My mind is filled with questions. It's not always the best time to start blogging, but I'm going to try. I told you the other day that I was reading "Pagan Christianity." Well...it's not helping matters. The questions keep coming. I'm not questioning the book, or the research. I'm questioning what would have happened if...
What if the church would have continued meeting together as they did in the book of Acts?
- Can you imagine the change? The whole scope of our landscape would look different. You wouldn't see all those beautiful images of building that were constructed to become houses of worship. No tax-exempt status for the church, no building programs, and no maintenance costs. You would simply have believers that were meeting in homes, sharing their lives together, and still impacting the world.
What if we didn't have an order of worship for church services?
- I've been in some churches where the order of worship was just as important as the Bible. It's amazing that we have taken a man made tradition (and that is exactly what it is) and turned it into something holy. Regardless of what sermons you may have heard that tell you different, there is no such thing as an "order of worship" for the church. All Paul was doing in the letter the the church at Corinth was helping them to have order in their fellowship. Oh...and by the way...the early church fellowships were open participation by every member of the body rather than everyone coming together to hear a preacher.
What if the church was organic rather than structured?
- Due to our lack of understanding of the "church", we have come to recognize it as a building rather than a people. The church was always meant to come up out of the community rather than be planted in one. I have set in meetings where people have discussed the necessity of church planting and NONE of those meetings were concerned with connecting with the Body of Christ in that community. They were all organized around the idea of planting something there.
What if every member of the church stopped referring to the building as the church?
- This is a question that Viola raises in his book. If one generation of believers would stop referring to a building as the church then we would see a radical change in our belief system. I say the time has come!!!
I realize that is a lot of "WHAT IF's" but I could go on. There are so many questions that need to be answered and many more that need to be asked. The fact remains that we have lost a lot over the centuries because Christianity became recognized, state sponsored, and formal. But the main thing that was lost was the understanding that the followers of Jesus Christ make up His visible body in the earth today. It's up to the church (people - not building) today to recapture this image. It's time for us to embody Him to the world.
Let the journey begin...again.
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