what would you say church is..?

In my continued exploring of church, one of the things I am really interested in is how do we practically do/be church.  However this presupposes that I have any idea how to answer the question what is church?  Or more pertently, what is the point of church?

On one level it seems very straight forward, that place where people go on a Sunday but over recent years that idea has been broadened and deepened considerably. I’ve got four ideas that I’d love to run by you to hear what you think…

Church as...

...Place – that seems the easiest idea to get my head around.  Church is a place where people go as in “I’m going to church” or “it’s been weeks since I’ve been to church”.  It is a physical, geographical, spacial, tangible place – whether its decked with marble and pews or scuzzy tables and coffee stains. And of course we can take the idea of church futher and explore church at a local, regional, national and global levels as well...

...People - this seems to be what i've been hearing that church is about over the last fews - we're not a builiding we're a group of people - we can of course obsess about how many people we are, whether we only care about the people who are there or focussed on the ones who aren't.  It's clear though that the church is some form of gathering, a family, a tribe, a people who have some kind of commonality/shared identity.

Of course we're not a happy family all the time and we're pretty dysfunctional, with tendencies to be obsessed with our image, either +ively or -ively....

...Presence - moving away from the tangible towards the intagible there seems to be indirect spaces that church faciliates - groups, gatherings, parties, programmes, charities, clubs, friendships, blogs, books, conferences, support groups, soup runs, shoulders to cry on, affiliations and on and on...  all the things that people who connect via a place can do...  is it something where the presence of God is also sometimes found?

...Practice - can church be a practice? a discipline?  a way of life? a lifestyle? Does it represent an orientation, a commitment, a calling?  Is it something to opt in or or opt out of?  Do we exercise our rights to chose whether to take part or not, is it something that we seek on our terms or it it a place where we detox from the consumer driven life?

I guess this "P" could also be called point, as in what is the point of church?

So any more suggestions as to what church for you is..?

• Would you add anything or take anyhing away from the desciptions?
• Do you think you can have one of these with out the othere?
• Any answer to my question "what the point of church is?"

Comments

[fernando]

Your last three - people, presence and practise (a great debate to be had there - practice, practise, or both). Place needs to be split, because place in terms of "the building" is not the same as place in terms of "the locality of mission."

For me, people, presence and practise should determine place (building), in the sense that form follows function. But, too often, we inherit the place, which then supervenes on the people, presence and practise.

[Paul]

Thanks F, so what would the debate be for you on practice/practise or both?