Usually every Sunday, most Christians gather the family together, go to a church, sing, pray, and listen to a sermon by a pastor. And about an hour or so later, they go home. Like the other topics I've blogged about for the past couple of weeks, a number of things that are done in our modern churches, including the church building itself, has no basis in the Bible. Little that is observed today in modern Christianity maps to anything found in the first-century Church. Obviously, I can't go into major depth about every topic. I would be writing a book if I wanted to do that. So first, let's look at the church building.
The Church Building
The New Testament records the early Christians meeting in homes. Neither Jesus nor the apostles encouraged Christians to build church buildings. It wasn't until Constantine and his succeeding Roman Emperors made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire that Christians began to build temples. In some instances, Christians, with the aid of Roman soldiers, took over pagan temples and “Christianized” them into churches.
Christians building church buildings resulted in multiple problems. First, have you ever heard of the term "God's house?" People began to think of a church building as sacred space. This resulted in a separation between what goes on inside a church building, and what takes place outside of a church building. Among some, blatant evil and immorality was tolerated outside of the church as long as behavior inside the church was proper. Second, The biblical fact that fellowship with God could be had anywhere was lost, and replaced with the idea that a church building and/or the altar inside a church building was the only place one could connect with God. Third, some people lost sight of the fact that brothers and sisters in Christ were the Church, and instead began to think of the Church as the building.
Service Structure
Then there's the structure of the "Sunday service." In many churches today, there is a “set in stone” structure for how a service will proceed. The structure changes somewhat from church to church, but the core items remain the same: announcements, corporate worship, meeting and greeting, prayer, the sermon, a closing song. The idea of a church meeting having such a rigid structure is not presented in the New Testament. When a church has such a rigid structure, it can stifle, rather than promote, true worship and fellowship. It is unbiblical for a church service to be so structured that it prevents any participation, freedom, or moving of the Spirit.
Church Leadership
The Bible undeniably teaches that the Church is to have godly leadership. Over time, the concept of Church leadership molded into a priesthood. While most Protestant and Evangelical churches do not refer to its leadership as priests, in some instances, the pastor/preacher serves in much the same role as a priest. Pastors are expected to do all, or nearly all, of the ministry work. In some churches, the re-introduction of the idea of a priest into Christianity resulted in the biblical identity of all believers being saints, ministers, and priests, being lost. In church leadership, the result can be burnt-out pastors or overly authoritative pastors. The result in the congregation can be passivity and inactivity.
The idea that a Christian can sing a few songs, shake a few hands, inattentively listen to a sermon, and reluctantly give an offering – and thereby fulfill his/her role in the Church – is completely unbiblical. The church is intended to be a place of healthy fellowship, active participation, and mutual edification. First Corinthians chapter 12 compares the Church to a human body. All of the parts of the body must be functioning for the body to do what it is intended to do. In some churches today, only the “head” is functioning. And as physiology teaches us, a head cannot survive on its own.
Conclusion
It is undeniable that unbiblical ideas and practices have crept their way into the Church throughout history. But as I stated in part 1 of this blog series, if you are going to read these blog posts and use the truths that are in them as an invitation to rebel against your church, stop. If you're thinking like that, you've completely missed the point. Either leave your church quietly or be at peace with it. There is a huge gap between rebellion and standing up for what is true. As for me, I fall into the second option. Although I disagree with the contemporary church, I'm still at peace with it. But it's so refreshing that the Lord has revealed these truths to me! And like all truths, they needed to be shared. I hope you all were and continue to be challenged with these truths, or even better, changed. So with that said, I want to conclude with one of my favorite quotes that I feel fits in this post.
“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.” - Martin Luther
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