What Is Your Definition of Church???

What is the Church?

Have you ever thought about this question?

In your mind, and heart of hearts, what is your definition of the Church?

1)   Who or what is the Church?

2)   Is the Church a Community or Culture apart from the local community?

3)   Is the Church the Building?

4)   Is the Church the Denominational Affiliation?

5)   Is the Church the People?

6)   Is the Church the Leadership?

7)   Who is in charge in the Church?

8)   Is the Church all about Religion?

9)   Is the Church only about the Bible?

10) Does the Church have rules, standards & governance?

11) Does the Church have a specific function or service to provide?

12) Who reviews the relevancy commitments of the local Church?

13) Are there requirements of the leadership?

14) Are there requirements of the attendees?

15) Are there Theological requirements of the teaching staff?

16) Are there social requirements of the Church?

17) Are there guidelines for the experience?

18) Where would one find what the Church experience is to be?

19) Does the Church provide proper and adequate instruction?

20) How does the Church benefit the attendees?

21) How does the Church benefit the local community at large?

22) When & how do you know when the Church is successful?

23) When & how do you know when the Church is unsuccessful?

24) Does the Church have authority in the lives of those that attend?

25) What are the marks of a Healthy Church?

26) In its present configuration, does the Church have staying power?

Starting in with the 1st week in December, for three weeks we will answer the previously listed questions and much more. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we will attempt to show you that the Church is not a man made invention, but a Devine institution.

Have you ever listened to people in the community talk about Church? You sometimes get the impression that the Church is nothing more than a human society that owes its origin and establishment to some kind of volunteer agreement among its attendees. At times, among congregations you get the same sense, the older the church the more emphasis on its origins and “charter members”. Is this part of our definition of what the Church is?

In some Churches in this country if you attended on any given Sunday Morning, you may very well come away with the sense that you just attended a “Rotary Meeting” or have just experienced some form of entertainment. Is this part of our definition of what the Church is?

In other Churches around this country, when you walk in, you are instantly evaluated by length of hair, the clothes that you wear, and your body language. If you don’t measure up, you are ostracized to the point of leaving because you don’t fit the mold. Is this part of our definition of what the Church is?

Yet in other Churches, if you have not received the 1st and 2nd Blessing of the Spirit, you have not yet arrived. You may be treated as a second class Christian because you are “not of the Spirit yet”. The teachings reflect that there is a man measured process on the road to sanctification, and until you have achieved all the steps in that process your salvation is in question. Is this part of our definition of what the Church is?

One final example of what some folks think Church is. This Church infers that every single soul that walks through that door has spoken authority to talk about their religious experience. The teachings are that God is a God of Love, and that all you have to do is believe. That there are no oracles of the Church, there are no moral principles of the scriptures, and there is no absolute truth, just Live and let Live. Truth is based on the situation, and is relative to the situation of the day and event. Is this part of our definition of what the Church is?

I want to close this introduction with this final comment. God created the earth, for a place to put His prize creation, man…. As we have looked at before in this group, in Genesis, we see where God came in the cool of the evening to Walk and Talk with Adam and Eve. Where they had fellowship and communed in the evenings…. With God, Adam and Eve at the beginning of earth’s time, it was All About The Relationship!!!!!

We were created for His pleasure, and to identify with Him out of the Love of our Hearts and to Share Eternity with Him; bringing Him Honor, Glory and Praise. Today’s Church has lost that core understanding and belief of our purpose. So is it any wonder that Church has so many manmade definitions and purposes? We as a people have made God and His Church into our own image, instead of the other way around.

Starting in January we will finish the final 14 chapters of Joshua in a bit of a faster pace than we have these last 19 weeks. Then we will open a new Study.  But for the first three or four weeks in December, we are going to look at “What is the Church”?