“I'm not even
supposed to be here today!”
-Dante Hicks
Some concepts are
hard to define. Take the word church. When we say, “I'm going to
church Sunday”, we understand that to mean we are going to a
building where other people are going. We show up at this building
and depending on our tradition we will sing, talk, listen, take
communion, or even genuflect. Some may open a Bible when they show
up, others may take notes while other people open their Bibles, some
may open a lectionary. Some may read passages in their native
language and others may read in Latin.
But church is not
merely a building. We call various buildings “church”. And we
define various gatherings as the members or “bodies” of First
Baptist Church, or First Christian Church or the Methodist Church.
But the building is only where the people show up, they could really designate anyplace and show up. Some
traditions, after a particularly fiery service, will say, “we had
church today”. Meaning that something dramatic or emotional
happened during the service.
We also call the
people who are of the Christian faith “the church”. In other
words, the people themselves who have committed their lives to the
belief and practice of the Christian faith are the church. We see
this illustrated by the bulk of the New Testament. The believers in
Rome, Paul says, “To all who are in Rome...called to be
saints.”-1:7. In his letter to the Corinthians, 1:2, “To the
church of God which is at Corinth...” and He introduces his letters
to Galatians in the same way, “to the churches of Galatia...” and
in Ephesians he says, “to the saints at Ephesus”.
Paul is talking to
individual people when he addresses them as the church in this city
or that city. The people did not meet in buildings at that time,
they met in homes. So Paul is writing to people's home addresses
letters to be read to all the people who come together in homes to
read the Word, pray, and go out and share the news of Jesus Christ as
Messiah.
For some reason, in
modern times, we have made a big fuss about coming to church
activities, coming to a building and meeting there and we call that
church. We don't call Bible study church, even though it is, we
don't call believers meeting together for lunch church. Many tend to
emphasize coming to the church building for certain services as the
only definition of church that is applicable.
And if you don't
come? Well then we'll throw Hebrews 10:25 in your face and quote it
as if it confirms the idea that we should go to church services at
such and such time in such and such a building and be connected
there. I'm not trying to say don't go to a church, getting involved
with a group of people where you can be challenged and grow is great.
But to say that this verse speaks specifically about going to 9:45
services every Sunday and nothing else is ridiculous.
So how do we define
church? The church is the group of believers gathering together, it
is not individualistic, you cannot say that you personally are the
church and never interact with other people of the faith. Church is
gathering in homes, church is chatting over the gas pumps early
Saturday morning, church is the lunch break conversation, church is
the group of people holding the same faith doing life together. The
building has nothing to do with it. You can't contain God in a
building anyway.
Acts
17:24"The
God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of
heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands."
3 comments:
Don't appreciate the removal of my comment
life is full of the unappreciative...
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