The Church

What is the Church? Is it a building? Is it a sanctuary where we come to find comfort? Is is a place shadowed with laws and rules? Is it the old, creaky wooden pews that we force ourselves to sit in every Christmas and Easter. What is the Church?

I feel like I've gone to church my whole life. I've sat through sermons, and gone on countless youth group trips, and worked my fair share of voluntunteer service hours. Yet, everytime I meet someone who tells me they have been hurt or damaged by the Church, I find myself asking what is the Church?

We aren't supposed to be a building, we are supposed to be a body. We aren't supposed to be givers of law, but givers of love. We aren't supposed to be black and white, we are supposed to be hands and feet. We aren't supposed to be political and belittling, we are supposed to be the bride of our Christ. So what got us here? What got us to this place of pain and hurt and hatred?

I have come with one purpose to capture for myself a bride

By my life she is lovely by my death she’s justified

I have always been her husband

Though many lovers she has known

So with water I will wash her and by my word alone

So when you hear the sound of the water you will know you’re not alone

‘Cause I haven’t come for only you, but for my people to pursue

You cannot care for me with no regard for her

If you love me you will love the church

I have long pursued her as a harlot and a whore

But she will feast upon me, she will drink and thirst no more

So when you taste my flesh and my blood you will know you’re not alone

‘Cause I haven’t come for only you, but for my people to pursue
You cannot care for me with no regard for her
If you love me you will love the church

There is none that can replace her though there are many who will try

And though some may be her bridesmaids they can never be my bride

(The Church by Derek Webb)