What Is A Church?

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement to Village Church Planters.

I grew up in a city that had many churches. There were Baptist churches, Methodist churches, Lutheran churches, Catholic churches and many other churches.  A common questions I heard when I was a kid was, “What church do you go to?”  Sometimes people would answer and say the name of their church, “I go to Calvary Baptist Church,” or “I go to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.”  But they would often say, “I go to that church on the corner of Washington Street and Second Avenue” or “We go to a church out on New Paris Rd.”  When we asked about churches, we were thinking about church buildings.

But of course, when the Bible talks about churches, it is definitely not taking about church buildings; it is not talking about temples. It is talking about groups of people who follow Jesus together.  Groups of Christ followers did not own buildings used for worship until about 300 years after Jesus rose from the dead.  For the first 300 years of church history, groups of Christians met together to worship Jesus in schools, houses, caves, and under trees. 

But one thing about churches has never changed over the past 2000 years.  The people are always more important than the place they meet. Maybe your church is working hard to save money to buy building materials to construct a place of worship.  That’s great. But never forget, “The people are always more important than the place they meet.” 

The Bible describes the very first church, the church started by Peter and the other Apostles on the day of Pentecost. You can read in Acts 2:37 – 47 that this first church proclaimed the Good News of Jesus, baptized believers, had fellowship in homes, worshipped and prayed, broke bread in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection, taught and obeyed God’s word, and gave generously.  The apostles coordinated all of this activity.

So what is a church?  A church is not a building; a church is a group of people who follow Jesus together.  Churches today do what the very first church, the church in Jerusalem did. Churches proclaim the Good News of Jesus, baptize believers, have fellowship together, worship and pray, celebrate the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection; churches teach and obey God’s word, and churches give generously.

If you know what a church is and you know what a church does, the Spirit of God can empower you to be an effective church planter.  You can lead your churches to do the right thing in the right way at the right time.  Sadly, many church leaders don’t compare the activities of their church to the activities of the church in Jerusalem described in Acts 2:37 – 47.  They compare their church’s activities to the activities of existing, nearby churches. When leaders do this, they tend to lead churches that lack balance.  They may worship well, but they don’t evangelize well.  They may teach God’s word well, but they don’t give generously.  When we follow the traditions of men, we will soon grow out of balance.  But when we follow the Spirit-directed patterns of the first church, we will lead churches that grow and develop in a balanced way.

This has been “Multiply.” And I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today?

E3-05   #EncouragementforVillageChurchPlanters  #Acts2