Why Church #1: In the Beginning

     In the Beginning

"And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." - Colossians 1:17-18

    Many Christians find themselves in a precarious position. They love God and love their saved and un-saved friends, but have become totally disillusioned with church. Many have been hurt by leadership, some have become burnt out and overworked and others have just become frustrated, because church as we see it today does not resemble church as presented in the New Testament. There is also another group of Christians, those that go to church, and have never asked any of these vexing questions. Most people just go to church because their parents did or because they see it as the right thing to do once they come into a relationship with Jesus; it is the right thing to do, but how are we going about doing it?

     None of the above circumstance is ideal. My question is simple: Is church, as we do it today, what God intended for it to be and as the bible instructs it to be? If not, what can be done?

     In order to answer these questions we need to define what church is; and in order to do this we need to dispel some myths of what many see church as being. Firstly, church is not a building. No-where in the New Testament does the bible record Christians meeting at the same place every time or building a building for this purpose, for that matter. Buildings are practical, but one would be in error to think of the church as being a building. Secondly, church is not limited to a specific day or a specific time; more specifically in our context, church is not only for an hour on a Sunday. Thirdly, church is not the only place you can hear from God, worship Him or come into His presence. This is illustrated extensively in the New Testament and yet the following is still a major line of thought for the average believer, "I need to hear from God, let me go to church".

     You and I, WE, are the church. The bible uses the picture of the church being a body, where each one of us is a different part of the body (1 Cor 12:12-27) The body is made up of its different members, the nose, the ears, the arms etc. The eye can’t smell like the nose can, nor can the mouth walk like the legs can – each member is important and needs to be functioning properly in order for the body to be healthy and effective. Thus, each one of us, who make up the church, have important roles to play (Rom 12:3-8)

     Another picture that the bible uses is that of the church being a bride (Eph 5:31-32 and Rev 21:9), and Jesus being the bride-groom. That one day Jesus is coming back for his pure and spotless bride and those of us who have received Him as our Lord and Savior, being under His blood, will be part of the marriage. This puts emphasise on the price Jesus paid for us and that by us receiving Him, by faith, He sees us as this spotless bride, allowing us to enter into His presence with confidence and joy (Hebr 10:22)

     When we look through the book of Acts, we see the saints coming together on a daily basis, sharing food, money and experiences together (Acts 4:32-35) Not being concerned about building their own kingdoms, but being fully convinced and concerned about advancing the kingdom of God. We see them being persecuted and scattered, spreading the good news of Jesus wherever they went. They were not consumed with what other believers or non-believers thought about them, but all-consumed with what God purposed in their hearts for them to do.    

     To conclude this introduction as to Why Church, we see clearly that the bible presents the church as being; a body, a bride, sharing, caring, structured and effective, changing the known-world forever. What we see today is, too often along the lines of church being a business, an institution, a program, controlling, lifeless and ineffective. These are harsh words, but they need to be said. There are many great people doing many great things for God around the world, but if the church, globally, was doing what it was meant to be doing, over the last two-thousand years, the world would look a lot differently to what it does now. Think about it and read the follow-up posts to this one, they will be more specific and hopefully very helpful.