In search of the true church: Francine Rivers's latest novel probes what can happen when a church goes wrong. (Special Advertising Section).(Advertisement)

When you hear the word church, what first comes to mind? A building? Your pastor? Your small group?

Francine Rivers is passionate about the church--and just as passionate about the definition. "The church is not the building, but the body of believers who all have a relationship with Jesus Christ," she says. But, she notes, too often the focus turns to programs, the American notion that "bigger is better" is adopted, and things slowly--or, sometimes, quickly--go awry.

The process of how this can happen, and what a sincere Christian can do about it, fuels Francine Rivers's latest: novel, And the Shofar Blew. (The shofar she explains, is the ram's horn that was …