What do you think of when you hear the word “church”?

 

A building?

 

An hour of music and talking on a Sunday morning?

 

A place your parents made you go when you were a kid?

 

We define “church” as a group of people who want to passionately live out everything that it means to follow Jesus. A group of people who want to follow Christ and share His love with everyone around. To study God’s word, to ask hard questions, to worship God through creative expressions, to help the poor, to reach out to the hurting in the community, to build relationships with one another that are characterized by love and service.

 

The people that make up this “church” are involved in the South Hill community helping pregnant women in crisis, giving baskets of food to those in need, making ourselves available in our neighborhood schools, reaching out to neighbors in need, mentoring young married couples, and a variety of other creative ways of showing God’s love.

 

Sure, we have a building. And we do get together for a couple hours a week to worship God, learn from His word, and encourage each other. But that’s not church. Our meetings are a way of preparing us to be the church the other 6 days of the week, in fact we have a saying at CCBC that reminds us of this truth … “the church has left the building.”