Whose church?"Pastor, is there anything going on in your church Tuesday night?" I recognized the voice of the caller immediately. John was the president of the Luther League, the youth group of the congregation where I was serving back in the mid ’70s. Though I understood his question, it needed to be modified, so my response was, "Whose church?" "Is there anything going on in your church Tuesday night?" He repeated. "Whose church?" I also repeated. Then he understood and gave a chuckle, "In our church?" "That’s much better," I said, "and the answer is ‘No.’" So he set up a time for a youth activity on that Tuesday night.One of my pet peeves as a pastor is church members speaking in a language of detachment from their congregations. It gives an impression that the church is the pastor’s possession, or it belongs to them instead of us. Of course, John was speaking of the church building when he wanted to know whether or not there was anything else happening that Tuesday night. The New Testament speaks of the church as a people called out from the world to be joined together into Christ. The New Testament uses all kinds of imagery to describe the church: Christ as the vine and we the branches (John 15); the building of God with Christ as the cornerstone and we built together as living stones (1 Peter 2); the Body with Christ being the head and we his members (1 Corinthians 12). These pictures demonstrate a connection of Christ to his people. The church does not belong to us, but we belong to the church with Christ as the owner. So, when you speak of your church, whether you mean the congregation or the place of gathering, I hope you do so with a sense of attachment. Use words such as we, us or ours instead of you, they, or theirs. Church members can say ours whether speaking of the congregation, the church building, their denomination, or the church as a whole. The ours is not because we possess the church, but because we belong to it. The one who can rightly speak in a possessive manner about the church is Christ. Yes, it is Christ’s church, not yours or mine. But as Christians it is our church because we belong to Him who is Lord.