I don’t think God cares too much which church model we use, house church, mega church, liturgical church, or free-for-all charismatic church.
God’s main concerns are justice, compassion, grace, mercy, generosity, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you are engaged in these things, then may God bless you in whatever church model you choose.
If you are not doing these things, God cannot be pleased, no matter how large and famous (or small and intimate) your church model is.
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let me know!
“He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
Gail, I had that verse in mind when I wrote this post! Thanks for putting it in there.
I would love to agree with you completely. I don’t want it to be complicated, but it often seems that way. If church services the way most people practice them where in any way represented in scripture I would not be concerned. Much of the time church is nothing more than a substitute for handing over our lives to Christ. If not is at best an add on that meets some sort of religious desire. The “meetings” in the new testament don’t seem to be primarily about performing acts of worship as they are about helping one another live as Christians, obeying Jesus, Kingdom building, etc. In a world that is at enmity with God. Provoking one another to love and good works. I think that whatever they did in their meetings were a by product of living out the gospel or at least endevoring to live it out. They needed to meet for mutual support. To love on one another. To bear each other’s burdens etc. And even worship together. If this is church then yes I suppose some details are inconsequential. Teaching was apart of it. But only one part of many things. We have MANY teachers, but Jesus said this should not be. A good teacher shows by example and helps people to rely on the Spirit of God to teach them. They must decrease.
You are so right about church often serving as a substitute for following and submitting to Jesus. Wish we could all depend and rely on Him alone!
I think the model should fit the churches calling. To me part of the issue is we often want that one magic formula that leads to success. There is nothing wrong with learning from each other, but odds are God has not called us to reach the same people as the church across the street. As long as we demonstrate the fruits you mentioned and willing share the Gospel we should be on the right path. I am sure God gives us some Grace if we don’t get perfect every time. Also we should not condemn the church across the street for not making their church look like ours.
Great point! I think that if groups sat down and asked what God wanted them to accomplish or who God wanted them to serve, this would help them decide which sort of model would help them best.
Problem with any church is that most of the time, it’s more building orientated and getting people into the building than anything else. Oh and of course how many fingers where lifted at the end of a service.
Yes, so much time and energy gets poured into the building…
I agree, Jesus did visit the temple and Paul visited the Synagog but most meetings just happened in homes and outside in informal manner.
Right. It is okay to participate in formal meetings if that natural relationship meetings are happening also.
Why do we say going to church, when we should say doing church. Jeremy I agree with your definition 100%. I believe God is a lot less interested in our buildings, programs or ministries and more interested in us being his body.
Yep! Church should be a verb! Kind of. We are the church, but it involves following Jesus and doing what He did in the world.
I believe that God “cares” immensely how His church models itself. But it’s not so much an argument of how “we” as Christians chooses to structure our regular meetings or find comfort in them, it’s more about the perception those meetings elicit in both believers and those outside
the body. This is the argument Paul made throughout 1 Corinthians 8, 9 and 10, and one I address in a post on my blog HonorGodsWord.com “The Apostle Paul on Personal Rights and the Gospel.”
We Christians have the freedom in Christ to meet together as often as we like in a structure we are comfortable with that closely mirrors biblical tradition. But we must be careful not to allow our chosen “model” to “hinder” the gospel or “burden” the church.
Tolerance is a double-edged sword that has crept into the body of Christ and provided comfort, cover and an accepted excuse for allowing today’s church model to hinder the gospel of Christ and burden the church. Millions of believers and lost souls have left the church over the last couple of decades, siting mostly the corporate/institutional model as a reason. Their “perception” of the church model somehow turned them off, or continues to turn them off. So the bigger question is, why are millions leaving the church, and is tolerance a part of the problem.
While we do have a “right” to model our regular gatherings we call “church” as we see fit within the bounds of scripture , we must always remember that our “rights” end where the gospel of Christ begins.
Thanks Neil. Yes, I think there is great freedom. I try to give others the freedom to meet where, when, and how they want, but at the same time, I hope they give me the same freedom.
In theory at least, any of these “models” might work. However, pointing to the model a particular group is using tells us next-to-nothing about the group. Are they loving God with all their hearts, strength and minds, and their neighbors as themselves? Justice, compassion, mercy and the rest of the list seem to follow.
I have seen people who are part of churches of each of these models who do indeed love God and neighbor, and others who are merely chasing religion.
Whatever the model, something is desperately wrong when there is money, time and energy in abundance to build personal mansions and corporate temples, but little or nothing for neighbors in need.
Right. Justice, compassion, and mercy are the key building blocks to being the church, no matter what “model” the church follows.
Our congregation is beginning the process of finding
“Gods mission” for our body of believers. The congregational vote was
4 to 1 to use a “professional vision finding” consulting company to
implement a “visioning” process. The “plan” is that after
the visioning we will be able to discern God’s Approved Church Model whether
or not to build a new building, what our “work” is to be and how we
are going to assure that our aging (average age is 75 years) congregation will
continue to be viable and have a future. (ie. remain alive).
Your posts Jeremy and the comments by many of the other commentators are highly
relative to my body of believers. I am saddened that the vote has been already
taken. I would love to have presented what is being “said” here.
Sometimes I think that Christ’s message (all of it) gets lost (especially by
me) in the “mechanics” of what we think is the “right way”
to bring the good news of the Gospel to ALL as Christ did and exhorts US to do
RIGHT NOW!
“God’s main concerns are justice, compassion, grace, mercy, generosity,
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.” I find these to be absolutely true based on my experience
as a “sinner” who is being saved on a daily basis by a triune God who
cares about me as if I were the ONLY life form in His creation. That blows me
away and drives me to my knees in tears when I contemplate it deeply and for an
appropriate length of time.
To assemble regularly with other committeds is a replenishing and revitalizing
very essential element in my faith life. “No man is an island.” When
I worship with others I gain the benefit of their experience, strength and
hope. It is my spiritual feeding and opportunity to share what I am
experiencing.
Building or no building, house, park bench is not the
issue. As you said Jeremy, “God’s main concerns are justice, compassion,
grace, mercy, generosity, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
This has been my experience for over 40 of my 67 years in
a fellowship that has no buildings, is not organized, accepts no outside
financial contributions, limits end of life personal contributions, has NO fund
raising or capital campaigns, does not define stewardship in the level of financial
“benevolence!”
We have one purpose toward those who seek us out and grow
and maintain our membership,(which is NOT documented anywhere) we pass on for
free what has been freely given to us (this is a manifestation of God’s Grace!)
Perhaps if I pray for the knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry it out, God will direct me to the purpose he has for me and I will peacefully and gracefully accept it and
help my congregation to “get out of the building” and hit the streets! Those who want what we have are out there we simply need to make ourselves known and lovingly do whatever it takes to bring others to Christ visa vie how we “live Christ in our own lives.” Doesn’t mean we’re
perfect but we “know a man” (Johnny Cash) who can help us help others.
I went through that whole visioneering thing with the churches I pastored, and then again as I was moving toward planting a church. For the most part, all it resulted in was a slogan on a page or a sign on the wall. I think vision is helpful and can be healthy for a group of people, but vision has to be caught and adopted so that it is so natural, nobody even thinks about it. That is much harder to do than simply developing the vision.
I suspected that might be case. I was employed by a large multinational corporation and many business units struggled to envision their mission. And you’re correct, the end result was a “mission statement” or slogan that did not inspire to action. I believe that the Lord would prefer that our “visioning” work described what we do as His disciples. “God’s main concerns are justice, compassion, grace, mercy, generosity, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Reverse the thinking and processes: inventory the work being done the congregational members, then describe it in One (1) sentence. The vision becomes a view of what God sees us doing for His children.
I LOVE that!
By the way, I hope our discussion here doesn’t cause friction with you and your church….
Not to worry, even though we are VERY “gray” our members are not “locked” into the church of their childhood. We are all seekers who wish to be true disciples. Our discussions are exactly what I’ve been seeking, a group of kindred spirits.
I think it does matter to God. All the models you mention are mans flawed, non-scriptural expressions and works, wrapped into a building, a budget, and a career pastor(s). These models are not the Church of Jesus The Christ.
Even the house church model is somewhat a work of human effort. The church is the people of God called out from the world to follow Jesus back into the world. This process can look different in different places and at different times, and I think we run into dangerous areas when we say there is only “one” way of doing it.
Agree! I only was exceptioning house church on the basis that it has potential to be scriptural. Peace!