God's Church, People Not Buildings

I grew up in the small Arkansas town of Russell. In this town we were lucky enough to have a school house. It was bigger than most old red one room school houses that you see portrayed on T.V. it was actually 3 or 4,000 square feet so the only reason I can find to justify calling it a school house is because that is what all the adults who went to the school house called it.

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This functioned as the school for our community until the early 60’s when it was absorbed into the greater Bald Knob Metropolitan School District.

The point I want you to see is that it was called a school house because of what went on inside its walls. Until I started studying to write this article it never occurred as strange that my grandmother would say when we were going to church lets go to the church house. She said this because that is what she thought went on inside the building was church. There may be some that still refer to their church building as the Church house, and I know the church I attend started literally in a house.

I want to focus in this article and a couple of follow-ups not on the church house but on the church. In case you don’t already know the Greek term for church used in the Bible is Ekklesia. It means literally “called out ones” In Greece these were the people called out to an assembly. For us as Christians we are called out of the world by Christ, into Christ. It does not have anything to do with a building.

In his book “Pagan Christianity” Frank Viola puts it this way, ”If your were to ask a first century Christian where they went to church they would have no idea what you were talking about.” They would probably look at you like you had 3 eyes. They were the church they did not have to go to where they were. They knew what their identity was in Christ. They understood what it meant to be called out of the world they were living in. This meaning is lost today by a lot of attenders. They believe that once a week they go to church and the other six and a half days the church sits empty. They have no idea what the church really is.

Today there are generally two ways of looking at who the Ekklesia are. First each local assembly is an ekklesia unto itself. Your home church is an ekklesia. That congregation whether a house church or a mega church is a local part of the body of Christ. Second the whole body of believers around the world is the ekklesia making up the body of Christ. This is also known as the “holy catholic church” with a small “c” meaning universal church. This is the belief of my denomination the Church of God (Anderson, IN).

Quoting Form the Church of God Beliefs on the website:

“The message of unity is that all God’s people are one (John 17) and are called to recognize that unity, to relate to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to coordinate their efforts in mission to the world.”

Frank viola says later in his book that The first use of the phrase “go to church” that we are aware of came in a letter written around the year 190 from Clement of Alexandria and other than converted houses and catacombs there were no actual church buildings until Constantine began to build them over cemeteries where the bodies of their martyrs were buried.

The church is the body of Christ.

We know that and it seems like a no-brainer. But if you are going to “church” instead of being the ekklesia you probably do not understand, nor do you care, that you have a part to play just as each part of the body does. He puts each one of us who choose to accept him as Lord into a local body where we can be of use.

1 Corinthians 12:11-13 says:

11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Skip down to verse 27

27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

The church is the Body of Christ and he has given each of us a task to do in the body. We each are called to do something. No matter how small the task if you are a part of the body you have a function. If you are just showing up on a weekly basis to get fed then return to your non-church life of work and leisure you are drastically missing the reason for even going to the building on a weekly basis.

Yes you can do something, from holding a baby in the nursery to holding a hand at the side of a hospital bed. You can do something.

The Church should function as one

Ephesians 4:1-3 says

1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

If you have ever set in a church business meeting then you know functioning as one is not always as easy as it sounds. However, if we are to put our focus on Christ and his mission for us here on earth we need to stop focusing on ourselves and what we want church to be. It does not matter if the church is emerging, contemporary, or liturgical if the people in it are focused on what they need and not the mission of Christ then the church is failing.

1cor 12:21-26

21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Look out for each other. That is the bottom line. If you are busy trying to get noticed and get your way then you are not following what Paul is telling the Corinthians here. Be a help not a hindrance to spreading the gospel.

The church is open to all who believe.

In his book Gifts of the Desert Kyriacos Markides quotes a Greek Orthodox Monk saying, “The Church Is like a hospital, it takes fallen, sick, and confused human beings, who suffer from all sorts of destructive passions and sins, and with its very tangible therapeutic methods helps them attain real health.”

In Ephesians 4 14-15 Paul says this:

14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Many people say that the Christian Church is exclusive But when you step back and look every major religion is exclusive.

But I also want to make it known that it is also inclusive Jesus said in John 3 starting at verse 14 Jesus says this:

“14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Don’t miss the next sentence

17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

People outside the Church spend so much time telling us that we cause hate because we believe that Jesus is the only way to God. God knows who will and who will not accept Christ. We do not need to put human constraints on an all knowing, all seeing, eternal God. If some one does not want to be with him now why would he want to cause them the grief of spending eternity with him.

The world today says the Christian message today is one of exclusivity but I want them to see that Jesus died for everyone and when you take all the world religions today none of them but Christianity have a loving God at there heart who would give his son for our sins. They just don’t.

The church of god (Anderson In) says this: No one person decides that another will or will not be admitted to membership in a local group. Neither congregations nor congregational leaders vote on who shall be received as members. The Church of God believes that when one accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, God places that person in the church

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 sums it all up.

20″My prayer is not for them alone (he has just prayed for the disciples). I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24″Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25″Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

If you are not part of the Body of Christ today I’m not going to tell you that you have to go to the front of a church. None of us are here by coincidence or chance we are here for a reason. So if you do not know Jesus all you need to do to start the process is tell him you want to know more about him, ask him to guide you as you read your bible and he will begin to draw you closer to him and reveal himself more and more to you.

Christian Teamwork

In 1st Corinthians 12 Paul tells us that we are all part of one body in Christ.  No matter where we came from or what we did before we bacame Christians we are now one in the body of Christ.  This is true in two ways.  First in totality of all Christians being bound together.  Then in our individual church communities being bound together.

As we come together and begin to work with people from different backgrounds, we see that we are not all created the same.  Some of us are hard chargeers and always out in front of the croud saying follow me.  Some are quiet and reserved and willing to work as long as we are not seen.  But the dinamics do9n’t stop there.  Those who lead are good at many different things and those who work behind the scenes are good at equally as many things.  It is from this fact that we get people that feel left out or those of us who lead believing that everyone should be able to do exactly what we do.

So how do we overcome these conflicts of gifts and talents?

First,we need to realize that we don’t all have the same gifts. Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 12:1-11 that we all have different gifts and they will be used in many different ways.  If you are an athlete you should not assume everyone else is.  If you can isng you should not think everyone need to be in the choir.  When we realize that everyone is given differet talents and gifts we will begin to work together better.

Second, we have to understand that we are all created different. God has not made each of us the same.  In verses 12-13 Paul tells us that we have all come from different backgrounds and nationalities.  this means we will all heve different value systems.  Newer Christians should be treated with greater respect because they do not know many times what they are saying or doing is not acceptable to the group.  Coach them in a setting away from the group not on the spot.

Finally, don’t complain and give up. Verses 14-26 deal with those who are complaining and giving up on the project.   First we see those that are not getting enough attention and decide they want to quit.  We are all in this together and not everyone will get the same amount of praise.  Second we see people who are ridiculing others.  This is not what we need in Christian settings.  When you or someone on your team decides he or she is more important remind that person that we should rejoice with those who are honored and suffer with those in need.  The body must stick together to accomplish gods task.

Verse 27 to the end lets us know that there is a hierarchy in the church and the leaders are to be respected.  When a leader falls they should not lead, but until that time it is not the Christians part to complain only work for the Glory of God.

Why Study

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Imagine your walking down the street and someone just walked up and pushed you from behind.  They would very easily push you over.  But if you were prepared, say you had taken Karate or Gymnastics and your balance was impeccable even if they hit you with a sneak attack you could recover quickly and not fall.  That is what bible study is to our lives.

Bible study prepares us for the journey through life.  When we read the bible on a regular basis we are more capable of withstanding the onslaught of attacks we receive.  Romans 12:1-2 is one of my favorite scriptures.  In these verses Paul reminds us to renew our minds.  Through this renewal we will become less and less like the world we live in and more and more like Christ.  will we become perfect this side of heaven? No.  Will all the bad stuff that happens in life stop? No.  But we will be able to handle it better.  Jesus never promised it would be easy, He just promised to be there for us.

Getting What You Want

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I recently returned to my home town and had lunch with three of my childhood friends. A lot of the stories they told were stories I had spent the last twenty years trying to forget. While I did manage to forget several as soon as they began telling them the vivid picture of each on returned to my mind. I can’t say I am proud of them all but I now understand that they are part of who I am and what I have become.

My cousin reminded me of a story that deals with he and I getting exactly what we wanted. And it turns out just like most stories of people getting what they want.

We just wanted to go fishing and camp out. We pestered my dad for a couple of days to take us to the river bottoms and let us camp and fish for a couple of days. So Friday afternoon he relented and hauled us and our boat to a large creek where we could fish. We put the boat in the water and removed our camping goods from his truck, we said, “Goodbye” and watched him pull away into the distance. Wasting no time we quickly loaded the boat with our fishing gear and set out.

We spent the next couple of hours putting out trotlines, which are 50 footlong lines with hooks every foot, and yo-yo’s which are automatic fishing reals that hook a fish when it bites the hook and pulls it up out of the water. With this process done we landed the boat and began carying our gear to some friends duck blind.

I recently returned to my home town and had lunch with three of my childhood friends. A lot of the stories they told were stories I had spent the last twenty years trying to forget. While I did manage to forget several as soon as they began telling them the vivid picture of each on returned to my mind. I can’t say I am proud of them all but I now understand that they are part of who I am and what I have become.

My cousin reminded me of a story that deals with he and I getting exactly what we wanted. And it turns out just like most stories of people getting what they want.

We just wanted to go fishing and camp out. We pestered my dad for a couple of days to take us to the river bottoms and let us camp and fish for a couple of days. So Friday afternoon he relented and hauled us and our boat to a large creek where we could fish. We put the boat in the water and removed our camping goods from his truck, we said, “Goodbye” and watched him pull away into the distance. Wasting no time we quickly loaded the boat with our fishing gear and set out.

We spent the next couple of hours putting out trotlines, which are 50 footlong lines with hooks every foot, and yo-yo’s which are automatic fishing reals that hook a fish when it bites the hook and pulls it up out of the water. With this process done we landed the boat and began carying our gear to some friends duck blind.

As the evening progressed we checked our lines and put fish in a live basket to clean later. Then shortly before midnight it began to rain. Not sprinkle or drizzle but rain. This did two things. It prevented us from going back and checking our lines but it also meant we had to get up in the duck blind to try and sleep.

Since it was summer we didn’t bring sleeping bags or any type of sleeping equipment. We each took a corner an began to curl up to try and sleep. Within a few minutes we began to realize that the blind had not been built to withstand wind driven rain. Well the sides and top had not, the floor had been built very tight and held water nicely.

The next problem arose when my cousin turned on the lantern to check the growing water problem. When we looked around to find leaks to stuff paper in we discovered several large spiders on the ceiling. Since we were both scared of spiders we sat in the corner of the blind soaking up the water and making a game out of shooting the spiders of the ceiling with his .22 rifle. Yes this made made holes in the ceiling for water to come in but it also helped my psyche knowing the spiders were dead.

When we finally fell asleep we each had our behinds setting on 8 inch square dry spots made higher by cardboard boxes. Sleep is always welcome in these situations and it was exactly what each of us needed.

We got exactly what we wanted but we did not know what the outcome would be before we started. If we had asked instead of demanded my dad may have told us it was going to rain. Many times in life people head off and do things they think they want to do only to have to pay consequences later. I still pay stupid tax from time to time but I also learn about what I want and make more educated decisions about what I am doing.

Psalm 23 says, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”  The next time you want something out of selfish ambition think of this funny story.

So You Wouldn't Go Astray

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Every few months WordPress.com has a featured article that extols the reasons why a person is leaving the Christian faith and why he or she is now an atheist.  It is not WordPress.com that is featuring these articles, it is just the amount of hits these articles get that puts them on the front page of WordPress.com.   I read these articles and become somewhat disappointed thinking about the view of Christianity this person has seen.  But it is the view of American Christianity that most people have.  We Christians  are self centered, money hungry, two-faced, homophobes, that are trying to force everyone that disagrees with us to bow to our wishes.  Look at the treatment of Liberty University over pulling the liberty name off of the Democrat’s Student Club.  We are made to look bad even when we stand up for what we believe, so when we do slip people pile on like a elephant herd on the last peanut.

In John chapter 16 Jesus says, “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.”

When I read this it helped me realize that some people will walk away.  They will walk away from Christianity because life happens, or because they have found many reasons to not believe in the God of the bible.  Lets face it, there are reasons given daily on the TV or in new books or every Easter and Christmas in special segment that magazines run.  If you look you can find a reason almost daily to stop believing because the enlightened do not believe in God, and mainly the God of the bible.  In the parable of the sower Jesus calls this cares.  The cares of the world just became so great that the person walks away from their faith.

So how do we overcome this?

The main thing is to stop focusing on the negative.  Yes you should check everything you read, and no you should not check your brain at the door.  But you should ask yourself how much of this is true and how much is false. Take Creationism for example.  You can’t prove creation ex nihilo scientifically, just like abiogenesis can not be proved scientifically.  Now can we see that one or the other is true absolutly because we are here.  Does your Christian faith rest on whether or not God spoke and created everything, absolutly not.  Salvation requires you to take Jesus as your savior and give him control of your life, not believe in creationism.

Don’t put the weight of trying to learn every nuance of the Christian faith on yourself.  We try so hard to obey when we read, “Always have an answer.”  This has made us overly skeptical of people that are not Christians.  We project a mean spirit when we act like we have all the answers or try to have all the answers.  If someone asks you a question its o.k. to say, “I don’t know.”  They want to look smart so let them, and don’t worry about it.

He told them to love each other and serve each other so we need to serve.  Do we serve well?  No, not all the time but we are human.  We are trying to do better serving.  But it is ingrained in our culture to be self serving and expecting the rest of the world to come to us.  Missional churches are learning to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Not to get people in the door, but to just serve people and let them know God loves them.

If you are struggling with your faith try focusing on the hungry and hurting.  Give back instead of trying to find fault.  I am not saying that this is the cure for those who are seriously doubting their faith.  I am saying this to those that these few things will begin to help those who are seriously trying to resolve issues.

If you have done your due diligence and really tried to examine the Christian faith.  I mean really tried to prove or disprove it, and you  decide Christianity is not right for you, that’s o.k.  But if you have just heard someone say Christianity ain’t cool and you walk away, then you have done a disservice to what you say you believe and need to really examine what you are saying.  Don’t just give up.