The church is not the building. But it’s the building.

If you’ve been Christian for any length of time, at some point someone’s gonna preach a sermon in which they state the church isn’t a building; it’s the people. It’s not an institution, not a corporation, not a campus; it’s people. It’s made of people. The plural of the word Christian isn’t only the word Christians; it’s also church.

But let’s be honest: It’s also the building. And the organization. In fact these very same preachers will tell various church attendees, “Meet you at church!” or “These are the things our church believes,” and in neither case do they mean the people of their church. They mean the campus. They mean the 401(c)3 nonprofit corporation which facilitates everything your people do. They mean the organization—or as pagans call it, the organized religion. They mean those things way more often than they do people.

No, they’re not trying to deceive anyone! Church first and foremost does mean the people of a Christian group which gathers to collectively worship, follow, and promote Christ Jesus, and support one another in these practices. But popular culture—including Christian popular culture—constantly uses “church” to mean the building or the institution. We use it that way too. It’s an old habit which not only dies hard; loads of Christians aren’t making any effort whatsoever to kill it. It doesn’t appear to hurt anything to use the word that way, so they don’t feel any pressing need to change their behavior.

Though I have known some folks who try to reserve the word “church” only for people. I’ve tried it myself. They’ll greet the people of their worship services with, “Hello church!” and end prayers with, “And all the church says Amen.” They regularly address the people as “church.” In everything else, “church” is an adjective: The building is the church building, the organization is the church organization, and so forth. Takes longer to say, but it makes the point, and reminds everyone, the church is people.

Like I said, I’ve tried it myself. I lapse a ton. Old habits do die hard. But I don’t stress out about it; no one should.

Is this misdirection though?

The reason I bring up the subject is there’s a fellow Christian I know who goes to a house church. That’d be a church which, obviously, meets in someone’s house, much like the ancient Christians did. Ro 16.5 A house church tends to be small, since you can only fit so many people in your living room, garage, basement, back yard, or barn. But they also have next to no overhead. The pastor is usually a volunteer. The only expenses are cleanup and food (including holy communion) which people usually donate.

House church advocates love to say it’s the only type of church where the church really is the people. Whereas every other church, much as they might claim the very same thing, isn’t really. It’s the institution. The leadership. The building. Claiming, “No really, the church is people,” is just a smokescreen for how their church in fact isn’t the people.

And y’know, sometimes they’re not wrong.

I’ve worked in church leadership, off and on, for decades. I’ve seen how many of the people in the church don’t participate, don’t contribute, don’t donate, offer no financial support, don’t pray, don’t anything. They just show up every other Sunday, leave immediately after the service ends, and figure they’ve done their duty to God for the week. That’ll keep them in his good books.

A lot of the people in our churches are those people. And yes, you’ll find them in house churches too, though it’s less likely because it’s very hard to hide from one’s church duties in a house church. But y’know, Christians who shirk on their church duties are still the church—and still have some pull on the direction the church goes.

Ever read this bit Jesus told the church of Sardis?

Revelation 3.1-3 ESV

1“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.’ ”

Betcha that message startled Sardis’s church leaders. Because church leaders tend to be way more devout than most of the folks in our churches, and presume if they’re doing fine, isn’t the church doing fine? But sometimes the church isn’t fine at all. A church that’s 80 percent dead wood is pretty well dead! And the second coming doesn’t first have to happen before Jesus decides to come shut that church down, and scatter its congregants to the four winds.

So yes, the church is an institution, and a building, and the people. It’s all those things. But I should be clear: If we’re not paying attention to the condition of the people, we may very well be one of those dead churches Jesus warns about, and the leadership is very quickly gonna find themselves without any flock to lead. The smokescreen isn’t blinding the people to the nature of the church; it’s blinding the leaders, who need to wake up too.

If your pastor is the type who loves to say, “The church is people,” has he ever turned round and said, “And at our church, we believe…” when really he means “Our denomination believes,” or “Our leadership believes,” or even “I believe”? Since the church is people, you don’t legitimately know what your church believes till you poll the people. Your organization might believe the Holy Spirit still cures the sick and speaks through prophets. Your people might believe no such thing, ’cause they’ve never had those experiences for themselves, and some of ’em doubt even the bible stories which tell of such things are true.

Some church leaders actually do poll their congregations, just so they have a handle on what their church actually does believe. And if your leaders haven’t done this, they oughta! It’ll show them what they most need to teach their church. If you find out your church is full of heretics, don’t despair; get to teaching! Shelve your upcoming sermon series on masculinity King David style, and show them why the Sermon on the Mount isn’t unimportant. Correct your people!