The Church

The Church 

In a comment on a recent blog post, someone recommended that I share what I think the local church should look like. Here’s the problem. There is no description found in scripture as to what the local church should look like. There is much conjecture used to define what today’s church should be. I’ve heard numerous claims of “this is what the New Testament church looked like” when describing a particular service or spiritual experience. Church, as we know it today, is a relatively recent development. Nowhere in scripture is “the church” referred to as a building. The Church in scripture is “the called-out ones.” It’s people who have become identified with Jesus through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of the Father. It’s those who have been baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit of God. This is the moment where the spirit in a person is recreated, or made alive again, to become a new creation. This is experience in the current vernacular is “saved.” Literally it is being “revived.”

When we are born, we are created in the image of man, god-like, but with a fallen nature bent toward sin. When we experience being “saved” as described above, our fallen nature (spirit of man) is replaced with the life of God through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes to live in us and abides in us the rest of our life. We get all of God there is in that moment. This is being made alive again, or revived.

When did “revival” become the focus of the church experience vs. knowing Jesus, and Him crucified?

revival (n.)

1650s, "act of reviving after decline or discontinuance;" specifically from 1660s as, "the bringing back to the stage of a play which has not been presented for a considerable time;" from revive + -al.

The sense of "a general and extraordinary religious awakening in a community" is in Cotton Mather (1702, revival of religion); by 1818 it was used of enthusiastic religious meetings (often by Methodists) meant to inspire revival. In reference to the Victorian popularity of Gothic architecture, by 1850.

The root word in revival is revive, which literally means “live again”. There are many occurrences of revive in scripture, but revival does not appear. Revive is a personal experience one has when we realize something has been lost in relating to God. Revival is a spirited religious meeting. It creates an emotional response in those present but does not reflect a personal experience with God.

The focus of a gathering of Christians should never be to stir emotions, but instead to study the teachings of Christ, the apostles, and other religious teachings, and to edify and exhort other believers. This is so far removed from the current “church” service, where everything done is to evoke a response at the altar call. Most “altar” experiences I have personally witnessed do not cause a change in behavior or attitude, yet the magnitude of response is seen as somehow God-inspired. Unfortunately, it is usually a result of coercion by those leading the meeting.

One challenge I have with the current form of “church” in our Western culture is the elevation to a place of importance of the clergy. Full-time vocational ministers take on a role of spiritual leadership that was never intended for any person since our redemption through Christ, which restored each born-again person to a place of sonship, kings and priests unto God, where we relate to God directly. There is no need for a go-between to intervene to God on our behalf. The ministry of reconciliation, the duty given each Believer, has been relegated for the most part to vocational ministers. There is little effort, and consequently little interest, in the average pew sitter to engage in reaching out to others to show the love of God to their world. It has become convenient to pay the preacher to do the work of the ministry.

Then we build expensive buildings to house “the ministry” which are only used 6-10 hours a week. This requires large budgets to maintain, which in turn places pressure on the vocational ministers to constantly raise funds to meet the budget. COVID exposed the fallacy of this model when many churches had to lay off the vocational ministers, and in some cases close the doors of the church.

Ministry of The Church should never be at the mercy of economy or social developments. It should be a part of life for Believers every day, not just Sunday or Wednesday at a building. I know this sounds ridiculous. I used to think the same thing years ago. My opinion has changed. It may be too late for the Western church. I hope not. We do not need “revival” to fix this problem. We need to learn the truth about God’s intention for The Church and start to live it out every day.