“Church” is not a place you go or an event you attend.

Webster defines church as “a building for public Christian worship; a public divine worship.” Webster has it wrong. Jesus and his disciples never used the term church to refer to a place or an event. They always used it to refer to the people who follow Jesus. Period.

Church is not an event, a place, or a list of group activities even though that’s how we’ve come to think of it. We say things like, “I go to First Baptist.” “We are members of St. Luke's.” “We’re going to be late for church.” Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all.

The “church” is the people.

When one asks me where I go to church, I can honestly say that I do not. Why? Because I cannot “go to” myself. I am part of the church, so there is no specific place I can go that is church.

“Aren’t you being a bit picky?”

It may seem like I’m being picky to answer the question about church in this manner. On the contrary, I am trying to be faithful to what Jesus and the disciples taught about church. For way too long Christians have referred to that building they go to on Sundays as the church. When we do that, we forget that WE are the church. Children grow up thinking that the building is holy, that it is special, that you have to be good in there—but not anywhere else. Can you see the problems this might cause?

Followers of the Way are the Church.

The Church is a community of people who have been redeemed by the Father and empowered by the Spirit to live life as Jesus in all of their relationships--individually and collectively. Many times in the Bible, the Church is referred to as “the Way.” This is why we use that name to refer to ourselves. As one local group of followers of the Way (i.e. Jesus), we usually gather in homes every week for dinner, Communion, prayer, worship, etc. You’ll also find us serving people in the name of Jesus—not “church.” We want to make sure that Jesus is the focus rather than the church. To that end we are committed to simple, authentic, relational Church life.

Got questions?

It would not be surprising to find that you may still have questions about this whole idea about me “not going to church.” It happens all the time. I encourage you to go to our “Resources” page and read some of the articles linked at the bottom of the page. I especially encourage you to read the book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen & Dave Coleman. It will help you see the point even more clearly. Finally, let me encourage you to read your New Testament with new eyes—pay close attention to every reference to the church. You’ll see pretty clearly that Jesus and the disciples never refer to the church as a place to go or an event to attend. Thanks for asking!