Church Can Be

A school

A nursery

A movement

Going home

Not a place

An incubator

God's family

God's window

God's fortress

God's vineyard

Not a building

The Lamb’s wife

A spiritual ship

The house of God

A social strategy

People called out

A good place to be

Gospel made visible

People called forth

Something beautiful

The bride of Christ

The gym of the soul

A society influencer

A society of sinners

The bearer of a hope

A soul-saving company

Not a preaching point

The hope of the world

The gospel made visible

The only pure democracy

A family where we belong

A place to receive grace

A family expecting guests

A home where we are loved

A channel of communication

Not a theological classroom

Not an organization we join

A battleship, not a showboat

The people, not the building

A perpetual construction site

Not an audience of spectators

A fellowship of disciple-makers

The gathering of God's children

A hospital where we find healing

Not a spiritual service provider

A lifeboat rescuing the perishing

A front line trench, not a rest camp

A thing very precious in God's sight

The object of Christ's supreme regard

A conspiracy of love for a dying world

The scattering, not just the gathering

God’s chosen people, who keep his commandments

A hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints

A spiritual organism fighting spiritual battles

God's appointed agency for the salvation of men

The home that accepts everyone and refuses no one

The human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ

The only institution supernaturally endowed by God

The repository of the riches of the grace of Christ

The mechanism that God put on earth to help the poor

The one institution that exists for those outside it

Not an organization controlled by the rules of people

The sign that points to heaven, not the way to heaven

Not a national, political, or provincial establishment

A people - the new covenant, blood-bought people of God

An institution for workers, not a dormitory for sleepers

God’s city of refuge, which he holds in a revolted world

Christ-centred care for the least, the last, and the lost

A place to find insight into and teaching about God’s Word

A garden for us to grow in, not a stage for us to perform on

The Lord’s garden, adorned with trees and plants and flowers

The textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity

The body of Christ begotten, unified, and indwelt by the Spirit

The company of people who believe in Christ, not wood and stone

Not a human society of people united by their natural affinities

A place where broken people can fall in love with a beautiful God

A hospital for the hurting, not a museum to display perfect people

A prophet from God with the greatest news the world has ever heard

An entity that comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable

A hospital ward for broken sinners, not a museum for pristine saints

A holy collection of living stones with Jesus Christ as the Cornerstone

A place that nourishes the imperfect, the struggling, and the exhausted

A spy mission into enemy occupied territory ruled by the powers of evil

A centre of social activity - those who go to church need never be lonely

A home where the outcast may come in, not a select circle of the immaculate

A house with a hundred gates - no two people enter at exactly the same angle

An entity for God, about God, through God, and to the glory of His great Son

God's agency for the proclamation of truth, empowered by Him to do a special work

Not made up of spiritual giants - only broken people can lead others to the cross

The most life changing and most revolutionary institution that has existed on earth

A congregation of people separated from the world by the receiving of the Holy Spirit

A home for all to come together, regardless of the depth or the height of our testimony

The one institution of which Jesus promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against

The one object on earth upon which God bestows, in a special sense, his love and his regard

A school for the education of the imperfect, not a gallery for the exhibition of the eminent

God's primary instrument for ushering in the Kingdom (God's dream) on earth as it is in heaven

The one object of Christ's intense interest in this world, and for which He has unceasing care

Imperfect, erring men and women who call for the continual exercise of charity and forbearance

The theatre of God’s grace, in which he delights in making experiments of mercy on human hearts

A living body united to the same head, governed by the same laws, and pervaded by the same Spirit

A place where people can leave the world behind and focus on their spiritual relationship with God

An angel of light, flying through heaven with the everlasting gospel to be proclaimed to the world

A place where we can develop friendships with others that will encourage us in our walk with Christ

A new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people

A place of gathering for people who share common beliefs, and support and encourage each other in faith

A hospital where the wounded, hurt, injured and broken find healing, not a museum that displays perfect people

One of the few organizations in the world that requires a public acknowledgement of sin as a condition for membership

A God-ordained, God-inspired entity, but that accomplishes its work through human beings subject to every possible failing

Not a palace with gate attendants and challenging sentinels along the entranceways holding off at arm's-length the stranger

A hospital where the brokenhearted may be healed, and where all the weary and troubled may find rest and take counsel together

The only society in the world where membership is based upon the single qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership

Like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses - our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep it on it’s course

A body of people who profess and give evidence that they have been saved by God's grace alone, for His glory alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone

The body of Christ, in which all members, however different, must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences

A voluntary society of people who have joined themselves together of their own accord in order to publicly worship God in such manner as they judge acceptable to him

A moment in time when the kingdom of God draws near, when a meal, a story, a song, an apology, and even a failure is made holy by the presence of Jesus among us and within us

A conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification centre, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed

A vital heart of truth and love, beating with the life of Jesus, and sending abroad its sanctifying pulsations until nothing shall be common and unclean, not an institution to be kept apart from the world because the world "is common and unclean

A place that meets our five deepest needs: a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on - there is no other place on earth where you can find all five of these benefits in one place