GG's PROBES

FXFC - 3 – Expositing the Dream… (i)

The word ‘church’ poses an immediate problem. Do we mean the building on the corner or the universal body of Christ. Do we mean the people who meet in a specific location (usually) on a Sunday morning, or the institution with its management tree, administrative functions and business meetings, or do we mean the denominational super-structure.

What is CHURCH?

[See “The Emerging Church” by Dan Kimball – pp91ff – from which I have made these notes.]

1. Nowhere in the NT does it say they “went to church”. We can’t go to church because we (the gathered missional community of faith) are the church

2. The meaning of the word: In the NT the Gk word for church is ‘ekklesia’ which means ‘assembly’ and was used in a somewhat political sense to refer to meetings that had a specific purpose. It was used of non-religious gatherings (Acts 19:32, 41) as well as gatherings of the followers of Jesus as they met in people’s homes (Rom.16:5; 1 Cor.16:19). The church was ‘gathered’ (Acts 14:27), but people never met at church.

The term is used in the singular to describe several churches in a region (Acts 9:31) but also to describe a church which is comprised of believers everywhere on earth. We are part of a universal and a local church.

3. Missionality of Church. In Matt.28:19 Jesus instructs his followers to “Go and make disciples…” In Acts 1:8 his final point to his disciples was “… you shall be my witnesses …”. “It appears that He regarded evangelism as the very reason for their being” (Millard Erikson). (see later comments)

4. Church unintentionally redefined. (see: The Missional Church edited by Darrell Guder) ‘The reformers, in their effort to raise the authority of the Bible and ensure sound doctrine, defined the marks of the true church: a place where the gospel is rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and church discipline exercised. However, over time these marks narrowed the definition of church itself as a “place where” idea instead of a “people who are” reality.’ Church became defined as “a place where certain things happen”.’

5. Church as a Vendor of Services

In our desire to attract people to our churches, have we subtly taught that church is where you come to learn about how God can fix your problems? Where you come to have others feed your children about God for you? Where you come for your weekly feeding in the Word of God? Where you come to experience high quality worship music?

6. Consumer Christians

“We’re looking for a church that meets our needs!” The phenomenon of church shopping has shaped the contemporary church.

We have moved from being a community that goes out into the world to holistically help the lost and the broken to an institution that tries to get people to come to it so that their specific needs (psychological, material, relational and/or spiritual needs) can be met.

Our church needs to be re-birthed from the inside out – to redefine itself in its inner core as the “community of faith” – a network of people who have put themselves under the Lordship of Christ and who are moving out and reaching out on mission for the Kingdom.

The Bible does not mandate the ‘form’ of the church but does define the membership of the ‘Church’. It mandates the purpose of Church and church – to be a community that is the catalyst bringing the Kingdom of God to the world in transforming power: transforming people and transforming society and bringing them under the rule of the King of Kings.

While not mandating any specific form, Scripture does clearly points to two key characteristics of Church – Community and Worship, and has things to say about some other aspects of being church. I intend looking at these two concepts next.

posted by Gordon Gray @ Thursday, February 03, 2005