ILL-INFORMED ECCLESIOLOGY

With hands together and fingers extended like the spire of a church, the dated rhyme was recited when I was a child. “Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple, open the door and see all the people.” I had no idea that I was quoting faulty theology. Actually, the terms ‘church’ and ‘people’ are not distinct from one another. Academically most of us understand that ‘church’ is people rather than stone, concrete, dry wall and seating. Church is people, each of whom is a living temple in which God’s Holy Spirit lives. Scripture uses the Greek word ekklesia, meaning assembly to convey the idea of ‘church.’ The theology of the child’s rhyme is improve if we change it to, “Here’s the building and on top is a steeple, open the doors and the church is the people.’


Although many congregations are committed to funding enormous facilities, economic realities as well as missional intention is increasingly producing new approaches to providing for church life and activity. Christine and I stopped for an ice cream cone, and were told by the proprietor that we were the last customers of the day because he was closing so that his church could hold its meeting, but we were welcomed to stay for worship in the ice cream shop. The church attended by my son and daughter in law meets in the local Clova theatre, renting specific hours for worship and teaching. Alternative spaces are not uncommon any longer because of the cost of property, and in some cases by intentionality when the church, wanting to serve a specific community, locates in an accessible rental facility.

It may still be unimaginable for many people to consider church without a dedicated, aesthetically attractive, spacious physical building. Yet the truth is that a structure at a specific location is a convenience for a church but it is not the church. The church meets at the location.