What does ‘Church’ mean?

More specifically, what is or who is ‘the Church’.

Most people when they think of the word Church think of a place, or a denomination, or a Sunday morning service.

When God thinks ‘Church’ though, He thinks of people. He thinks of His family.

That’s what ‘Church’ means. It means family.

We are the Church, we are the children of God. We ARE family.

We are a huge, diverse, multicultural, amazing family who are all related by blood – the blood of Jesus Christ which washes away our sins and makes us new.

I am constantly amazed and excited by how big the family is and what great people are in it. Last year I got to go to Kansas City and met people who readily accepted me as part of the family and it should be the same wherever we go – we’re the long lost brothers and sisters that our family, the Church, never knew they had (and vice-versa)!

The Church is/are out there. They are in the seats in front, beside and behind you on Sunday mornings. They are on the bus with you, standing in line at the grocery store. In the houses in your street, in the homeless shelters, sleeping under bridges, at the ball park, in the stands at the baseball game. The Church is EVERYWHERE.

When was the last time you took the time to discover or rediscover the Church (your family) who are around you?

It’s time we stopped thinking of Church as being something we ‘do’ or ‘go to’ and start thinking of the Church as family – family that God wants us to treat like, well, family!

Who will you discover to be your brother or sister this week that you never knew you were so closely related to?