Definition of the Church, by N.T. Wright

From the book Simply Christian, a definition of the church:

“It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice. It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out.  It’s were people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

…

“The Spirit is given so that we ordinary mortals can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God’s future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God’s kingdom going ahead. The Spirit is given, in fact, so that the church can share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself, now that he has gone into God’s dimension – that is, heaven.”

This does not, of course, completely contain what it means to be a community of believers.  Crabb would add that it is a place of transparency and honesty that strengthens our faith.  Erre would add that it is where Christians seek God’s work through prayer. Piper would add that it is a place to see clearly that we are utterly dependent on the grace and love of God.  And all of those are more fabulous things.  But this is still a great quote of how the Holy Spirit works in a community of believers to bring new life.