Church

This is a blog exploring a biblical vision for the Church.  It will include articles, Bible studies, links, and reviews of other books and websites.  

The vision of the Church compiled in this blog is big.  Overwhelming.  Some of you will think that I’m not even talking about the same thing that you know as church.  Others will see the application of what you’ve always been taught.  Either way you’ll probably be able to relate to my journey studying the Church.  Driven by curiosity, I kept studying, thinking, reading, researching, and subtly applying what I was learning.  As a young woman in the Church, one of the things I was learning was that God had put the older men in oversight of the Church.  I can’t tell them what to do.  So I was faced with attending a church that did not apply all these things.  What should I do? 

Why would God reveal things to me, by orchestrating my life through websites, conferences, books, friends, and more than anything, study of the Bible – if I couldn’t put them into practice?  Should I go away and look for a church that applied most of what the Bible said about them?  But the Bible, in speaking of the Church, refuses to let me escape the fellowship altogether.  It teaches me to love the people who comprise the Church, and to desire their edification.  Spiritual gifts are given to build up the Church, and to unify it.  

At a conference several years ago I overheard a woman commenting to her friend about the speaker’s propositions.  She thought his ideas were ridiculous and strict because in the life she knew, they were impractical.  He described family worship.  What about single moms?  But I’d been in the sessions, and the speaker had again and again reminded the audience that he was presenting a vision or ideal so that we would have something for which to aim.  This blog is like that.  I’m as conscious as any of you that a Church full of humans is never going to be perfect.  Love keeps no record of wrongs.  Love also always hopes.  Hope for something better than the Church you know.  Desire her to be without blemish, an adorned bride for Christ.  Envision her strong and glorious as the temple of Solomon, and then seek your part.  Apply what you can.  Walk according to what you’ve learned, and keep learning. 

Friends have asked me, “So what do you think Church should be like?”  They know that I’ve dreamed of something else.  On a roadtrip once I spent about an hour summarizing what I’ve learned.  My blog has hosted several attempts at describing what I believe.  None have been comprehensive.  Each has resembled the conversations with friends and family by which my ideas about tiny pieces of this topic have been sharpened.  

Once upon a time I was at a Bible study where the teacher put up a whiteboard and asked us to brainstorm what was wrong with church.  Then he erased all that and asked us to describe an ideal bride.  Finally he brought up another whiteboard and asked us to describe the ideal Church. Think about it.

The Church is the Bride of Christ.  But Christ hasn’t been the kinsman-redeemer or long-awaited bridegroom of a building.  Nor has He written love letters to our orders of worship or bulletins.  He’s not coming back for a system of weekly programs.  The Church is people.  Not individuals, but individuals together, meeting.  The Bible has a lot of instructions about what individual disciples of Christ should do, and what their character should be.  The Bible also has a lot of instructions on how the Church should interact, and what should be the goal and attention of their meet-ings. 

If I was being literal when asked about the Church, I would have to say that any time saved followers of Christ get together, they are an assembly of believers.  The intent of the Greek word might indicate something a little more intentional than a party.  However, Christians together should be encouraging each other, upholding the truth, defending against sin, praying (perhaps silently), and living in worship.  The traditional doctrinal definition of the Church is any gathering of believers for the purpose of worship and teaching from the Word of God. 

Must the Church always perform all of the components of church activity when it is gathered?  Must it do any of them?  In the New Testament, what instructions were given for meet-ings?  I refer to 1 Corinthians 11, 14.  Chapter 11 opens a long instruction on coming together in the Church.  It begins with mention of ordinances, and mentions prayer and prophesying.  In verse 20 Paul starts a correction of their practice of the Lord’s Supper, which we may assume was often part of a gathering.  After this we find a discussion of spiritual gifts.  We are to use them, caring for one another, rejoicing with others who rejoice and suffering with others who suffer.  Chapter 13 reminds us to use the gifts in love.  On to chapter 14.  This passage of Scripture has been the subject of contentions in the modern times.  I refuse to ignore it, but I don’t wish you to stop reading this blog because I’m a charismatic: I am not.  But Paul earnestly warned the Corinthians not to forbid to speak in tongues, so I’m hesitant to reason my way out of a modern application.  In fact, if the more conservative churches would clearly teach on the use of tongues, there might be less deception among the more charismatic congregations.  Tongues is not the only topic in chapter 14, however.  It also deals with prophesying, prayer, singing, teaching, and the role of women in a meet-ing.  Verse 26 is a list of the activities the Corinthians, at least, were offering to each other when they gathered: psalms, doctrines, tongues, revelations, interpretations. 

“The way church is done” makes no sense at all if you know what Church is.  A group of people can’t be “done.”  This blog posits that a renewed understanding of what Church means will initiate a revival in the forms of meetings and the produce of the discipleship taking place.