I am probably too obsessed with this...

I know I am probably too obsessed with this, but referring to the church as a building makes me want to dig my heart out of my chest with a spoon. I always try to say that I was "with the church" on a Sunday rather than "at church" because, obviously, the church isn't a place: it is a living body made up of people. Taking this one step further, I refer to the main place where we gather in the church's building (or meeting house) as the auditorium. I know this is not a perfect word but it sounds a lot better than "really big room" and is more theologically correct than sanctuary. I am God's sanctuary like every other blood-bought believer and no room, in an of itself, is.

Well, I also have a hard time with calling the auditorium or building a "worship center". I know that this is not quite the same as calling it a sanctuary, but to me it sets the building apart a bit more than it needs to be and confers on it something that it has no business possessing. Again, I see my heart (and the hearts of all the saints) as worship centers. I could see it called "one place of worship" or maybe even "a place of worship" because I can easily say that my workplace or even my bed is a place of worship. In other words it is a place where I worship God. Could I call my desk at work a worship center? I have a harder time with that just given the fact that it sounds funny to me and also in light of what I shared before: my heart is a worship center where I worship in various places. You know...like an auditorium.

I hope this is not seen as too much parsing of words. Words have meaning and I misuse them just as much as anyone. I have just had my perspective on worship radically changed through the church I worship with these past couple of years and I want how I explain or talk about worship to reflect that reality.