I was listening to a favorite preacher of mine the other day (hoo-ray for podcasts!) and he was talking about needing to define what a church is before you start one.
Sounds logical.
I decided to try a little bit, so here goes:
"Church" in the Greek is actually best defined as "Assembly." Much like the word "synagogue," it can refer to both the members (primary) and the place of assembly (secondary). Since the Greeks had all kinds of assemblies (political, religious, parties, etc.), the reason for assembling was very important. The reason Christians assemble is to worship Jesus, our great God and Savior.
So, step one, assembly should involve worship.
The New Testament gives some hints at other things that should happen when Christians assemble: prayers, use of spiritual gifts, public reading of scripture, encouragement, giving money, meeting needs, confession of sin, prophecy/teaching, baptism, Eucharist/Agape meal, and several other things. But of course, the focus of all these things is Jesus.
We (scholars and I) are pretty certain that early Christians used and adapted the synagogue sabbath service as a guide for their assemblies, which involved prayers, singing, Scripture reading, and teaching.
I could blog about this all night, but the conviction I come down to is this:
Church--
A group of people who assemble together at regular intervals for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ as our God and the only hope of eternal life. In these times, Christians are to obey the highest commands of Jesus to love God and to love each other by means of using their spiritual gifts to build each other up as growing students of Jesus to the glory and praise of God.
Then, I should maybe add something about sacraments and church discipline (accountability) and something about leadership. But I think I've already blogged enough about those things and I'm sure people are already sick of my fantastic armchair quarterback abilities.
Send me some comments if you dare....I might just reply to them....but I probably won't.
