‘Church is a Verb’ by Godfrey Rust

‘Church mice, church music and church history
all try to tell us it’s an adjective.

Others have chiselled or boxed it into a noun—
a building or a social club.

But don’t be fooled: church is a verb.

It’s something that we do.
It won’t work in the singular.
I can’t church, you can’t church
he, she and it can’t church.
It only takes the plural: even God can’t church alone...

It works best in the present tense
and not with a prefix like un- or re-.
Don’t say Let's church again, like we did last summer.
It happens now, not then. It’s not a complicated verb.
It comes in simple sentences like How are you?
and Can I help? and Let us pray.

It’s often passive, and just sits and listens.

It’s a highly irregular verb and won’t do what it’s told.
It turns up anywhere with the most unlikely subjects.

It can be said in any language or in none.

We can’t easily go to look at church.
We only find the evidence that church has happened somewhere.
Something broken has been mended.
Someone is alive. Two are at one.
More is here now than there was before.

In one case only, this verb is transitive:
God churches us and also churches through us.
When we ask Christ to be among us
or make him known to someone
it’s then that we are churching’...

with love and prayers