Church is NOT a building
Wait. What?! I was raised in the church, so how can I say it's not a building. Where was I going all those days? “God’s house” is a phrase used to describe the building where people gather for church. But we have forgotten that people are truly the church. The Bible tells us, in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” God is always with each of His children, that’s why the Holy Spirit was released upon the earth when Christ ascended into heaven. But this passage tells us that, when two or more people gather in His name, something special happens. That’s church.
Oh, to be like David, the writer of the Psalms. In Psalms 122:1, David writes, “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’.”
When I was a worship leader, I often opened church service with this passage. It’s a statement of the joy, anticipation and unashamed happiness we can experience as we join together to worship God. God wants this for us. As people all over the world have lived through Covid-19 shutdowns of their houses of worship, many have a renewed appreciation for the gathering called church. We are beginning to return to churches in the United States and elsewhere. But, for some, there is hesitation, fear, laziness, complacency around the return to corporate worship. If this is you, I encourage you to pray about it. God implemented “church” because humans are social and we need to gather to worship, testify, work together toward common goals, support each other and be accountable to each other. You can’t do church alone.
On an impromptu trip with my husband, we experienced this phenomenon called “church”, in a new way. We travelled across three states, uncertain of how this trip would end. On the most pivotal day of the trip, we went to “church”. On that morning, ‘the house of the Lord’ was a little coffee shop in a hotel in Tucson, Arizona. God sent us two “Angels” in the form of two prayer warrior women. Perfect strangers, that we began to chat with, followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and prayed powerful prayers over us. God knew we needed extra prayers that morning so he sent us angels. As moments passed, it became clear this was a divine appointment. God arranged this meeting. As we talked about travel, work, family and life, we began to praise the Lord and then we prayed together, hands held and heads bowed. We had “church” right there.
The power of prayer is REAL. And the prayers of the Saints availeth much. We knew God was with us that day and throughout this journey. After our divine appointment, we left feeling lifted and strong enough for the days’ challenges. We felt God‘s presence holding our hands and walking alongside. He confirmed our path and joined us on it in a special way. We stepped out of “church”, thankful to our angels which we hugged in tearful “goodbyes”. God continued to bless our trip in so many ways, even smiling on our return with a double rainbow.
Church is not a building, it’s His people. Praise the Lord!
Still, Jai
