The Church Has Left the Building
During this time of uncertainty, the number of questions out there are, how are we going to vote in person or by mail? Are we going to send our children back to school or home school? Can we go to the store and get the necessities of life without losing our life, not from a virus but from rioters? Do I wear a mask for their protection or am I wearing a mask for mine? Why can we go to the liquor store but not the Church. And on and on we go. But in the midst of all this stuff I saw a profound post that said;
The Church Has Left the Building
And my reply was and still is, it’s about time. I was raised being told how we measure our love for God is in how much time we spend in the local Church. You have to be there Sunday Morning Sunday School, Sunday Morning Worship, Sunday Night Training Union and Sunday Night Worship Service, and then Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting. And I’m sorry to say that’s not true. Before you get mad at me read on.
We were never commissioned to go to the church and fellowship, but we were told by Christ Himself in Red letters:
Mark 16:15-16 (NKJV) And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
The Promise Keepers put a post out recently that stated “With Church doors closing across the country, it’s time for us to show that the Church has never been about the building.”
There was a song that my home Church sang years ago called:
“We Are Still the Church”
“We are still the church
We will go forward
We will go on
Let’s forget about the things
which are behind us
We are still the church
keep pressing on
Now we started out for heaven’s shores
A long, long time ago
Jesus as the Captain of this boat
And the rock of ages holds us securely in his love
And though we’ve been through many storms,
praise God we are still afloat
We are still the church
We will go forward
We will go on
Let’s forget about the things
which are behind us
We are still the church
keep pressing on
Now this ship may bear some battle scars
We’ve been tossed from side to side
Still the waves of sin are raging high
But to God we serve His sovereign
He is still the King of kings
And he will hold us steady until we reach the other side.
We are still the church
We will go forward
We will go on
Let’s forget about the things
which are behind us
We are still the church
keep pressing on”
We were the Church, we are still the Church, and we will always be the Church!
It is not or has it ever been about the building, but it is most definitely about the Temple, Paul said it this way to the Assembly of people in Corinth.
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
When the letters were written to the different Churches in the Bible they did not go to a particular building or address, but to an assembly of people that were believers in that area. And thus, to the Assembly of Corinth, or Ephesus, or Philippi. Not a building, but to “The Way” of believers in that area.
We ARE the CHURCH not the building. Nowhere in the Holy Scripture does it state for us to “Go to Church” but it does say for the “Church” to go to the world. And as a side note the word Church should have been translated according to Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. As assembly. A group of people of same mind.
ek-klay-see’-a from a compound of (ek) and a derivative of (kaleo); a calling out, i.e. {concretely (in a definitive or conclusive way)} a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both):
Usage Notes: English Words used in KJV: church 115 assembly 3 [Total Count: 118]
But wait does the Bible not say;
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NKJV) And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
And we have Tony Evans Bible Commentary saying:
“Tragically, some of this letter’s readers had started neglecting to gather together (10:25). They were avoiding the means God had provided to help them. Remember, when your “get-up-and-go” has gotten up and gone, you need someone who can lift you up. Furthermore, there’s someone ready to throw in the towel who needs you to walk alongside him or her. That’s why the writer of Hebrews says: Let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works (10:24). It can be hard to be a Christian. We need to be practicing the “one-another’s,” encouraging each other… As [we] see the day approaching (10:25).”
It’s not talking about going to a building but getting together and helping one another.
Please, PLEASE, don’t get me wrong, We NEED the Church as we have it now, but we have done it the same way we have done most things, and we let our way get in the way of God’s way. Over the years we let traditions get in the way of how the local Church is supposed to be. I know we need teaching and being ministered too regularly. I have to have that extra shot in the arm weekly myself. But nowhere and I mean nowhere does it say we have to go to a certain building, at a certain time, and a certain number of visits weekly, and dress a certain way, singing a certain song a certain way, and to do that proves that we love the Lord. It is not there.
In the television show The Big Bang Theory, the character Sheldon Cooper first met his future wife Amy Farrah Fowler, and their conversation went something like this, Amy said “I am only here because I have a deal with my mother to date one time each year”, and Sheldon’s response was “I have an agreement something like that with my mother, but it is to go to Church once a year”. And then Amy’s reply was and that’s what got me think about this the most and that was “I don’t have a problem with a deity, but I do have a problem with one that takes attendance”.
I have the same problem, God is with me everywhere I go, and I do not see him taking attendance. Again, don’t get me wrong, we need the local Church but more importantly the Church needs us. It needs us to get together to make sure we are doing what God wants the way God wants it. And we need to learning through God’s ministers how to reach the world, because face it without the local Church I would say a majority of people would not know what the Bible says or more importantly, what the Bible means.
We need to get together, so we can be with more people of like mind. And that mind should be the mind if Christ Jesus. So, we can reach more people with our combined resources for the cause of Christ Jesus. I myself am limited with what I can accomplish, but with my local Assembly we can put our money together and our knowledge of the Word of God, and reach more people by Going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every person that I can’t reach on my own.
Just a piece of another chapter from my next book:
“Something More to Ponder”
