Close Your Church for Good, Chap 2. Sec 1. Here is the new introduction to chapter 2. I’ve done major revisions to Chapter 1 also, which will only appear in the final e-book version.
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What is the church supposed to be and do? It depends on how you define church. But getting a definition is not as simple as looking up a verse in the Bible, asking your pastor for a definition, or looking one up in a theological dictionary. Even where it is defined, such definitions tend to be full of complex ideas and theological jargon which require further explanation. For example, a typical definition of “church” in many theology books reads something like this:
Church (Gk. ecclēsia) is the universal body of believers that functions under the headship of Jesus Christ and meets regularly in local assemblies to carry out the Great Commission through observing the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and listening to the preaching of the Word of God, all for the edification of the believer and the evangelism of the world.
There’s really not much to disagree with in such a definition. It is when you start to discuss what the various terms and words mean, however, that disagreement begins. How can the church be both universal and local? Who is a believer? What do they have to believe and who gets to decide? What does it mean for Jesus Christ to be the head? Should we have pastors and priests or not? Why are baptism and the Lord’s Supper called ordinances? What kind of baptism is required? How and when should people be baptized? What exactly constitutes “the Lord’s Supper”? How often should it be observed? Who gets to do the preaching? How long should the preaching be? What does it mean to preach “the Word of God”? Also, this specific definition says nothing about leadership, organization, church government, denominations, our role in politics, and many other issues that are important to the average church.
The theology books generally attempt to answer these sorts of questions. And before you know it, an attempt to understand what the church is and what the church does requires detailed knowledge of dozens of books and an advanced educational degree or two. The “basics” of church seem to require a lot of advanced study and research. The basics are not so basic after all.
I couldn’t think of a good introductory “hook” for this chapter. Maybe one will come to me later. I will be talking about the mission and purpose of the church, and how we have the freedom in Christ to be and do almost anything.
Any ideas for a better introduction?
Do I have this right? The Old testament was in Hebrew which Jesus spoke. The New Testament is in Greek and then translated to Latin and then to German and now in many languages including English??