How do we define church?
Church – a group of people who are committed to Jesus, and who are just as committed to each other as they are to Jesus
That may be an unorthodox definition of church, but that’s the way we understand the New Testament. For the first three hundred years, there were no church buildings. The church was a group of people who met together in houses to pray together, eat together, learn together and take care of each other’s needs.
The apostle Paul called the church the Body of Christ. Christ is the head – the leader – and we are his arms, his legs, his eyes, his ears, and his mouth. So, one of the ways we love Jesus is by loving one another. The apostle John said that we love the God we cannot see by loving his people, whom we can see.
Unfortunately, Jesus is easier to love than His body. His church is full of broken people who let us down, hurt us, disappoint us and break our hearts. But Jesus tells us to love one another. In loving each other, we love Christ himself. So, the church is a group of people who love Jesus, and who love each other just as much as they love Jesus. And that’s why we have home churches – because anyone can commit to love a small group of people as much as he or she loves Jesus Himself.