The Middle of the Word — Rediscovering the True Church

El Brown

Jul 10, 2025

I didn’t grow up in church.

So when I first encountered “church people,”

they didn’t always look like Yeshua to me.

What I had been taught — the simplicity of God is love —

felt distorted, like it had been filtered through layers of rules, performance, and division.

The kindness I believed about Yeshua didn’t always show up in the ones who claimed to follow Him.

It was jarring. Confusing.

But God — in His relentless pursuit — kept drawing me anyway.

Not to a building.

Not to a brand of theology.

Not to a denomination.

But to Himself.

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Then one day, it happened.

I was reading when the word church seemed to lift off the page.

It looked different — almost as if it were being split into three visible parts:

CH — UR — CH

And immediately, the Spirit whispered:

“I am the Beginning and the End — the Alpha and the Omega.

And the middle, My beloved, is where you are.”

Tears welled up in my eyes.

In that moment, the word church stopped being about Sunday services or pews or pulpits.

It became deeply personal.

It became divine.

Because suddenly, I saw:

this word has always been a mirror of Him.

And it has always held a space for me — and you — in the center.

The beginning is Him.

The end is Him.

The middle is where we walk it out.

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What Is the Church, Really?

Not a building.

Not a 501(c)(3).

Not a platform.

The ekklesia — the Greek word translated as “church” — means a called-out assembly.

Not called out to be elite.

But called out to be His — set apart, surrendered, Spirit-led.

In the Old Testament, God called this priesthood.

Not just a Levitical tribe — but a people in whom God’s presence dwelled,

and through whom God’s presence moved.

Peter echoes this truth when he writes:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,

that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

(1 Peter 2:9)

This is the church.

You are the church.

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The Middle of the Word — The Middle of the Work

That whisper about being in the middle — it stayed with me.

Because the middle is where the process happens.

The middle is where transformation takes root.

The middle is where it’s messy.

Where it’s not always easy to see the Alpha or feel the Omega.

But it’s where faith grows.

And it’s where the church lives.

Not at the start — when everything feels new and exciting.

Not just at the end — when we finally see the victory.

But right in the middle — in the waiting, the weeping, the worship, the war.

This is where God forms us.

And this is where the church becomes His agent.

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The Church Is God’s Priesthood

If the world is searching, the church is called to stand in the gap.

To reflect His nature.

To echo His mercy.

To declare His truth — not with judgment, but with presence.

With love that looks like Yeshua.

We are God’s interface with the world.

He touches earth through our hands,

He speaks through our voices,

He listens through our ears.

The church, at its truest, is a body that breathes Heaven into the world’s lungs.

We are not performers.

We are not placeholders.

We are not religious figureheads.

We are a priesthood —

ones who carry His presence into hospitals, highways, homes, and hearts.

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I Hear the Spirit Say…

“You have misunderstood My church if you’ve only seen her as a building or an institution.

She is a bride, not a business.

She is a carrier of My glory, not just a calendar of events.

She is made of living stones — you are one of them.

I Am the Alpha and the Omega — I surround you.

But in the middle, I walk with you.

And through you, I reach those who still do not know Me.

You are My church.

Don’t shrink back from it.

Rise into it.”

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Declarations — Anchored in God’s Word

I declare, according to 1 Peter 2:9, I am part of a royal priesthood, chosen and set apart to reflect God’s light in the earth.
I declare, according to Matthew 16:18, the gates of hell will not prevail against the true church, because Yeshua Himself is the foundation.
I declare, according to 1 Corinthians 3:16, that I am the temple of the Holy Spirit — God dwells within me, and I carry His presence wherever I go.
I declare, according to Ephesians 4:16, that I am joined together with others as one body, and together we grow in love as each part does its work.
I declare, according to Revelation 1:6, that Yeshua has made us a kingdom and priests unto our God — and we will reign with Him.