A couple of weeks ago my Dad emailed me an interesting article that discussed some of the factors that contributed to unity among Christians. In it the author referenced this terrific description of the difference between a CHURCH and an AUDIENCE. It comes from a 1910 lecture at Yale by Charles E. Jefferson:

It is to be regretted that we have come to. . . judge preachers by the number of persons who listen to their sermons. A superficial man is consequently tempted to work, not for a church, but for an audience.

An audience, however, is not worth working for. An audience is a group of unrelated people drawn together by a short-lived attraction. . . . It is a fortuitous concourse of human atoms, scattering as soon as a certain performance had ended. It is a pile of leaves to be blown away by the wind, a handful of sand lacking consistency and cohesion, a number of human filings drawn into position by a pulpit magnet, which will drop away as soon as the magnet is removed.

An audience is a crowd, a church is a family. An audience is a gathering, a church is a fellowship. An audience is a collection, a church is an organism. An audience is a heap of stones, a church is a temple. Preachers are ordained, not to attract an audience, but to build a church. Coarse and ambitious and worldly men, if richly gifted, can draw audiences. Only a disciple of the Lord can build a church.

Wow! Talk about hitting the nail on the head! It may have resonated with me so strongly in light of where we are in our on going study of the book of Ephesians. What a great reminder of the difference between GOING to church and BEING the church.