"When the identity of the church is transferred from living people to inanimate buildings, the table is set for a serious feast of hypocrisy and confusion.  The church becomes a place where we go to be holy and give God His due so that we can go on with life as usual the rest of the week.

   To the world this flawed understanding pigeonholes the church as a place for "perfect" people, or more realistically, a place where hypocrites go to feel good about themselves. How can the world think otherwise? They never see the "church," because its activities are largely confined to a building.  Too many unsaved see Christianity as a clique that meets for self-congratulation or theological debate or purely social activity, and has little to do with the struggles of everyday life.

   The irony is that the world, those who are indifferent to Christianity, have the same view of the church as we do. I think it is safe to say that in many respects, they know us better than we know ourselves.

   These erroneous thoughts are the recipe for confusion. It seems that God's people are confused about who they are, and most importantly what the church is. For many Christians, the apostle Peter's description of the church as a "house of living stones" has become a spiritual-sounding metaphor that is difficult to relate to the modern church as we know it.

   If we want to see the church truly become the living, breathing, life-giving representation of Christ on earth, then we need to be willing to let God work through us to rebuild His house - from the ground up."

-Excerpt taken from 'Uniting Church and Home' by Eric Wallace, pg. 44