There is something to be said for loving
churches. I have been fortunate
enough to travel around the country and even some overseas and to see great
cathedrals standing tall. I have seen
small buildings of brick and siding and large ones of glass and stone. I have seen them with spires and bells, steeples and stained-glass. Some church buildings are in and of
themselves impressive, but to me the best churches are the ones who let what happens in them impress you more than the architecture.
These are buildings that house the simple sacredness of worship. Powerful events like baptisms and communion take place within these walls. People meet and gather and share and cry and pray and dream here. Soon we realize that it is not the building that makes a church at all: it is rather the people that come together with one purpose and one vision. This gathering can take place in an open field, under a summer tent, in a living room, in a jail cell or in a coffee shop. If Scripture says that God is no respecter of persons, certainly He is no respecter of buildings either.
The next time that you say, "I am going to church," I hope you will be thinking of the people rather than the place. Where God's people dwell there is a church. Always remember a Body, not a building, is what Christ died for.
