By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Ecclesiology Written on September 7, 2007

What is Church?

Church For several years now, I have been mulling over a nagging question: “What constitutes church?” How do you know the difference between a Bible study and church? Is there a difference? I am at seminary right now, and we have daily chapel. The seminary tells us that this does not qualify as church. But we have singing, teaching, prayer, fellowship groups, and occasionally take communion. Why is this not church?

Or, take the recent introduction of the online church. Can you really be involved with and “attend” a church from your computer at work or at home in your pajamas? If not, why not?

How many people need to be present? Can one believer in prison cell in China have their own church service, or does there need to be a minimum of 2 or 3? And what are these 2 or 3 supposed to do, how often, and where? In a recent book by George Barna (Revolution), he implies that a group of four men can be a church out on the golf course if they encourage and edify one another spiritually. If this is true, why can’t we go to church while shopping at the mall, or camping at the lake? Maybe we can.

I am about to embark on a series of posts that attempt to begin to answer some of these questions, and maybe some others as they crop up. I would value and appreciate your input through the comments.

Here is my preliminary hypothesis which I want to investigate through Scripture:

The church is the universal and spiritual body of believers in Jesus Christ:

which began on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2
and gathers together in various physical locations for:
exaltation of God by glorifyinig Him through a life lived in worship
edifcation of one another through teaching, fellowship, and prayer
evangelism of the world through social and spiritual acts of service

So, what do you think? Even before we begin to break this down and look at Biblical passages related to it, are there things you feel I should add or take out? What are the ramifications of such a definition for the way churches are today?

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http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Just to get the comments started, if my definition is correct, what, if anything, is wrong with the four men who “go to church” on the golf course? What, if anything, is wrong with “attending” an online church?
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David L

Great definition.

Are you aware of House2House.net? They have a defintion for church using the acronym DNA:

“D” stands for Divine Truth (loving God/Jesus)
“N” stands for Nurturing Relationships (loving one another deeply)
“A” stands for Apostolic Mission (being on Jesus’ mission to the world)

It’s kinda like your three E’s.
http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

David,

I like the DNA acronym. I might want a little more clarification on how they go about focusing on Divine Truth, but maybe I can get that from their website.

Thanks for this resource!

Jeremy
Johnny

1)To me church is not a church unless it has elders/deacons or has an evangelist that is working in building those things up.

2) Acts 2:42, “Apostles Doctrine, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread, Prayer”

Anything else is just a Bible study group.

Please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying we have to have titled persons, or a fixed location, but there is a permanence about church by Paul’s instruction to raise up elders.

Second there is a sense of order, though we need not have an “order of service”. The apostle’s doctrine need not be preached behind a pulpit but it needs review. We need to partake in the Lord’s Supper WEEKLY and the fellowship and prayer parts should be a bit more intimate than a prayer list.

Yes we are way too institutional, but we can’t get away from it completely, we need to turn it wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down.

http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Thanks, Johnny. Those are good points. By breaking of bread, do you mean a meal, or communion? How often?

What qualifies as “Apostle’s Doctrine”?

I think that attempts to answer these (and other) questions leads to the ever-increasing institutionalization of the church.

Johnny

I’m not sure what I mean by the Lord’s Supper. The chicklet and cup of grape juice seems superficial sometimes. The full blown meal . . . seems like overkill. But until I figure it out, whatever it is, it should be done weekly

The apostles doctrine is just the NT (they were given the authority to set up the church Matt 16 & 18, Eph 2)or to put it more simply, the Bible part. Where preaching is usually done, but anyway to learn the scriptures would be fine by me.

http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Yes, I am not in favor of the “Savior’s Snacklet” either. It even appears that elsewhere in Acts, the believers met “daily” rather than just weekly, and it seems that maybe a meal was often involved. I am not saying this is the way it must be done today…but there are hints that this is how it was done then.

Johnny Cox

When the book of Acts says that they “met together on the first day of the week to break bread” ACTS 20:7, it shows Apostolic precedent (there is that word again) that the NT church had a regular meeting on Sunday (starting of course on our Saturday at 6:00 pm) and they had a meal/Lord’s Supper weekly. Yes they met daily in the beginning but the weekly service became the norm (for them and should be for us with an option to meet more often of course).

Sunday is the Day that God began to create.
Sunday is the Day that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Sunday is a work day, not a day of rest, that was Saturday and another discussion. I believe the church should be doing something Sunday!
Sunday was the first day of the church, on the day of Pentecost 50 days after Passover (7×7 = 49 + 1).

The concept of week is only found in the Bible. There is no astrological/star/planet phenomenon to base “week” upon.

I think week is special and a point we need to concede to the established institutional church. Let’s just not be robots when we do it!

http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Interesting. I like the point about Sunday being a work day and the church should be doing something. Great, great point!

http://lustus.wordpress.com Lustus

The church is the universal and spiritual body of believers in Jesus Christ:

which began on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2
and gathers together in various physical locations for:
exaltation of God by glorifyinig Him through a life lived in worship
edifcation of one another through teaching, fellowship, and prayer
evangelism of the world through social and spiritual acts of service

“Church” means “called out ones” and started in the Garden of Eden with Adam. It needs no “physical location”, has sacraments and depends on the Word of God mediated by the Spirit of God for the glory of God.

“Believe me,” returned Jesus, “the time is coming when worshipping the Father will not be a matter of ‘on this hill-side’ or ‘in Jerusalem’. Nowadays you are worshipping with your eyes shut. We Jews are worshipping with our eyes open, for the salvation of mankind is to come from our race. Yet the time is coming, yes, and has already come, when true worshippers will worship in spirit and in reality. Indeed, the Father looks for men who will worship him like that. God is spirit, and those who worship him can only worship in spirit and in reality.” ~ John 4:21-24 (J.B. Phillips New Testament)

http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Lustus,

That is a decent definition of “church.” I am not sure I would say that it began with Adam in the Garden of Eden, but I see your point. I agree it needs no sacraments or location.

http://lustus.wordpress.com Lustus

No, Jeremy, I said it has sacraments. Adam and Eve were clothed in a sacrament which is a type of Christ, the covering of the blood drained Lamb of God. And have you not seen the creeds? The idea that the church began at Pentecost proceeds from the novel doctrine of Dispensationalism I believe; the historic orthodox church has no such notion. For example, The Belgic Confession states: “This church has existed from the beginning of the world and will last until the end, as appears from the fact that Christ is eternal King who cannot be without subjects.” Or, The Heidelberg Catechism states “That the Son of God from the beginning to the end of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to himself by his Spirit and word, out of the whole human race, a church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in true faith; and that I am and forever shall remain, a living member thereof.” The examples could be multiplied. May the Lord bless your study.

http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Ha! My bad. I misquoted you.

Yes, I have seen the creeds. It is all I have been blogging about for the past thee weeks, and how dangerous they are to the life and vitality of the church. Just because a creed says something does not make it right.

I disagree with several points in those creeds you mentioned. One of my points of disagreement is the understanding of “church.”

http://lustus.wordpress.com Lustus

No problem. Let’s disregard the creeds for the time being so that you can tell me why you think the church “began on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2”. For example, would you exclude the prophets from the church? Doesn’t Paul say, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. ” ~ Ephesians 2:19-22 (NASB)
http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Lustus,

I am not too interested in a debate about when the church started…it is generally fruitless.

Much more important is learning to be the church right now, since the church certainly exists today, and we are members of the church.

I am not going to exclude you for thinking church began at creation, and I hope you would not exclude me for thinking it began at Pentecost.

http://www.acanfora.wordpress.com Joshua

We are the ekklesia. Where and how we gather is irrelevant so long as we gather. Corporate worship is awesome but what we’ve done as far as creating superstar pastors and mega churches is a bit rediculous and it’s not working. I’m glad your posting on this and can’t wait to read more.

http://www.tillhecomes.org Jeremy Myers

Yes, I have done a lot more posting on this in recent months. This post itself was from 2007 when I first began to ask questions about the church. If you found this post through Facebook or Google+, it is because I am going back and updating all my posts for SEO purposes.

http://www.roccocapra.com Rocco

Jeremy, you said…
“I am about to embark on a series of posts that attempt to begin to answer some of these questions…”

I don’t suppose you have those posts categorized somewhere?