Church Redefined: Person, Place, or Thing?

🕊️

Remember grammar class? We all learned that a noun is a person, place, or thing. And for most of us, when we first heard the word “church,” we quickly filed it under place.

The church was the building with the steeple, the sanctuary where we worshiped, the fellowship hall where we gathered after service.

But here’s the problem: that definition never actually came from Scripture.

🕊️ Is Church a Place?

We’ve been taught to think of church as a physical location - something we “go to” on Sunday mornings. But when Yeshua spoke about His ekklesia (Greek for “assembly” or “called-out ones”), He wasn’t talking about a building at all.

In fact, for the first several centuries, the early believers had no cathedrals, no stained-glass windows, no programs. They met in homes. They broke bread around tables. They gathered in fields, riversides, and marketplaces.

Church was never about walls.

🫶 Is Church a Thing?

For some, church has come to feel like an organization - a calendar of programs, ministries, and committees.

This is not the true essence, but a false covering. Church is not a thing we manage, like an event or a non-profit. It’s not something we do to check a box, nor is it a brand we follow.

And here’s another common misconception: church is not “ministry.” Too often, “ministry” gets reduced to a stage, a microphone, or the charisma of a single leader. We’ve been conditioned to equate spiritual life with the eloquent words of someone who can inspire us for an hour.

But that’s not the biblical picture.

Paul warned Timothy that “the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).

When church becomes centered on programs or personalities, it drifts into becoming a “thing” - something to consume - rather than the people of God living in covenant.

True ministry is not found in a pulpit performance, but in the shared priesthood of all believers - each part of the Body functioning together under the Headship of Yeshua.

🗣️ “Going to Church” - How Language Has Been Shaping Us

Words disciple us. The phrases we repeat week after week form our imagination for what life with God looks like. For many of us, the sentence “We’re going to church” quietly trained us to picture a place to attend rather than a people to belong to.

That one phrase carries a whole script:

• Place over people - If church is somewhere I go, then belonging is tied to a building and a schedule.

• Consumer posture - I “attend,” “rate,” and “receive,” instead of shoulder-to-shoulder participation.

• Compartmentalization - Sacred is one hour there; the rest of life happens elsewhere.

• Outsourcing discipleship - The “professionals” do ministry; I watch.

But Scripture’s language points a different direction. The Hebrew qahal/edah and the Greek ekklesia both mean assembly, congregation, called-out ones - a people gathered, not a place housed.

What happens if we let our words tell the truth?

• Instead of “We’re going to church,” try “We’re gathering with the ekklesia.”

• Instead of “Service starts at 10,” try “We break bread and pray at 10.”

• Instead of “I go to a great church,” try “I belong to a covenant family.”

Small shifts matter. Language follows life - and life follows language. When we speak as a people, we begin to live as a people.

👁️ Church Through a Hebrew Lens

Here’s where it gets even deeper.

The writers of Scripture thought in pictures. Hebrew is a pictorial language - alive with imagery because God Himself is a God who reveals truth through images, patterns, and living examples.

The Rabbis often said that you don’t always have to speak what you believe - your life becomes the picture of what you believe.

As the Kotzker Rebbe once put it:

“Not all that is thought need be said, not all that is said need be written, not all that is written need be published.”

In other words, the weight of our faith is not in endless words, but in the lived picture of our obedience.

And this is the key difference between seeing church as a building versus seeing church as the Body of Messiah.

• Buildings are like words spoken: external, temporary, confined.

• The Body is like a picture lived: constant, unshakable, visible without explanation.

When people see the Body of Yeshua walking in covenant, loving one another, and living in His ways - they don’t need a sermon to define “church.” They can see it.

👥 So… Is Church a People?

Yes. And not just any people - but a covenant family.

Church is the ekklesia: the called-out ones. Those who belong to Yeshua because they obey His voice. Those who are grafted into His covenant. Those who live as His body on the earth, with Him as the Head.

Paul wrote: “Now you are the body of Messiah, and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

That’s the truest definition of church. Not a noun to attend, but a picture to embody. Not a place to sit, but a covenant family to walk with.

🌿 Church as Presence

Maybe we could even say this: Church is not just a noun - it’s presence.

Where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is. Whether that’s around a Shabbat table, in a living room, or on a park bench, the presence of Yeshua in the midst of His people is what makes “church” real.

✨ Redefining Church

So, is church a person, place, or thing?

It’s none of those - and all of them. It’s not confined to buildings, though people may meet there. It’s not a “thing” we do once a week, though we may gather on the calendar. It is, at its core, a people. A covenant family whose very life is a picture of the King they serve - marked by His presence and defined by obedience to His Word.

And that changes everything.

🫶 Let’s Walk It Out Together

📣 How has your definition of “church” shifted over time? Do you still see it as a place, or have you started to see it as a picture - a life lived out in covenant with Him?

💬 Share your story in the comments. Your words might be exactly what someone else needs to hear today.

Shabbat Shalom,

Beth & Daniel