A rose by any other name...

House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church... These are names that you will hear circulating in conversations around the Christian world today. I'm not going to attempt to thoroughly address this issue but wanted to simply give you some food for thought.

Just some quick questions to perhaps get those juices flowing:

1. Does the bible have anything to say about where a church body meets?
2. Does it have anything to say about how often?
3. What makes a church a church and not just a group of friends?
4. If you had to define the church (i.e a true body of Christ) in one paragraph, could you?

When we look into the Greek word used for "church" in the NT we will find that it is ekklesia and the Greeks in Jesus' day would have commonly used that word to describe any group of people who meet regularly because of a common identity or a common interest. This word, ekklesia, was not a spiritual or "Christian" word, it was a commonly used Greek word of that day.

Over the last few hundred years it's common English translation, "church", has come to mean a lot of different things to different people. So right out of the shoot we need to leave behind the word "church" in our thinking about how to describe this group of Christians.

Here are some other terms used to describe the gathering or NT believers in the NT:

The Body of Christ
The Bride of Christ
The Family of God
God's Household

These are all names that, to me, address the functionality of a group of Christians more than the form they take on. Take a few moments and let these terms sink in as your think about what they mean....

As the body, we continue to carry out the work of revealing the Father to the world that Jesus was doing 2000 years ago.

As the Bride we are deeply loved by Jesus and he is continually loving us and preparing us for glory.

As the family and the household we are to live in submission to the Father continually doing His will and helping each other to submit to Him.

In all of these examples we are to:

Live in submission and obedience to God
Love and care for each other
Bring the the good news of redemption to a lost world
Love and cherish our Savior
Submit to one another

So in conclusion, I think that a "church" may simply be a group of Jesus followers that are committed to doing the above together... as a team, a group, a fellowship or whatever you may call it. What this group "looks like" or the form they take in order to accomplish the above SHOULD vary depending on the setting the people live in! And what you call it is nearly completely irrelevant.

Our Mission

Jesus Christ said "all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commended and lo I am with you even to the end of the age". (Matthew 28)

A few things that I would like to point out here:

1. All authority in Heaven and on Earth belong to Jesus Christ, so when he commands us to do something we had better take note of it!

2. His authority goes with us as we obey this command to make disciples "I am with you", this is an amazing reality as we go and make disciples of Christ, we are not going it alone or outside of authority. We are under His perfect authority as we carry out this command!

3. The word "baptize" is a Greek word that literally means to "fully identify with" (e.g. if I were to take a white cloth and submerse it into a red die until it took on the full red color before taking it out I would have baptized it into the red)

4. The Greek word for name literally means "authority", this means that we are to be identifying disciples of Christ with the authority of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit and in this way send them out to do the same to others! (See blog post titled "Baptism" for more info)

5. Christ said to teach them how to obey His commands not what those commands are! It is not part of our mission to teach the commands of Christ, we are however commanded to teach people how to obey them. This command taken at its true meaning would drastically change how most churches today would handle the word of God. Instead of teaching the commands why don't we focus on teaching people how to obey the ones they already know!

I hope this helps to unlock the "Great Commission" for you in a way that makes good practical sense for you . If we start to live this command in the way Christ meant it we would be rapidly making functioning disciples of Christ and functioning Churches!

Baptism

Water symbolic Christian baptism could be classified into two interrelated categories.

Making Disciples: Every believer is commanded to make disciples. Baptism is one of three commands given to each believer to be observed through the functioning church as part of making disciples (i.e. the command commonly known as the Great Commission). Thus, every obedient believer should strive to become a discipler and baptize a disciple of Christ. They are also commanded to go and teach Disciples of Christ to obey all the commands of the Bible. In order for someone to be recognized as a Disciple of Christ by the church, they must have received the gift of grace through faith (i.e. go), have been biblically baptized (i.e. baptize), and have a heart of submission to be taught to obey all the commands of the Bible (i.e. teach).

An Ordinance: An ordinance is a physical action that pictures a spiritual reality that is to be repeatedly performed. Water baptism is also an ordinance to be repeatedly performed by every disciple and discipler. Every believer can and should baptize Disciples of Christ in order to be obedient to God’s command given to each and every individual believer, but only under and through the God-ordained authority of the functioning church. The emphasis of baptism is on the one in which the command was given (i.e. the one who is to baptize) – not the recipient of baptism.

Because of these understandings it should be common for the Disciples of Christ in a functioning Church to baptize one another over and over. This gives the disciples the opportunity to be obedient to the command to baptize as a part of fulfilling the great commission whenever this ordinance is observed by the church.

Form and Function

One of the many aspects that holds the modern Church back in their honest efforts to make disciples of Jesus Christ is their dedication to "Form" over "Function".

The function of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Form should be what a local body of Christ does in order to facilitate that function.

Most Churches in this age spend more time in obedience to the form that there Church has implemented (i.e Sunday morning service attendance, Wednesday night youth services/fellowship dinners, 20 minutes of worship, 20 minute sermons etc.) that no one ever stops to ask, "is our form really accomplishing our function (making disciples)?

My challenge to you would be to ask that question and then literally throw out every practice that is not accomplishing your goals as a body of Christ! If it is not accomplishing the goal it is a waste of resources. Question everything that you do as a Christian so see if your resources are producing the fruit that you need to see in your life and the life of your Church.

Don't get caught up in obedience to your traditions as they have no intrinsic spiritual value! Stay focused on obedience to the commands of Christ to make disciples and love your neighbors as yourself!

Worship Thoughts

The child of God is called to worship Him through obedience to His commands. Jesus said that “he who loves me will obey my commands”. If one looks to the bible to discover what it means to truly “worship” God in this dispensation they will find that there are two distinct words used in the New Testament, one that if exclusively used while God was physically present in ones midst (i.e. the Gospels and Revelation) and another used when He was not (the rest of the New Testament excluding Revelation when the author reverted to the use of the Greek word that was used for “worship” in the Gospels!).

In short, the Greek word used in the Gospels and Revelation means to pay homage/honor to one who is physically in your midst and the word used in the rest of the NT literally means to show respect by obeying commands! This would lead any student of the Bible who applies correct hermeneutics to the conclusion that since God is not physically in our midst during this dispensation we are commanded to “worship” (i.e. show respect by living a life of obedience) Him. And when Christ returns to gather us from the earth we will once again “worship” Him by paying homage as He will literally be in our midst.

Sermons?

We believe that is it the Holy Spirits role in the believers life to teach and remind us of God’s Word not the Pastors. So how does an individual approach God's Holy Word and ensure their understanding is from God? The only way that a sinful individual in a sinful environment can understand any spiritual truth, is if God teaches/reveals the Truth (i.e. God’s Word) to them (1st Corinthians 2:6-16).

In this present Church era, the Christian is taught and reminded of scripture by one of the three persons of the Godhead – the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). As the Holy Spirit teaches and illuminates His Word to the child of God, they are transformed by the renewing of their minds into the image of Christ (Romans 12:1-4). It is Truth (i.e. God’s Word) that is illuminated to the child of God by the Holy Spirit.

So the Christian’s hermeneutic (how the student can properly understand or interpret scripture) is the Holy Spirit illuminates truth (i.e. teaches and reminds one of God’s Word). The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher and Reminder of His perfect Word. But, as long as the Christian’s sin nature and/or the effects of a sinful environment continue to affect the Christian’s interpretation of the Bible, there is a need for protection against misinterpretation which will provide assurance that what is understood of scripture is truly from our Communicator (i.e. Holy Spirit).

Building or no building?

As we have tried to figure out how to function best in order to be obedient to the great commission (i.e. Matt 28:18-20) and the two Ordinance commands we have concluded that a building would hinder us in that pursuit more than aid in it. Since we have no building we are freed to use all of the time, finances and other resources that we have to aid in us accomplishing the obedient lifestyle that we desire to live. Since there is no building when a functioning church (i.e. local church) does gather together it is usually in homes or a rented facility. We put very little finances, time, or energy in the facility in which we meet. We put most of these resources toward the church (i.e. believers). This is consistent with our Faith and Doctrine that the people (i.e. believers) are the church – not a building or place of gathering.