What is "Church"?

I'm very invested in the Sunday morning worship service. That's what the church has hired me to do, and, as a musician, there is a huge part of me that needs to express my spirituality through music, and, while I can do that alone, I love to do it corporately with my church family on Sunday morning.

For some people, church means "going to church on Sunday morning". It means singing, hearing good preaching, maybe catching up with some friends in the hallway, or going out to eat after the service is over. I do all of that. But that's not what church means to me.

Here's a quote from Pastor Rob Bell of the Mars Hill church:

" We say, "This isn't the church, this is a church service. It's just an hour where we have some teaching, some singing and you'll hear about things in the community." If there are 43 "one anothers" in the New Testament—serve one another, carry one another's burden's, confess to one another—you can only do a couple of those in a church service. Until you have a community that you are journeying with, please don't say you are a part of this church. You just come to a gathering. We are very intentional about that. The question is, "Who do you call when your brother ODs on cocaine? If your mom is in the hospital, who comes and sits in the waiting room with you? When you cannot pay your rent, who do you go to and say please help me out?" That's your church. "