Acts 2:41-42 :

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls. They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.

The Bible tells us that “Church” is not a place. The Temple is a place on earth and it is the only place that God made His own physical house on earth. The only other place that God has chosen to live other than the Temple in Jerusalem (and the temporary tent that Israelites had in the desert before the temple was built) is our hearts! When the Holy Spirit was given, His glory actually came into us! What an undeserved and amazing thing that has happened to us!

In a very real way, the Bible shows us that thinking that God is in a church building is wrong. He isn’t. He’s in you and all of the other believers and when you are with them you are in church. The way we can tell we are really having “church” together is described in these verses.

When you are in church, you carefully learn about and follow what the apostles (the Twelve not those who claim to be apostles today) said. We have what the apostles said written into our Bible already now. There is no need to listen to anyone else. Also, when we are in church, we share our lives with each other in Christ. This is called fellowship. It is a chance for us to share with and love each other in a safe relationship. We also share in the practice of the “Lord’s Supper” or “Communion.” This is the practice that we talked about in John in which we eat special “meals” together that remind us about what Jesus has done for us.

Finally, we have prayer. Prayer is a huge part of the life of a true believer and you will really know you are in church when you pray together. Without it, it is very hard to tell sometimes.

Notice that people are baptized as well. That is another practice that we see today that is important. It is the outward representation of the forgiveness of sin.

You can see that church is possible without a special building. A building is very good to have, but you can have church wherever two or three believers are together.