"Going to church?"

I'm sure it has happened to you. Someone - friend, neighbor, co-worker, check out counter help - finds out you're a Jesus-follower. They may or may not be one themselves. You may chat for a bit about that. Then one of the inevitable questions will be about church. What do you say when someone asks you about church?

The most likely answer in our culture is, "I go to church at ___." Look closely at that language. What is it saying? I puts church in the same category as the mall, or the movies, or, at best, your favorite local dive hang-out. Do we go to church in the same way we go to the mall? Or to the movies? Unfortunately the answer is all too often, "Yes." Church is "out there." It is a place I go to. It is something I consume; something I observe. This is particularly evidenced when people say, "I attend _____ church." I go to this church, I watch it, I might even pay attention to it, then I come home. If we "go to" such and such church, do we take it home with us?

Another way of answering the question is to say, "I'm part of _____ church." Now we're getting somewhere. Church isn't someplace I go to, it is something I am part of. Church is something bigger than me that I am a part of. This is a being word as opposed to more of a doing idea, or worse, something that others are doing that I observe. Being "part of" a church means that church isn't "out there" - rather, I'm "in" the church. We're part of the community, we're part of the mission. Church isn't something I go to, church is something that is wherever I am.

So what do you say? Is church something you "go to" or is something you're a "part of"?