Two thousand years ago, Jesus established “The Church.”

Jeff Gaines, minister at Christ Church Winchester, said when Jesus used the word “church” it had nothing to do with a building and everything to do with a movement.

The church is not a place.

“A lot of people when they hear church, they think of a building,” Gaines said. “… The way the Scriptures teach us, the way that we are all thinking about it, is it’s not a building. It’s a people. It’s a movement of God. And we want the best that we can to exhibit that to our community, to put that on display.”

The church is a people — a people inspired and empowered by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a people united by devotion to Jesus Christ, people Jesus commissioned to be “the light of the world” or “a city on a hill.”

Gaines said Jesus’ life, death and resurrection sparked a movement that transformed the world in the most incredible ways.

Gaines said he believes God is still moving today in Winchester, through His people.

That is why several churches in Clark County have partnered to unleash a “Be the Church” movement in January.

“When we say ‘Be the Church…’ it’s not just a location or where I am, that’s a congregation and a part of the church. That’s not all the church,” Allan Hutchison, lead pastor at First Church of God, said. “There’s so much of God’s church throughout the community.”

Gaines said the churches aspire to more fully become the type of people God wants them to be and to provide a model of hope and unity for the community.

Steve Humble, an elder at the Covenant Church of Winchester, said he always goes back to Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody,” which talks about how every human is a servant, whether it’s to the devil or the Lord.

“To be human is to be a servant,” Humble said. “…We want to serve Jesus and serve like Jesus.”

The churches invite everyone to partner in this movement by joining them for a time of inspiring worship and enlightening teaching around the “One Another” passages found in the New Testament.

Every Sunday in January, each church will teach the same passage of scripture and theme revolving around the “One another” commandments.

“It’s a four-week campaign,” Gaines said. “… The goal is to communicate to our people… that, in a way, many of us have to reprogram the people we have going in each one of our churches to get them thinking outside of our four walls, help them to understand, we are part of something bigger.”

People can join the movement at any of the following churches: Christ Church Winchester, Church of God Cathedral, Cornerstone Christian, Covenant Church of Winchester, First Church of God, Calvary Christian Church, First United Methodist, First Fire and Oasis Foursquare Church.

David Douglas, the senior pastor at Church of God Cathedral, said he was immediately on board with the campaign as he’s always been a participant in trying to unite the churches and the community.

“We have to support one another,” Douglas said.

The Fellowship of Believers will visit various churches involved throughout January.

Mike McCormick, lead pastor at Calvary Christian Church, said Calvary has been thinking a lot about what it is known for in the community.

“One thing we want to be known for is the way we love one another,” McCormick said. “… You can have great music, great preaching, great programs, but that doesn’t mean you’re a follower of Jesus.”

Other Winchester churches can join the movement, or people can purchase a “Be the Church” T-shirt by reaching out to Allan Hutchinson or Jeff Gaines. People can also stay up to date by following the Association of Churches’ Facebook page, which will share information throughout the campaign.

“We invited every church in Winchester,” Gaines said. “… We invited through the Association of Churches.”

The purpose of the series is to more fully become the Church (corporately) God desires everyone to be for one another and to be a picture of hope and unity for the city of Winchester. This campaign an interdenominational effort spanning the entire city geographically.

Also, this is a launch point for even greater initiatives that will take place in the community.

Gaines said there is a spirit of partnership and unity stirring up in the community.

“I’d say Upward was the catalyst for something like this,” he said. “… Upward was birthed out of a need in the community. When the [YMCA] closed, there wasn’t a sports league for kids. And a lot of the church leaders came together and said if anybody’s going to accommodate this issue, then it’s going to be the churches. And at that point, they realized not any one church could do it by themselves.”

Upward 40391 has been wildly successful over the past three years as its enrollment has steadily increased every year.

“We just saw how effective that was, and were like ‘OK, how can we do this in other areas and other ways?’ because ultimately, all of our churches, we want to help make Winchester a better place,” Gaines said. “…What we’re realizing is the most effective way to do that is not every church just continue doing their own thing. If we want to make a splash in the community, if we want to make a difference in the community, then the way that’s going to happen is together.”

Whit Criswell, pastor of Cornerstone Christian Church, said churches have failed over the years to come together.

Gaines said there was a movement among churches in the 1990s to form an attractive model of ministry. Churches built the nicest facilities, hosted talks and “rock concerts,” all in the hopes of filling seats.

“It was a great way to attract a crowd, but an ineffective way to make disciples,” Gaines said.

Criswell said he’d been a part of two mega-churches, and while they do good things for the community, churches should focus on building followers of Jesus rather than building crowds.

“I can see they’re coming back to ‘hey, we’re only a mile wide, but an inch deep, we need to make disciples,’” Criswell said.

McCormick said he hopes people realize throughout the campaign it’s not about going to church; it’s about being the church.

Every church, every believer, every person is invited and encouraged to participate, Gaines said.

Gaines said Winchester is better together. And Winchester is on the verge of a life-giving and life-changing move of God in the city.

“We wanted to start 2020 with the anthem of unity to set the tone for the new year,” Gaines said.

All of the pastors agreed this campaign is only the beginning.

“I am convinced that this is just the beginning of a movement of cooperation, partnership, ‘one-another-ship’ that will have extremely positive implications for our city,” Gaines said.