What is the Church

The past 3 weeks, I have been in two of our groups leading a discussion on "What is the Church".  I have learned a lot about myself as I reflect on my thoughts and views of the word "Church".  The theme that has stood out to me personally is how much I view church as a time, place and location.  Even though I know that "The Church" is really the congregation and is all about people and not a place.  Still every week, I find myself making some comment that puts my spiritual life in the context of a time, place or location and it is so frustrating. 

My view of the church (is it a what or a who) really impacts my view of what the church does.  If church is a what (building) then my view of church centers around the building.  If my church is a who, then church naturally centers around people.  This feels so elementary as I write is and think about it and yet - for what ever reasons - I have seen it at the center of many discussions recently. 

I am really excited that over the next several weeks, I will be spending time examing what our programming at Hope accomplishes, who is it for, and how do we align our programming to help the people of Hope and those not yet a part of our congregation in our spiritual journey.  My view of church impacts my answers to these questions.  When you think of "church" what do you think of?  Do faces of people come into your mind or is it a building?  Interesting, isn't it.