Why Should I GO to church – When, after all, I Am The Church, The Body of Christ?

 

WHY SHOULD I GO TO CHURCH – WHEN I AM THE CHURCH?

There seems to be a lot of reasons to GO to church, especially according to church growth experts, pastors of churches and church administrative leaders (including many theologians).

Got Questions.Org has a good piece on “Why Christians Should Attend Church”.  Take a look.

On the other hand, there are those who are committed Christians but, for the most part, have stopped attending church, and their numbers are growing). The main objection I get from people who say they are Christians but don’t go to church, is that “I go to church sometimes on holidays. But I don’t feel like I need to go to church all the time. I love God and I believe in Jesus for my salvation so why do I need to go to all the trouble and spend so much time going to a building? Besides, I can always watch church on television”.

Going deeper. Here is a link to “15 reasons why committed Christians stop attending church”. Take a look and see what you think.

Finally, here is a 12 minute video by The Fuel Project that features a woman, giving her testimony of why she is tired of and bored with church. She is meant to be representative of the growing group of Christians who have stopped attending church, many of whom become ‘NONES’, (those who may be Christians, but have no religious affiliation). Watch just a couple of minutes and see if it rings any bells for you.

Now, if you aren’t tiring of this topic, please give me another minute or two and I will get to the core matter of Going to Church. I believe it will either inspire you, convict you or perhaps, just irritate you.

Let’s start where it all began.

 THE EARLY CHURCH

(The Blue text below, is excerpts from the book, Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna.)

(1). The early Christians believed that Jesus is the very presence of God. They believed that the body of Christ, the Christians, which are the church, constitutes a temple. When Jesus was on earth, to make distinctions from the Church as the Body of Christ and a building, He made some radically negative statements about the Jewish Temple. Then, when Jesus would refer to ‘the real temple’, the Ekklesia, He was referring to Himself. (see Ephesians 2 verse 6). Since Christ has risen, we Christians have become the temple of God – The Church. DID YOU KNOW THIS? DO YOU BELIEVE OR FEEL THIS WAY?

Now and since His ascension, Jesus spiritually and actually takes up residence in the believers, thus making them His Temple, or His house. It is for this reason that the New Testament always reserves the word ‘church’, (ekklesia), for the people of God. It never uses this word to refer to a building of any sort. Additionally, when Christianity was born, it was the only religion on the planet that had no sacred objects, no sacred persons, and no sacred spaces. DID YOU KNOW THAT? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT CHURCHES TODAY?

Although surrounded by Jewish synagogues and pagan temples, the early Christians were the only religious people on earth who did not erect sacred buildings for their worship. The Christian faith was born in homes, out in courtyards, and along roadsides. For the first three centuries, the Christians did not have any special buildings! DID YOU KNOW THAT?

As one scholar put it, “The Christianity that conquered the Roman Empire was essentially a home-centered movement.” Meeting in homes was a conscious choice of the early Christians. It was a coming together in a more intimate setting, a ones’ home. Very little could be hidden from one another in such an environment. It created an intimacy we rarely see among the organized church membership today. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS WAY OF ‘DOING CHURCH’?

So, to recap, the early disciples didn’t GO to church because they were the church. Acts 2 verses 43 through 47 tell us that in the early church, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

To be fair, there were circumstances such as the severe persecution of the early church by both the Jewish religious structure and the Roman government that to a large degree dictated how, when and where the early church met. But external circumstances could not and did not create or affect the sense of awe, community, brotherhood and family of the early church. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS? AND, HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL?

Things have changed over the centuries, especially for America and Americans. We have found a large degree of personal freedoms and personal wealth. Our attitude about ‘individualism’ has divided even Christians as a family. We are not like the early church people in our attitudes or practices. I can GO to church, Sunday after Sunday, and reach out and warmly greet others, and still sit alone as an acquaintance but not as a friend and not as a family member of the Church. DO YOU UNDERSTAND AND WONDER?

Okay. Do you know what I have just done, though? I have made a presentation about going to church versus being the Church, and within this case, I have hidden a ‘binary trap’. Your answer requires a YES or a NO; I agree or I don’t agree. I left just a small space for other opinions. But, when we discuss or think this way with our church leaders, isn’t that how they approach situations like this? Rather than listening and looking for answers or solutions, we are told we are wrong and ‘here is how it is’! We are left in a binary trap. So we are faced with the choice to ‘get along or get out’.

So, which is the right way to ‘do church’? Actually, I believe BOTH choices have merits, and both have weaknesses.

Truthfully however, Jesus never recommended either way.

Jesus would, by example, preach and teach in the existing Jewish Temples and Synagogues, on streets, along roadways, on hillsides, in boats on lakes, in people’s houses and out in fields. Anyplace and everyplace was His pulpit and any place and everyplace was His mission field. Anyplace you might find His disciples, you had found His Church.

Jesus took this so seriously that on one occasion, “As they were going on the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (see Luke 9, verses 57 through 59).

In other words, this person, this scribe, was implying to Jesus, ‘I will follow you wherever you go, but let’s settle down a bit, and let me do my job as a scribe, but we need a permanent place, like a building of sorts, and become a permanent fixture’. To which Jesus responds with His memorable words that said, ‘I and My Body is on the move. Time is short and we have no time to settle in anywhere. We are only here for the time being’. And that is still true to this day!

Then on another occasion, “Jesus said to another, “Follow Me.” But the man said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” (see Luke 9 verses 59 through 60). Is Jesus lacking sympathy? No, He is not. The urgency and immediacy of the mission calls for drastic action! We rarely see this in the modern and postmodern church.

Finally, on another occasion,  “Another man said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at my home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (see Luke 9 verses 61 and 62). WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS? AND, HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL? DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE?

In the end, the Apostle Paul gives this heartfelt instruction about meeting together, which many church leaders apply as a directive to GO to church, “Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]; and let us consider [thoughtfully] how we may encourage one another to love and to do good deeds, not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more [faithfully] as you see the day [of Christ’s return] approaching. (see Hebrews 10, verses 23 through 25).

In reality, however, Paul means exactly what he says, “encourage one another to love and to do good deeds, not forsaking OUR MEETING TOGETHER [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some,

Whether in the existing church buildings, on streets, along roadways, on hillsides, in boats on lakes, in people’s houses and out in fields. Anyplace and everyplace is YOUR pulpit and any place and everyplace is YOUR mission field. Anyplace you find Jesus’ current day disciples, you have found His Church. Active, organic, hopeful, excited and on the move, because the day of His return is near.

Now that we know these things, also know that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. And He says for us to GO therefore, [into all the world] and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us. And remember, He is with us all the way to the end of the age.” And, please be aware and remember, Jesus was not talking to theologians or Bible teachers with a Masters of Divinity or a Doctorate in religion, He was talking to His disciples. These same disciples, who, ”when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.” (Does that verse from Matthew 28 verse 17, sound like someone who goes about in your Christian skin? If so, take heart and GO!)

If you consider yourself a fully devoted Christian, you are called by God to GO. If you don’t know how, then learn. Team up with someone who has an idea of how to GO. Or, with great prayer, caution and care, find a church  that properly teaches the Jesus model of evangelism and disciple-making. Just get started and GO.

Denominational ecclesiasticism is smothering and stifling the Church, the Ekklesia of God. Many of these so-called churches will say that they cannot allow you to ‘go rogue’ and become ‘a lone ranger Christian’. You might get it wrong or make a mess! To that I say HA! Just look at Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Robert Tilton, Peter Popoff, Bill Hybels, Tony Alamo, Ted Haggard, Brian Houston, Carl Lentz, Ravi Zacharias, Jimmy Swaggart, Eddie Long and many other pastors and leaders of once-famous megachurches.

The Catholic church has been a disgraceful mess for centuries. Most recently is the priesthood being discovered as rife with homosexuals and pedophiles, and it seems it is only getting worse with a leftist, socialist leaning Pope!

Furthermore, take a look at these church’s world-wide messes:

The Episcopal Church in the United States and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have also allowed ordination of openly gay and lesbian candidates for ministry for some years, and now the United Methodist Church has follow the path to the dark side.

Internationally, churches that have rewritten the Gospels to reflect the attitudes and intentions of men and have ordained openly lesbian or gay clergy include the Church of Scotland, the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Church of Sweden, the Church of Norway, the Church of Denmark, the Church of Iceland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Methodist Church in Britain, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the United Protestant Church in Belgium, the Swiss Reformed Church, the United Protestant Church of France, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Anglican Church in Canada, the Old Catholic Church, the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and the United Church of Christ in Japan.

Read Matthew 3 verses 11 & 12, which says, in part, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

You see, (first), you GO, and (secondly), He, who is coming after you, Who is mightier than you, whose sandals you am not worthy to carry, (thirdly), will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Then, fourthly), [He, with] His winnowing fork is in his hand, will clear His threshing floor [His creation, this earth], and (fifth), He will gather His wheat, [those who believe on Him and follow Him] into the barn [into the Kingdom of heaven]; but (sixth and finally, regarding) the chaff [the unbelievers, the rebellious ones], He will burn [up in the lake of, and] with unquenchable fire.”

Oh. And by the way. None of this is really a good reason NOT to go to church. If you find a good church, you could really be surprised – and you could really benefit from it!

Just GO!

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

(Let’s GO! Email me at whitestonefellowship1@gmail.com or write me in the space below here).