This is an interesting article in Relevant Magazine:
Remember, the Bible Never Mentions a Building Called ‘Church’
https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/remember-bible-never-mentions-building-called-church/
The author makes many valid points. Note that I am not anti-institutional-church, in sharing this, but rather just wanting to remind us that we each individually ARE the church, and where we go, we take “the church” with us.
This quote is especially noteworthy:
“HOW THE CHURCH IS BUILT: People are the building blocks. Jesus feeds the 5,000. A crowd has been listening to Jesus teach on a remote hillside, and the nearest Chick-Fil-A is still 2,000 years away. The gathering there is a mix of the invested, the curious and the skeptical. No sanctuary or liturgy; only Jesus speaking about God in real-time and then sharing a meal with those gathered on the hillside. That would be the model throughout the New Testament: Gather. Eat. Share. Remember me. Live.“
Let’s break past any “walls” we have created between “us” and “them”, the folks “inside” our church and the folks “outside” our church, and instead be serving in the midst of our community and neighborhoods, to be the light of Christ, to be the expression of the love of Jesus through our words and actions. THIS is what the church is really all about.
Too much of the community around our churches see far too many outspoken Christians pointing fingers of accusation, condemnation, judgement and sometimes even hatred upon others, and see less of a message about love, grace, mercy, hope and forgiveness through Jesus. In fact, it is heartbreaking to see and acknowledge all the harm that has been done over the ages in the name of “Jesus.” We can do better. We must do better.
Scriptures make this quite clear that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it. (John 12:47) Our mission, as the church, is to demonstrate what the love of Jesus looks like to this hurting world. This is what Jesus’s “church” is all about. It’s messy. It’s about us taking the time to get to know these neighbors of ours, “the invested, the curious, and the skeptical” and loving them.