What is the church?

As we begin our short series on the church at SCBC I would like to know how you would define the church and how you arrived at your definition (experience, teaching, Scripture, etc.).  I would like to hear from anyone and everyone on this.  Don't be intimidated by the question, I am not necessarily expecting a theological treatise on this.

God bless,
Duane

Comments

[Rabbi Schmooley]

What a fascinating question. The word church is a 6 letter word. The number 6 in the bible is the number of man. Therefore it seems obvious to me that the church is the presence of Christ among men in this age.

[Dan]

I grew up in the Catholic Church. I remember very vividly that the Church, as in the organization itself, was the main focus of what we as members of the church were to focus our faith,time and energy.
However, there was one time of year that this was not the case and that was at Christmas.

Never did I see a more beautiful service whose sole focus and attention was on the glorification of Christ. I enjoyed going to midnight mass because of the services attention. No other service thru out the year was like it.

It was the one day a year my church came together and worshipped the King of Kings. There was no other focus, only Christ and his work. The singing was spiritual, the friendship between attendants was genuine and the place was full too. And all this energy was focused at the hugh alter with Chirst hanging on the cross in the backround. Yet, as depressing as the cross can be when looking at it; it was anything but depressing. It was beautiful.

So what is the church?

I'd say what I witnessed at those midnight masses was my first glimpse of what the Church should be.

Dan