My daughter Kayla and I saw this on a sign outside a local denominational meetinghouse: “The church for people who don’t like church.” Kayla looked at me, puzzled, when she read it. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she observed.

And she was right.

First, the sign uses the word church in a manner different from any found in the New Testament. The Greek word ekklesia, commonly translated “church,” literally means “assembly,” and in the New Testament always refers to a body of people — usually the collective body of disciples of Jesus (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 1:18), or a local congregation of disciples (1 Corinthians 1:2; Philemon 2). The first use of the word in the slogan fits this pattern — “the church…” refers to the group of people who meet in the location where the sign stands.

However, in modern English, church is frequently used in one of two accommodative senses: as the building in which a congregation worships (“We drove by the church today”), or as the worship and other activities conducted there (“We go to church every Sunday”). The Scriptures never use church to imply either of these now-common meanings.

Let’s presume for the sake of discussion that the slogan’s second use of church intends the second accommodative meaning — worship and other religious activities. We could therefore reword the phrase as, “the assembly for people who don’t like worship.” (I’m relatively confident the sign doesn’t mean, “the assembly for people who don’t like buildings,” given that it’s installed in front of a building.)

Now our puzzle is more clear. If this assembly is only for people who don’t enjoy worship, what do they do when they assemble? And if it isn’t worship, why do they call themselves a church?

Groups of people can assemble for many reasons. A chorus assembles to sing. A business meeting convenes so the attendees can discuss business. A chess club gathers to play chess. I’m not sure what “the church for people who don’t like church” does when it assembles. But I’d guess it isn’t worship. After all, they don’t like worship, according to their sign.

But if that’s so, why call the group a church at all? Why risk being mistaken for something you don’t like? You wouldn’t walk around wearing a T-shirt that reads, “I’m a carnivore,” if you don’t eat meat. If you don’t like “church,” in the sense of worship or collective practice of religion, why call your assembly a “church”? Why not call yourselves “The Sunday Morning [fill in the blank] Club”? Or perhaps “The ‘We Don’t Like Worship’ Society”? Calling an assembly by a name its members dislike appears self-defeating, at least to me.

The deeper question, though, may be, “What kind of people don’t like church?” If what you mean by “church” is the worship of God, why do you not want to do that?

David, a man after the Lord’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), wrote these statements: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’” (Psalm 122:1), and, “I will declare Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You” (Psalm 22:22). These inspired words teach that people who love God want to worship Him, and want to assemble with others who do also. I’m not sure what kind of folks don’t like assembling with those who praise and worship God, but they certainly aren’t people after God’s own heart, as David was.

Kayla’s thought on the subject was wise. She said, “People who don’t like church just won’t go to church. Why even have a sign like that?” Again, I’m not sure who’d call such a group together, or would want to be part of it. Perhaps those who don’t like doing what pleases God find strength in numbers, even as do those who indeed want to worship and glorify their heavenly Father.

Of this I am sure: I don’t want to join them.