This was written a few years back and I never put this on-line before. I never put it on line because it is unlike my normal style. I was trying to be as simplistic and as accessible as possible. Not sure if that makes it better or worse then my normal fare. To my eye it seems a little condescending and I already have issues with arrogance coming through with my writing. But I decided to put it on line so I would have some kind of back up of it in case something happened to the electronics at the house.

What is a church? What is the function or purpose of a church? Throughout history these questions have divided those who have called themselves Christians. In part, that which is historians call the “protestant reformation” was about the nature and function of the Church. But even among those Christians commonly considered to be “Protestants” there is much division historically and otherwise as to the nature of what the church is and what its purpose is.

I will attempt to answer these questions by following Paul’s command in Corinthians chapter 4 to “not go beyond what is written.” I take this as a command to restrict ourselves to the scriptures when trying to answer questions that are causing divisions amongst Christians.

So then, if we restrict ourselves to scripture, what is a church? Amongst protestant Christians there is broad agreement that the “bride of Christ” or the universal church represents all of those who have been redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet it is clear that our English translations of scripture also use the term “Church” to refer to less universal groups. For example, in Revelations, particular geographic locations are called out as having a “church” and Paul also speaks of there being churches plural in many of his letters. So again, we have the question, what makes a “Church” a church?

A simple way to start to answer this question is to simply look at what the word “Church” means. In strictest sense, the word “church” cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. What is found in the New Testament is the Greek word “ecclesia” and “ecclesia” means nothing more than “an assembly.” As a general rule, I think it would be better if translators simply translated “ecclesia” as “assembly” since so many people bring their own preconceived notions to the word “church”.

That being said, it is clear that the New Testament writers do not normally have just any old gathering of people in mind when they use the word “ecclesia.” Rather, they have a group of people in mind who have gathered together for a particular reason. So what defines this gathering?

I think the most crucial part of the definition of the “ecclesia” can be found in the words of Jesus when he says in Matthew “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:20).” In other words, the crucial ingredient that makes a assembly a “church” is that they are assembled together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But what does it mean to gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? From a practical perspective I think the answer can be found in Matthew (and the other synoptic gospels) where we are told…..

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”

It is the sharing of the bread and the sharing of the cup in remembrance of Jesus Christ that defines who the ecclesia/assembly (or the “church” to use the common translated term) in given area. Paul places great stress on this point in 1 Corinthians and rest of the New Testament writers likewise seem to take it for granted that the assembly (or Church) would be taking communion together. To be put out of the assembly (or “church”) was to be denied communion.

Our first question was “What is a church?” and I think we can now answer that question. A church is two or more people gathered in the name of the Lord who are obeying his command to “Do this in remembrance of me” (i.e. Take communion together). No other additions can be made to the definition of a “Church” without going beyond scripture.

It is true that the New Testament speaks of church functions such as Overseers/Elders (the two terms are used interchangeably in the New Testament. Older translations will use the term Bishop but that is just the refusal to translate the Greek word “episkopos” that means overseer) but nowhere in the New Testament does it say that the “episkopos” are required for a church (“ecclesia”) to exist. Nor does the presence of unrepentant sinners or heretics stop the New Testament writers from calling a gathering of people in the name of the Lord an “ecclesia” as we can see from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians or the letters to the churches at the start of Revelations.

So if we have answered the question of “what is a church?” are next question is “why should believer in Jesus Christ be part of a church?” or “What is the function of a Church?”

To answer that question, we need start with the command to be part of a “Church” that is found in Hebrews Chapter 10 where we read…..

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We see that the focus of this command to meet together is on the need to minster to our fellow believers. And this focus on the ministry to our fellow believers is what we find elsewhere in the New Testament as well. The entire tenor 1 Corinthians Chapter 14 is how the believers who assemble together might best minister to each other. For example, in verse 26 of that chapter Paul says……

How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

To Paul, the ministry of the believers is a group effort of all who have gathered together. He makes a similar point in Romans saying in Roman’s Chapter 12…..

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

Paul also makes this point in the negative sense. In other words, he rebukes the Corinthians for doing more harm than good with their “church services” because of the focus on themselves. Quoting from 1 Corinthians Chapter 11…..

Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.

Their failure as a church was their failure to come together to be ministers of the love of Christ to each other.

We could go on to list many other passages to make the same general point. But behind all the exhortations on how believers out to behave what they ought to do when the gather together lays this command from Jesus as found in John chapter 15…..

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

So now maybe we can say what the function or purpose of a church is. It is the assembling together of those who have made a confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to minister his love in its various forms to fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. An explicit parallel is drawn between this gathering and a family by the Paul when he says “if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15).

I think all other issues relating the church that we have not covered (such as positions of authority within the church or the role of woman) can be best understood in the family context. In the New Testament, those in positions of authority in the church are called “elders” because in a family it is expected that the older will take care of the younger. Sometimes those in positions of authority are called overseers (or bishops, if you have a translation that refuses to translate the word’s meaning) because in large household in Roman times an overseer was someone appointed by the head of household to take care of the members of his household. In the same way, the role of woman in the church is explicitly tied to their role in the home.

But the role of woman in the church or what those in position of authority within the church should be doing are subjects for another time. It is enough for me to point out that the call to gather ourselves together in the Lord’s name is a call to active ministry and fellowship with our fellow believers. It is not the call to passively receive the ministry of others.

So having look at what the bible says about the gathering together of ourselves in the Lords Name, what shall we say when we look at the Churches around us? Do people go to them so that they might minster to their fellow believers?

It is hard for me to believe that this case. By the testimony of their own mouths, most of the believers I know choose their churches on the grounds of what Pastor/church program best ministers to them. They look upon themselves as consumers, not as members of a family that should all be working together.

And in a sense, it is hard to fault them for treating church in this matter. For the very way most churches are set up encourage this mindset. The focus of a “normal” church is on the professionals at the front of the church. Those who are in the pews are expected to passively received what is sent their way. To my perception, it seems that churches are getting more and more “professional” in all that they do with less and less room for the “laity” to have any part. If all you are going to do is set in a pew and receive, why not shop around until you can receive what you want to receive?

When I have brought this issue up in the past, the answer I always get is that there are many ways in which Christians in these “professionally run” churches can minster if they so choose. But people who make this defense can never escape the fact that they can only do so apart from the main church service. In other words, the main church service is set up to prevent people from doing what they are called to do by God when they gather together (which is minster to one another). Instead they sit facing forward not looking at each other until the show is over. And when it is over, they may minister to each other, but it will only happen apart from main service and more and more often, it will only happen once they are far from the church building itself because everything in those churches is managed by professionals.

It has gotten so far in this direction that now many churches will stream there services online so that people can consume them at their own leisure when it is convenient for them. In one sense I find nothing wrong with this. If you are going to set up your church service so that no participation is allowed, you might as well enable people to watch it when it is convenient for them.

But a church service that is a show is not a church service that has anything to do with the New Testament command to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” as Hebrews says we are to do. It is not a place where we may minster to one another.

The problems with these churches rarely has anything to do with doctrine per say if they are a reasonable approximation of a bible believing church. I don’t consider it appropriate to break fellowship with fellow Christians over anything other than the denial of core tenets of the faith or clear sins that are not repented of. But I don’t consider these churches to be true places of fellowship and mutual ministry either. In other words, they do not fulfill the function of a church as it is defined in the New Testament.