Church as Community

People do like a church to not go to! Start talking about closing a church building and you'll soon have a range of objections pouring in. But mos of those objectors won't come near the place on a Sunday. It's the Christianity that matters, not the Church. Well, that's true - only the two are mutually connected. The internet is a great resource for Church - and we should use it to the full - but you can't evade the fact that the church is a community and that community only happens as people engage with each other. Yes, the church is imperfect - but we still need to engage with it. Of course, we can pray on our own, read the Bible on our own - and we should - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do these things with others. In my student days I spent some time considering questions of privatisation of the faith and of the church. People sometimes try to privatise the church, but it belongs firmly in the public domain. What we share is critical - and that's community, Christian community.