“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do
not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.
The first requisite is life, always.” – A. W. Tozer
[Enjoyed this personal testimony and evaluation by Nicole Cottrell]
Lie #1. CHURCH IS OPTIONAL
Ah, the lone believer, hell-bent on staying out of a church community for
one reason or another. They were burned, chastised or mistreated.
And I get it. I, too, was a solo “Christian” trying to call a five-minute
quiet time and a snippet of Scripture “church.” I know what it is to be
community-less and long for (but never actually believe it could happen) a
spiritual family, where brethren would lay down their life for one
another-reminiscent of the book of Acts.
Oh yeah, but then, through a series of painful life-altering events, I came
to see church was not optional because, I was, in fact, the church. When
scripture refers to the church as “the house of God,” “the Body of Christ,”
“Christ’s bride,” it is referencing a people. The ekklesia, in Greek. It is
not a place or a building.
Lie #2. WE GO TO CHURCH
Those in the church have long believed we go to church. But if we ARE the
church, then this can’t actually be true. We don’t actually go to church on
Sunday.
What we do instead is assemble where other members of the church happen to
be, and we usually sit in a pew and listen to someone preach from the
pulpit. This is not church. YOU are the church.
Lie #3. THE CHURCH EXISTS TO REACH THE LOST.
In the Christian culture of “doing social justice,” “living missionally” and
“loving the unlovely,” it becomes easy to view the church as a vehicle in
which to reach the unsaved.
However, this is not the primary function or purpose of the church. The
church exists for the believer-to equip, edify and empower the saints. To
manifest the body and life of Jesus Christ. I know this might rub some
people the wrong way, but if so, I encourage you to re-examine the
scriptures. You may be surprised. I was.
Lie #4. A SMALL GROUP OR BIBLE STUDY IS A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE REPLACEMENT
I remember pastors enthusiastically telling me if I had to choose between
Sunday morning service and my weekly small group, I was to choose the
latter. My small group, as it was explained to me, was actually church.
Those pastors, they were trying. What they meant, or should have meant, was
a small group was more like church.
Lie #5. HANGING OUT WITH A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS JUST LIKE US IS ‘CHURCH’
Sadly, what small groups, home groups and many Bible studies have taught
people is a group of our peers gathered together is church. When Jesus
refers to the “family of God,” I don’t think a twenty-somethings Wednesday
night fellowship/hangout/thing is what He had in mind.
Families are made up of all kinds of people in all stages of life. There are
moms and dads, brothers and sister, infants, cousins and even a few
loud-mouthed crazy uncles (you know who you are). Church is, and should be,
all of us. All the time.
Lie #6. WE MUST GROW THE CHURCH
In the consumer-driven, “bigger is better” culture we find ourselves in,
many Christians have come to falsely believe it is our responsibility to
build the church. We think we do the growing. But 1 Cor. 3 teaches that,
while some of us plant and others water, it is God who causes it to grow. We
are “coworkers belonging to God,” allowed to fully in building His church.
God is responsible . and I find that comforting.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”