (a term I have shamelessly borrowed from Steve Timmis 🙂

My emphasis is more about a paradigm shift than a nuance of words. If I just go to a church then it’s very easy for me to just go away from a church too. It starts to treat other people (our holy-family members) as a weekly task to be accomplished and checked-off on a personal agenda. It also sounds very consumeristic. So, I think it would be a good thing for us to struggle with this kind of language until we nail-down who we really exist-to-be in this holy minestra of the church.