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What is a Church?

I think the most misunderstood thing about Christianity is the church. Nowadays people just have no grasp of what a church is or means.

I have been very blessed to have arrived at River's Edge some 2 and a half years ago. It is my church, but when I say 'my church', what does that mean? Clearly a church isn't the building, though many think so. A church isn't a collection of saved and unsaved people either, nor is it a smattering of people "who matter" and people who don't. Part of what I think a church is includes people, but we're still missing something.

When I'm missing something, I either whine about it a lot to anyone that can hear me or I try ravenously to find it. In the Bible Jesus said that "where two or three are gathered in my name there I shall also be." -Matthew 18:20

That answers what was missing in my church definition. To be gathered together with the purpose of worshiping and serving Jesus is what makes a church. Does that mean when some Christians gather in a house for a Bible Study - is that a church? I suppose it does. I like what Paul writes in Romans about what it means to *be* a church.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others. - Romans 12:4-5

I had a conversation with a friend recently who was of the opinion that she was not one "who mattered" to the church. I thought about that for long after our conversation had ended. I see a church as a tapestry, with each individual as a thread making up this tapestry. Each person matters as much as all the others because we are all in this together. If you rip out one thread from a tapestry what will happen?

That thread will cause the whole tapestry to unravel. To use an army metaphor, a church is a secure defended position. If you pull one rifle off the line, you've created a hole in your lines. Now these holes with some juggling are fillable, but you would not have the same ability to defend as you once had.

The last thing I want to say is that you don't end up in a church by chance. The Lord will lead you to a Church if you ask Him to, and the people He brings together at that church to influence your life will not be there by chance. God has blessed me with Christian friends to call my own, and He has blessed me further by bringing together our eclectic little group to worship Him. Together we gather, at a place down by the water, in the basement of a senior's center, a society of friends, brought together for one purpose, to worship God, as a church called River's Edge.

- Jesse Zillman, Youth Leader

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Where are River's Edge services held?

At the Gordon Howard Centre in Selkirk, on the corner of Manitoba Avenue and Eveline.
Services start at 10:30 am.
Please use the Banquet Hall Entrance on the side of the building.

Parking is available on the street, behind the building, and further down behind the building on the waterfront. You may also use the gravel parking lot next to the Riverside Grill (1 block north of the Centre).