What is Church?

Many of us learned the song as a youngster in Sunday school.

The Church is not a building, the Church is not a steeple
The Church is not a resting place, the Church is the people.
I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together!
All who follow Jesus, all around the world, Yes We're the Church together!

That is probably a pretty good explanation of what The Church is, a community of believers who follow Jesus. Then why do we always think of church as a building or a worship service? Why do we leave the people out of it?

Think of a normal church service at your church. If it is like most I have attended, it consists of some songs, passing the offering plate, a reading from the scripture, a prayer lead by someone, and a sermon from the pastor. This is how we most often experience church, sitting in the pew, listening to someone else, barely participating. If you were not there one Sunday, would "church" still happen?

To me, most churches seem almost like you are just attending a play or listening to a lecture. Surely we can do better than this.

I feel that Church should be more communal. We often find this in either small groups or Sunday school. At the church I am currently attending, I am not finding community through these things. I attended Sunday school for a short while, but stopped because the group I was with wasn't communal. Members came irregularly, the teachings wasn't very strong, the group was made up mainly of married couples with children and the social activities reflected that, and I wasn't been spiritually fed. For about 9 months, we had a bible study made up of people in my "social" group, young single adults. We met and had fellowship and bible study. We struggled in finding more fellowship activities, but we never had a staff member to help us and we were disbanded for being "too small." The small group had great potential, even if we were small, but unfortunately we didn't receive the support we needed from the church. The only place I have found community in the church is in singing in the church choir. However, our purpose is to sing. This is a good thing, but it does not develop me in the same way that a bible study would. It isn't wrong, just different.

In Sunday worship, I do not find fellowship or community. I find myself sitting with people, but not knowing them. Hearing a message, but not having it delivered by someone who knows me and knows how it would apply to me. I want to be with people who are of a similar mind, growing together. I don't want to be passive! I want to be part of the Church, not just meeting in a church.