Here is the second part of (see part one here) an ongoing conversation involving people's answers to my one simple question: "What is church?"
 
The answers keep coming in, and I'm excited to continue sharing them with you. Feel free to re-post these on your blogs and get the word out about what the church is and could be.
 
What do you think?
 
Here's what others are saying:
 
  • Milt Rodriguez, writer, member of The Rebuilders and advocate for organic house churches:
    Simply stated, the Church is the visible expression of Jesus Christ. She is the life of Christ being fleshed out among and in His people. In short, the Church is the expression of "Christ in you (all), the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27)

  • Paul Vasilko, fellow missions mobilizer and musician:
    Church is the vehicle that Christ uses to reach out to those who need Him. At times it lies within the four walls of a building. More often than not, though, it resides in the midst of authentic communities committed to growing each other in Christ's image, while reaching out to those around them.

  • Frank Viola, author, speaker, and visionary for organic church:
    The church - a word gravely distorted, misunderstood, redefined, co-opted, and evacuated of its original meaning. What is it? That which many Christians have never known in *experience* unfortunately - she's the most beautiful girl in the world, the fiance of the Lord Jesus Christ - she's a culture, a civilization, a habitat, a a shared-life community of those who are learning to live by the indwelling life of her Bridegroom. She's Jesus Christ in corporate human expression.

  • Mike Morrell, writer, blogger, and networker:
    "Church" is a consciously-redeemed subset of humanity creating a culture of astonishment, celebration and lament for the good of the whole; a visible projection of the ineffable Godhead's fellowship on earth. We live, breathe, love and die to help awaken the cosmos to its truest identity and become whole ourselves. In doing so, 'Church' takes on the yoke of Jesus to walk the journeys inward, outward, and together.
 
Read the next part in this series: What Is Church, Pt. 3