It seems innocent enough.

I’ve said it a thousand times.

You’ve probably said it–if you attend a church.

And we’ve both said it in positive and negative terms.

With pride or bitterness/anger: “My church does ______.”

With pride or bitterness/anger: “My church NEVER does _____.”

One of my professors, mentors, and resident granddaddy to our kids, Dr. Lee Magness, points out that before long, we’ll actually start believing it is MY church.

As if it’s not Jesus’ church. As if he isn’t the foundation, architect, builder, sustainer, and goal of the church. As if he hasn’t laid out what the church exists to do, we begin to believe it’s my church and, thus, my job to craft fanciful mission statements and the like.

I can’t help be think we complicate it so much. We end up stressed over financial commitments, building campaigns, faith promise pledges, boards of people that don’t exist in the Bible, worship styles, and on and on…

All the while, the most foundational reality of Christ’s supremacy is eclipsed. Why? Because, it’s MY church.

There is something formative about the words we use. In this case, ‘my’ denotes ownership of some sort, possession. Choose your words wisely.