There is a common misconception that Libertyville Covenant Church is located at 250 S. St. Mary's Rd. It is true that at this address there exists a cozy, familiar building with signs that read "Libertyville Covenant Church," but we must be careful how we read those signs. We know in our hearts that the building alone does not make the church. If the Libertyville Covenant building were boarded up and left vacant, it would cease to function as a church, just as a restaurant that goes out of business and stops serving food ceases to function as a restaurant. So where and what is Libertyville Covenant Church?

The word "church" comes from the Greek word ekklesia. In the New Testament, the word has two primary definitions: a community of people with shared belief (the visible church), or the global community of Christians (the invisible church). Libertyville Covenant is a visible church, a gathered community of people with a shared belief in and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So Libertyville Covenant Church is a gathered community of people. When we attend church or Sunday school or go to a Wednesday night function, we don't merely go to church. Rather, we are the church, and as the gathered community of Libertyville Covenant, our primary gathering place is 250 S. St. Mary's. But does it have to be our only gathering place?

No. And it shouldn't be, either.

So how do we be Libertyville Covenant Church outside the walls of the building? We must come together in life-on-life discipleship, intentionally investing in each other's spiritual lives. This is demonstrated in the life of John the Baptist. In John 1, we see John baptizing crowds of people in the Jordan River, reminding them that someone greater, namely Jesus, is to come after him.

Just after baptizing Jesus, "The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, 'Look, the Lamb of God!' When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus." (John 1:35-37, TNIV).

The Baptist has disciples, as it says in the text, but we do not see him giving his disciples all the answers. Rather, we see him telling them to look at Jesus. John is a wise man, and a great prophet, but even he does not claim to have all the answers. John shows his disciples where they can really find life, in the Lamb of God, and they follow.

We can do what John the Baptist did, but the first step is an intimidating one. It is extremely intimidating both to ask someone for help and to offer help to someone else, but as a church, we must do this for one another. We are the church whenever we minister to one another, on any day of the week.

Do we want to be the church seven days a week? Let us then live lives of discipleship, pointing one another to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Where is Libertyville Covenant Church?

I don't know . . . what's your address?