Yesterday we talked about the main message of Paul’s letter to Philemon: “Charge it to my account.” Today, I want to talk about the very first sentence of the letter:

Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house… (Philemon, verses 1 and 2, ESV)

It’s a simple sentence: “to…the church in your house.” The church isn’t the building, it’s the people. In this case, a group of people meets in Archippus’ house. It’s a simple sentence but a huge paradigm shift for most North American Christians. “Church” is:

• Not the building
• Not the 11am Sunday service (as opposed to Sunday School)
• Not the denomination you’re affiliated with (“The Roman Catholic Church” or “The Presbyterian Church” or “Baptist Church” (of whatever flavor)

It’s THE PEOPLE, either local or worldwide for all time. As the tee-shirt says:

That’s not even quite right. We are the church, like it or not. And we’re called to be “the called out ones” especially when we’re not in the building! I wrote about this back in 2020 after hearing Todd Wagner, then pastor of Watermark Church in Dallas.

If we primarily define church as a building, we miss the point of what God intended His Church to be: a group of people that are on mission 24/7 to bring hope and restoration to a broken world. This could not be more important. We’ve let culture define what the church is, causing people to first think of walls and windows instead of men and women who love and care for them. – Todd Wagner, February 2020

Jesus was clear – I’m not building a building, I’m calling out people who will successfully storm the gates of hell:

I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16.18, ESV)