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  WHO IS THE CHURCH?
  by A.W. Tozer
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Summary: The church is an assembly of individuals, and improving it
starts with personal growth and change.

Topics: "The Nature of the Church", "Personal Responsibility"
Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 12:12

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A.W. Tozer emphasizes that the church is not merely a building but an
assembly of individuals, highlighting the importance of personal
responsibility in the health of the church. He warns against the dangers
of becoming stagnant, where the church falls into a cycle of rote, rut,
and ultimately rot, due to self-righteousness, judgment, and complacency
among its members. Tozer asserts that the character of the church
reflects the individuals within it, and true improvement must start with
personal introspection rather than pointing fingers at others. He calls
for a return to recognizing the church as a community of real people,
urging members to take ownership of their roles in fostering a vibrant
church life.

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CONTENT
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For clarification, what is the church? When I say that a church gets
into the rote and then onto the rut and finally to the rot, what am I
talking about? For one thing, the church is not the building. A church
is an assembly of individuals. There is a lot of meaningless dialogue
these days about the church. It is meaningless because those engaged in
the dialogue forget that a church has no separate existence. A church is
not an entity in itself, but rather is composed of inidvidual persons.
It is the same error made about the state. Politicians sometimes talk
about the state as though it were an entity in itself. Social workers
talk about society, but society is people. So is the church.

The church is made up of real people, and when they come together we
have the church.

Whatever the people are who make up the church, that is the kind of
church it is--no worse and no better, no wiser, no holier, no more
ardent and no more worshipful. To improve or change the church you must
begin with individuals. When people in the church only point to others
for improvement and not to themselves, it is sure evidence that the
church has come to dry rot. It is proof of three sins: the sin of self-
righteousness, the sin of judgment and the sin of complacency.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/aw-tozer/who-is-the-church/
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