Church

"'Church' is a strange word. To the ear it sounds rounded, lurching out of the mouth like an unhappy burp that will not be kept down but must be kept quiet. To the eye it appears bounded, its beginning and ending stiff, imposing letters that seem to be doing all they can to squeeze the life out of a lonely vowel. When you say it slowly, the word is very cold, bland, and boring, almost dead—which is how many people experience church. . . . The church is the place where this world and the other meet. The church is, quite simply, the magical universe of the Spirit." —Leonard I. Sweet, New Life in the Spirit, 1982