This is a response to "How to Stay in Church" at The Cluttered Mouth here.

There's power in the idea that church is a verb, that it's present wherever and whenever I take purposeful action from a loving heart.

I enjoy being "in community" but I also think the grammar of that construction makes us think it needs to be a named space that you join to be "in" and that creates an anxiety to find a community to be a "member" - a noun. A noun isn't praxis, it's a thing.

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"We were built for community. The evangelical lie is that the community you need is confined to the church. The world is wide, and Jesus roams in the hearts of many people who would love to love you." - Aaron J Smith, "How to Stay in Church"

Church/community that just sits there being a thing, accumulating member-nouns to be a bigger thing is not enacting transformative divine action on the world. A catalyst for new creation must perform works. And I can do this anytime, anywhere, with anyone.

I used this noun/verb idea recently in a message I gave for The Llama Pack. The way we use language shapes how we perceive and show up for things - this is the idea behind shifting to inclusive vocabulary and moving away from slurs - and it can transform our hearts around community, too.

You'll notice I've added The Cluttered Mouth to the recommendations you see when you sign up for my email list. Thank you to Aaron for inspiring this reflection and shining your light under the shadow of empire.