Recently while driving my kids to a group hike, we passed a beautiful Catholic church building in Monrovia. The sign outside said “Parish of St. Luke.” My son joked that at first he thought it said “perish” and that seemed like a strange name for a church. I launched into a description of a parish, which is the geographically defined area served by a local church, usually either Catholic or Anglican. In a way it’s like a school district, where anyone within those bounds would know which were their church building and their clergyman. The idea that any Christian within a certain geographic area would automatically attend the same local church services is foreign to our American evangelical experience. Ease of transportation, variety of denominations and many other factors contribute to this. One downside is that we can lose sight of our membership in the “universal church” or, as it’s called in the Apostle’s Creed, the holy catholic church. This universal church includes all the body of Christ, across local church affiliations, denominations, all around the world and even across time. As you walk through this lesson, allow yourself to be challenged in how you view the nature of the church of Jesus Christ, as well as your place as a member in it.