Looking back to the last 10 years of my experience of the current church structure, I realized there had to be something more than what the church should be. Week in and week out I started to wonder if this is what God really wanted. So many people listening to a pastor preach and teach the word of God. Most pastors preach not to take their word for what they say. They say to study it for yourself.
I am ashamed to admit this but I was too lazy to seek it out myself as many of us do. We listen to a teaching with biblical verses and immediately believe the teaching because scriptures are used without studying the context of the scriptures ourselves.
2 Timothy 2:15- Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Here the word study means to be diligent, make effort, labor, be prompt, to use speed and endeavor. For me this meant I had to work at finding the truth myself to be acceptable to God.
With that being said after some bad experiences, a group of us decided not to go back to church as we knew it, we started to study what the New Testament Church was like and also study the history of church and Christianity. What we found was that the New Testament Church was the people not the building. I know, I know, this was not a new revelation and we here the pastor say this all the time. So then why is my attendance to the building so important? Especially since Christians did not start meeting in a building for a couple of hundred years after Jesus was crucified.
Why can't we just assemble ourselves in our homes, in the park or on the beach? I'll tell you why. Some would say that would not be church. "Somebody has to lead." This is what I have heard quite a few times. The best response you could give, although sarcastic but true, came from my good friend, Jose.
"I guess somebody has to lead since the Holy Spirit is too incompetent to lead" (something like that. Sorry Jose if I misquoted you)
This makes complete sense. We rely so much on someone leading us that we don't realize that the same Holy Spirit that guides the leaders running the church is the same Holy Spirit that can guide all of us as believers. We have relied so much on the leaders that we have become lazy in our Christianity. We have relied so much on the church that we feel like we will wither away unless we are doing something for the church and receive approval from the leaders.
I know this is a blanket statement that does not pertain to all but the truth is Jesus called us to be the Church not go to church. The word church means "the called out" which contradicts being confined to four walls of a building. Matthew 16: 18 talks about Jesus, building the church upon this rock. This rock is knowing that He is the Messiah, Son of the living God. (See Unplugged Thoughts article "Who is the Church?" also by Jose")
I'm not church bashing and I want to be clear about my opinion on the structure of what we know church to be. I have been blessed with foundational teaching of men who I feel are true men of God. I'm not criticizing anyone who goes to a building to meet with your brothers and sisters, praying, giving thanks to God with song and even listening to someone speak about the things of God. But that's just not church and it should not be called church. What's more important is that we study for ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to give us clarity.
Also to live our lives as the church in everything that we do, in our homes, jobs, driving in our car, in the shower and at the grocery store to mention a few. It's those things outside the four walls that really matter.
Imagine if it was illegal to go to church. What would you do? Would you dry up because you don't have that place to hear the word of God, pray and feel like you are doing something for God or would you get together in your homes, study the word for yourself, with others and worship Him in spirit and truth. The sad part is that many of us would really have a hard time without it. I don't think Jesus would have wanted us to rely so much on a specific location for us to grow spiritually. He gave us all the tools we need.
What do you think?