Defining Church

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.

The Miracle Worker

In reading through Matthew with our church, we have seen that miracles were a very important part in confirming the truth of Jesus' messiah-ship.

No problems there...Jesus did miracles. He was/is God. That's what gods do. How did they work? What were the mechanics of healings/feedings/exorcisms? I have no idea, but that's OK, because I'm not God.

The problem springs up around chapter 10, where Jesus gives his apostles "authority" (or jurisdiction/power) to do the same things He did. What now??

OK, so we've got some humans doing miracles now to validate the heralding of the new covenant. But these guys are Jesus' hand-picked apostles, so they're way up there, as far as humans go.

To further complicate things, Paul writes about gifts of the Holy Spirit given to every believer to build up the body, some of whom are able to heal and other miraculous things.

This is a huge problem, because 1) where are they? and 2) who are they? My mind immediately goes to faith healers like Benny Hinn: big time showboating jerks who use miracles to make money. Are they for real? I suppose it's possible, but not very likely.

So where are they? Did miraculous gifts just quit after the first century? Paul seems to indicate that spiritual gifts will keep going until Jesus returns and we don't need them. The Bible never hints that some gifts will keep going and others will stop (despite what John MacArthur says).

Interestingly, most of the reports of miracles come from the mission field, where people know next to nothing about Jesus. In fact, one of the professors at my Alma Mater seminary was involved in a miracle healing around Muslims in Israel.

My preliminary opinion about miracles in America is that Americans are so "educated" and skeptical that they would not believe a real miracle if they saw it, so why should God work here where it won't pay off?

Then again, Christianity has a lot to prove among people who see it as merely an ideology and ethical system, rather than following the God of the Universe.

I myself have seen some pretty amazing "coincidences" that I would fall just short of calling miracles. Yet I find myself longing to see God REALLY work in America: not just in broad ideas, successful fundraisers, and easily answered prayers, but in actual blind-seeing/deaf-hearing/dead-raising/demon-throwing miracles.

So, does anyone out there have any real miracle stories? "I Want to Believe..."