How do you View the Church.
Understanding the nature and purpose of the Church as doing church on Sundays in programmed-event-meetings presents a number of problems as to the nature and purpose of the Church and deludes people in the wrong understanding of what the Church is
- It defines the the Church functionally...in terms of what the Church does in an hour or so in segregated buildings because of different beliefs about God. The danger with this philosophy is that it dulls our understanding from recognizing the Church as a unique community of Gods people united under its Head Jesus Christ. This leads us to view the Church as a series of ministry functions such as, worship, preaching, singing, education, service and wittiness...not that there is anything wrong with these functions but, they should not define the Church!
- It defines the Church organizationally...in terms of its hierarchical structures that supposedly creates spiritual elitism of generals, sergeants, captains and pew-warming privates...this shifts our understanding of the Church away from its reality of being a social community. The Church is viewed as a pattern of human behaviors to be structures to be managed by the managers. This reduces the Church to a variety of ministries administered and managed by the chosen few to maintain the effectiveness of reaching certain goals believed to be God’s desire.
Thus, people do not see the Church as it is: a vibrant community of spiritually united people daily living life while allowing the life of Christ to live through them and sharing the good news of the gospel by demonstration of love which undergirds all that is being accomplished by the Church!
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