Church

There was an old song my Aunt Wanda used to sing.  "My House is full, but my field is empty.  Who will go and work for me today?  It seems my children all want to stay around my table.  But no one wants to work in my field.  No one wants to work in my field."

Fellow Christ followers, I do not care how cliché it sounds, nor how many suit-wearing preachers try to denounce or qualify this statement:  YOU ARE THE CHURCH!  As the Apostle Peter wrote in the Bible, you are Living Stones God is using to build His House.  It is a house of life, love, and purpose.  The buildings we gather in are built of dead stones, lumber, morter, concrete, and steel.  Those are merely places of meeting.  They are not holy, except for the actual living stones meeting inside them.  Yes, anywhere God meets with His Living Stones, His Church is holy, but only because You and God are there.  Everywhere you go you carry the Holy Spirit inside you.  At home, at work, at the doctor's office, at Cosco, you are the Church.  The fields that are ripe for harvest is every person that passes thru your presence who is not walking daily with God.  

God didn't do His wonderful mighty work of Salvation for us to go to a building and sing songs and hear the Word preached, and call it worship, or church.  It is a good and useful thing to do, but the purpose of it is to be built up in our faith in order to be the Church elsewhere.  It is merely one place where worship begins, and that place can literally be anywhere-where 2 or 3 are gathered.  If there's you, Jesus in your heart, and the Holy Spirit you brought, you can have church, be the church, and even grow the church!!!  

The gifts God has given to us in the "five-fold ministry," the gifts of the Holy Spirit living in you, and other gifts were not meant to be utilized in what we call a church setting, though that should be a good place to learn about them and practice them. They were given for the support and guidance of Living Stones, and to attract and call others to Conversion.  Where are these "others?"  Usually not at church.  Usually anywhere else, but.

Luke 14:16-24 NLT

[16] Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. [17] When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ [18] But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ [19] Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ [20] Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ [21] “The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ [22] After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ [23] So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. [24] For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”

https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.14.16-24.NLT

Jesus was not telling His guys to bring people to church, He was telling them bring them to Heaven with them for eternal fellowship.  Bringing people to Jesus does not equal bringing them to "church."  There was no "church" then, as we understand it.  Jesus was commanding they bring anyone and everyone who would come into fellowship with Himself so that He could continue building the Church with living stones.  

This is not a denunciation of going to a building called "church."  It is a reminder that the Ekklesians, the called out ones, the Living Stones are, indeed, the Church and is not begun, limited to, or retired within material walls built by human hands.  Taking Jesus with you into every situation, building, locality, visitation, occupation, mediation, arbitration, every you go is the job of every Living Stone, His spiritual building material.  Worship is merely doing what He would do, would have you do.  Where you are is the Church. When you are being the Church where ever you are, that is worship, and may or may not have anything to do with singing songs and listening to preaching in a material building. I encourage you to increase your perspective accordingly.