The Church of the Force was a religious institution composed of loosely-affiliated worshippers of the Force. Members of the faith, such as Lor San Tekka, believed that balance would continue to elude the Force until the Jedi Order was reestablished. During the High Republic Era, the Church of the Force was represented on the Convocation of the Force.
The Church of the Force began as an underground faith whose followers believed in the ideals of the Jedi Order. In simplest terms, the Church was basically a non-Force-sensitive equivalent of the Jedi Order. It existed during the time of the Galactic Empire, when such spiritual beliefs were strictly forbidden. Despite the threat of Imperial rule, and the destruction of the Jedi Order at the end of the Clone Wars, the Church of the Force believed that the light of the Jedi would one day return to the galaxy.
They eschewed modern technology and instead created their own in order to bring themselves more in touch with nature. A common practice among them was to perform pilgrimages to return items, such as kyber crystals, to where they belonged throughout the galaxy. One such pilgrimage was performed by Addar and his fellow members to Christophsis.
The Temple of the Kyber, a temple located in the Holy City of Jedha, served as the home of the Church of the Force.
In 382 BBY, during the High Republic Era, the Church of the Force was represented on the Convocation of the Force on Jedha by Kilan T'Dara. At the time, the Church operated out of a sector of the Temple of the Kyber that was assigned to them. Resamond Saous was prefect of the Church's operation there and adjunct Keth Cerepath lived in the temple.
In 231 BBY, the San Tekka clan was active in the Church of the Force on Naboo.
The Church of the Force existed as an underground movement during the Age of the Empire, when the Jedi Knights were hunted to near-extinction and worship of the supernatural was prohibited by Imperial law. One member of the faith was Lor San Tekka, an explorer who did not believe the Imperial description of the so-called Jedi betrayal of the Galactic Republic. He spent years searching and preserving the history of the Jedi that the Empire had tried to suppress, and eventually helped Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, in his own search for Jedi lore.
Lor San Tekka, a member of the Church of the Force, was executed on Jakku by the First Order warlord Kylo Ren.
During the New Republic Era, the Church was much more free. After Skywalker vanished following the destruction of his new generation of Jedi, San Tekka held a fragment of a map that showed where Skywalker had gone into exile. Believing that the Jedi had to return in order for there to be balance in the Force, San Tekka gave the map fragment to Resistance pilot Poe Dameron before San Tekka was killed by Kylo Ren—Skywalker's nephew, and the man who was believed to have killed the new Jedi. However, following San Tekka's death, Skywalker was located by a young Force-sensitive scavenger named Rey.
Through the appearance of Lor San Tekka and the Tuanul villagers, the Church of the Force first appeared in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. It was identified as the Church of the Force in the reference book Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, which provided some history for San Tekka. Lucasfilm Ltd. employee and author of the Visual Dictionary Pablo Hidalgo revealed in an interview that the Church was originally conceived by George Lucas for Star Wars: Underworld, a canned live-action Star Wars TV series. The Church's story was put on hold before appearing in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams.