WHAT IS THE CHURCH?

There is much thought going into what the church was, is, and ought to be.  That is to be expected in a seminary environment where people are in training to work in the church.  I enjoy studying church history and the people throughout the years who have put all of their life energy into building a house for God to dwell in.  They are men and women of strong conviction, faith, and love of God.

The desire to build a house for God to dwell in goes back to David.  In 2 Samuel 7 David realizes that while he is living in a fine cedar house, God is dwelling in a tent.  So he decides to build a house for God for God to live in.  God stops him.  “Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I command to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built ma a house of cedar?”  David got the lesson and passed it down to his son Solomon who writes in Psalm 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain.”

Church history would verify to the fact that David’s lesson was not passed down throughout the generations.  I don’t question the sincerity of the people who put their time and energy into doing something for God, that to them seems like the right thing to do.  Unfortunately it is possible to be sincerely wrong and misguided.

When God made a covenant with the Israelites in the desert after freeing them from the bondage in Egypt, He was very clear about the construction of the place where He would dwell with them and the way they were to dwell with Him. (Exodus 25-40)  That system worked for generations, through many trials, tribulations, and deportations.  But this outward form was not the finished product. It was merely the foundational principles of how humans and God are to dwell with one another.

If I skip to the end of time, to the new earth and new heaven of eternity, I can read the ultimate results of what this small beginning was foreshadowing and it is all about God dwelling together, face to face with His people, as it was created to be since the beginning in the garden. (Revelation 21, 22)  So the question is how do we get to there without making the same mistakes that our former church founders made?

God sent His son Jesus to dwell among us, to teach and to demonstrate on life in the eternal kingdom of God.  We are called to come and follow him.  It makes sense to me that all of our questions and concerns about what the church is and ought to be would be found in Jesus’ life and teachings.  He was, is, and will be the fulfillment of the foreshadowed construction in the desert that was directed by God Himself.

These are my thoughts.  The church is not a place; it is not a building; it is not a system.  The church is a Presence; it is the Lord God Almighty and Jesus the Lamb.  It is their Presence, where we are face to face, dwelling and worshipping the One who created us and had loved us since the beginning of time and will love us throughout eternity.  In the Presence we are His treasured possession and He will be with us as our God forever.

Jesus’ life on earth was a demonstration of what the church is to be.  People dwelling in his Presence, teaching others to love God and live lives according to that love; healing and feeding those who we come upon during our journey through life on earth; worshipping, praising, and thanking God for all He is and all He does whenever we get together. We are people of the Way, the Truth, and the Life; not an establishment, not an institution, not a congregation, not a system.  On our way, wherever we are, we simply live in his Presence and be present to one another and to the others we meet along the way. That to me is what the church is; simply people in the Presence, living with and loving one another.

Colossians 3:12-17; Malachi 3:16; John 4; Matthew 17