Here is another word game. See if you can go a whole week without using the word “church”. You can use words that mean the same thing, just try not using the word itself.

I was thinking about this when I was looking at how Jesus spoke about the church. He only used the word on two occasions in His 3 year ministry. Once He spoke about… building His church (Matthew 16:18), and another time He spoke about taking a person before the church to resolve a sin issue (Matthew 18:17). This does not mean that He did not speak to the community of Jesus-followers, or their need to come together. But the word ‘church’ (‘ekklesia’, the called out ones) was not often on His lips.

Let me know how it goes. Could you do it? Was it hard or easy? What other words did you use instead? Did you give up trying?

After a week, and sharing our observations, lets discuss some more what the Lord has in mind regarding ‘church’.