What Is the Church?Sýnishorn

What is the Church?

What do you think of when you hear the word church? I always used to think of the place I went every Sunday—the building where we all met together. But church is so much more than a building; in fact, you don’t even need a building to have church!  

When you read about church, you may see it written in two different ways—church and Church. This is because there’s a difference between what some call “little c church” and “big C Church.” Little c church is the local church. When you say, “I went to church on Sunday,” it’s the place you go and the community of believers you see. Big C Church refers to the global Church. As Christians, we all make up the Church. No matter where we live or how young or old we are, no matter what our gender or race, together we are the Church.  

As we go through this study, we are going to look at four different ways the Bible talks about the Church: the Bride of Christ, the Building of Christ, the Body of Christ, and the Family of God. We will dive into what each of those mean.  

Today, we will read Acts 2:42-47 and see what the original church looked like.  

What did these Christians do when they gathered together?  

What similarities do you see to your church? What differences do you see?