What is a Church Really

Have you ever wondered what makes a church really a church?

We all know that the church is not the building, after all there is no record that first century churches ever had buildings.

What did the first Christians think of as a church?

The word translated church in our new testament literally means the assembly or the groups so whatever it is people must be central to it. Paul usually addressed his letters to the church in a town like Corinth or to the churches in a given area such as Galatia. Once he even referred to the church that was in the house of Aquila and Prisca. Paul called all of these groups churches

The first churches had no buildings, no budgets, no land, and no libraries but according to the New Testament writers they were still churches.

Now I am not saying that any of these things are bad or that they don’t help the church do what it does, I am just looking for what thing or things are absolutely necessary to have to call yourself a church.

The first churches had no Sunday School and did not have a Sunday morning service like we have today.

What if we took away buildings, cooperate worship, cooperate preaching and teaching, would we still have a church? The New Testament churches did not regularly have these things and yet they were churches according to the bible. so what does the bible mean when it uses the word church?

There are churches who have no musical instruments, churches who meet on Saturday and ones who meet of Sunday, ones with Sunday School and others with small groups instead, some who have deacons, some who have elders and some who have both. There are churches who have huge complexes with schools and others who rent a building, meet in someones house, or even in a tent.

Obviously God has to be there in order for it to be a church but God everywhere and not everywhere is a church. A church needs Christians but not everywhere that Christians gather is a church, in fact not even every group of Christians gathered for the purpose of performing God’s work is a church. We all know of organizations that do God’s work that make no claim to be a church, we even have a name for them, para-church organizations.

So what is it that makes a church a church? What is it that you have to have other than God and God’s people that makes it a church?

The New Testament writers never told us, they just assumed that we knew. There are a lot of things today that we know are not the central part of a church but they sure make it nice like air conditioning and indoor plumbing. There are ministry tools and conveniences that are designed to help us but we must never forget what a church actually is.

So what is the essential part of a church that you have to have in order to be a church, the thing, or things without which you cannot be a church at all but with which you are a church, ready to forge ahead with God’s help?

I believe that Jesus told us what it was.

Matthew 22:36 NASB95

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

Matt 22:36-40 ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.””

Now to a first century Jew the Old Testament was everything, it had everything you needed for life within it’s pages. The most important part of the Old Testament was the Torah or the first five books of the bible called the books of Moses. Not only that but the essence of the Torah was the 10 commandments. So what this man was asking Jesus was what is the central most important thing in all of scripture.

Matthew 22:37–40 NASB95

And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

In other words these two things are the hinge pins for everything in scripture. These two things are the centerpiece for all of God’s revealed word. They are also the central and essential part of the New Testament church. God has not changed his mind, He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

The one essential thing you just have to have in order to be a church is relationships. You have heard that Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship, that is true but the church is about two relationships the vertical relationship between God and an individual human being, that is Christianity and the horizontal relationship between one Christian and another who have commited to each other in order to do God’s will, that is what makes a church.

That is what God meant when he said

Matthew 18:20 NASB95

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

A group of Christians, no matter how small or large, who are gathered together in the name of Jesus to do His work and His will have Jesus in their midst and when that group of people commit to each other, to relate to each other and cooperate with each other according to the teaching of Scripture to Serve God and to build up the body of Christ they become a church.

Everything else is a means, a method, or a tool, something to help accomplish the mission. At its very core a church is a group of believers who have committed to Jesus Christ and to each other. Everything else in scripture rests on the ideas of loving God and loving each other. That is what we do, that is what a church is, that is who we are.

Everything that helps us love God and love each other should be used and anything that hinders those goals should be discarded.

God fills gives us gifts and talents that He expects us to use and share.

We use the expression that God fills us up to overflowing so that we may bless others as God has blessed us. Did you know that it is possible to selfishly seek God, to seek God for what we can get out of it and ignore anyone and everyone else. God has called us to use our gifts and talents to serve Him and each other and if we ignore either part of this we miss out on What God has planned? Do you know what the bible calls missing out on God’s plan, the bible calls that sin.

Filled to Overflowing

Bowl Illustration

If you spend all of your time getting filled up by God you will be filled and you will overflow and maybe there will be some people nearby who will get their feet wet and maybe not. If you spend part of your time building relationships with people and part of your time being filled up by God you can be much more effective for the kingdom.

Suppose this person is a neighbor who you are getting to know better, this one is a member of your church you are discipling, and this person is one who shares and interest in your favorite sport or sports team. As your life and their lives begin to intertwine and overlap and you continue to be filled by God you will naturally overflow into their lives giving you opportunities to naturally share what God has given to you with them. By doing so you will grow more than you could on your own and they will grow more because you have poured into them. At the same time God is pouring into you from Himself and from others by using the gifts and talents of others so that everyone is filled.

That is the essence of being a church. Next week I will be back and we will delve into the mechanics of how God uses your gifts and the gifts of others to build each other up. But in order to begin you have to know where to start. You cannot give to others what you do not have and you cannot fully receive the gifts of God until you are one of His children. If you want to be filled, and help fill others you need to start by becoming a child of God. If you have never done that and you want to be a part of God’s family please come and talk to me now so and I will help you join the family, don’t wait, don’t delay, now is the time to become a child of God.