Thoughts on the Church...

When we think of the church, we usually think of the big white building across from the Sugar Creek, don't we?

Most of us know that it's something far bigger than that, but in our daily conversations with people, we usually just think of the building, or maybe the small group that meets in the building.

Church is much bigger than that. From the New Testament, we understand that the church is not a big building, or a small congregation, but a people. All people who trust our lives to Jesus Christ are the church. Our "membership" in the church doesn't come from adding our name to a roll, or affiliating with a small group that meets each Sunday. Our "membership" in the church comes from our relationship with Jesus.

We think way to small when we think of Almond Union of Churches as the church. We are a very small part of the church, at least those who have a genuine love for Jesus. We may be very active, but we remain a very small part of the church.

These thoughts come from a new book I'm reading called There's the Steeple... Here's the Church. It can be a little challenging for us to read, because it tends to challenge some of our ideas of what a church is and why it exists. But it's an easy read, and i encourage anyone who has an opportunity to read it to do so.

Perhaps we'll do a book study on it sometime at AUC. I'll let you know...