Lost & Found

What is Church? Is is a building, a denomination, an organization, a system, a format, a Pastor, a Priest? What does the word Church even mean? Well, actually the word Church never appears in the New Testament. The word that has been miss-translated as Church is the word “Ecclesia” and this word simply means “the called out ones” or “The summond”. So, who are the called out ones? They are the believers and followers of Jesus “Therefore, Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 6:17.

You know, I've heard people rightly speak of not simply going to church but living the church but I think we often get the meaning of this wrong. Okay, going to church is showing up on Sunday morning and maybe a midweek Bible study. But what is living the church? So many of us will think “well if Sunday morning isn't enough to live the church then that means we need to attend service more often, we need to become involved in Bible study group, we need to get involved in the music ministry”. There is nothing really wrong with these activities but we are still seeing the church as a place, and so we think that if we want to live the church that means we have to become more involved in that place.

You are the Church and I am the Church and we are to meet together to pray for each other and to minister to each other and to have fellowship but the meeting itself is not Church, we are the church. It is important to get the order of things right The Church is not the leadership, the Pastor, the music leader, the deacons, the elders and then the rest of us are just the “audience” This is the mindset that we must escape from. Sure, there are leaders to be listened to and to be followed “And God has placed in the church (among the believers) first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.”1 Corinthians 12:28.

But the whole idea that to get fed spiritually, to be prayed for, to have fellowship, to worship God depends on going to a certain place at a certain time is absurd and something that we need to break away from if we really want to live the church. 

If you and a few friends are gathered around the table sharing a dinner and fellowshiping how is that not the assembling of the Believers? If you and your neighbour sit down and discuss the word of God how is that not the assembling of the believers? The assembling of the believers doesn't have to be at a certain building at a certain time under a certain banner. It is where you are because you are the believers. And it is whenever you assemble with other believers. Sometimes larger groups of believers will assemble together, but that doesn't make that the church, that doesn’t make that gathering any more important or significant than the assembling of a few. Jesus said “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20.

In 1 Corinthians 14:26 we see God's plan for the assembling of the believers “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church (the believers) may be built up.” You see, maybe when we meet with our Christian friends God will give us a word for one or all of the others, maybe a revelation. Maybe as we fellowship we sing a song to the Lord. You see, this is our life, the life of the believers. Everything we do needs to be for and to God. Church is a lifestyle to be lived, not a place to go. The life lived by the believer is church because the true believer is always assembling with other believers in many different forms and in many different places.

Try this, the next time you read in the Bible every time you see the word Church replace it with the word believers, you just might get a new perspective on the Christian life.