I was thinking about collective nouns, for example a pride of lions or a murder of crows or a parliament of owls or a crocodile of choirboys. What’s the collective noun for church members? A congregation or a flock or just plain a church. That word church primarily means the collection of people rather than a building.

Church is a funny word because it comes from a Greek term “ kuriakon” which means “dedicated to the Lord,” but it is used to translate a different Greek word “ekklesia” which means “called out.” Church is the people called out by God.

This is a difficult concept for some to understand because we think of churches as being voluntary organizations that we choose (or don’t choose) to belong to. That leads to thinking of a church as being something that conforms to our wishes and desires when it ought to conform to God’s will. We are called out of doing what we want and called into doing what God wants.

The strength of the church comes from doing what God wants and that can make some folks angry. Peter was once ordered to stop talking about Jesus. He refused because he saw himself as one called out to obey God, not human authority. Those called out by God have sometimes been forbidden to distribute Bibles or to worship or to feed the homeless, but they’ve done it anyway. What do you think God has called you to do? What should the collection of people called church do? It’s worth thinking about.

Read Acts 5:27-29 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne