Being a church means being a group. For some organizations their 'groupness' lasts for however long everyone is together doing whatever the group is about. But before and after those times there may not be the same sense of being part of that group. Other loyalties take over - until the members of the group get together again. A sense of being a part of that group is limited.
But the 'groupness' of a church is different. To be sure, there is that being together for a purpose that all share just like any other organization. And when the saints aren't together there may not be the same sense of being part of the group. But the bonds that hold the members of a church together go beyond a common cause or friendships or other such things. Beneath all of that, the church is an organic whole where each part is bound to all the other parts. Each member is bound to all the other members. This kind of 'groupness' is not limited to those times when everyone is together. It's that way because of what the Spirit does. He binds the saints together in a way that goes beyond anything merely social. The Spirit takes a group of people and makes it into the Body of Christ where each one is there for the sake of the rest. Each one is bound to the others in some mystical way by the action of the Spirit within each one and among all. This makes being a church different from any other organization.
These bonds of the Spirit are simply a fact. Unfortunately, not eveyone in a church lives according to this fact. Some live according to different lies about the nature of the relationships they have with the others in the church. One popular lie goes like this. 'I can meet with the others to sing and pray and listen, but I don't really need them in order to live well. I can make it on my own well enough.' And that is a lie that a church needs to expose and replace with truth. It is simply the truth that the people who make up a church cannot live well without each other. The Spirit has made them a group. He has made them to depend on each other. And the health of any church depends on the people of that church believing the truth of who they are.
We at Faith Reformed are this kind of group. We are an organic whole where each one of us is bound to all the others. We are a church. There are times when we feel this way, and there are times when we don't. But this is the truth about us regardless of how we feel. And one goal that the Father has for us as a church is to live according to this truth. As we work at this we will succeed at our most important goal: making Jesus look as good as He really is.