The Church: What is the Church? (Series Intro)

Article: https://expedition44.com/2022/07/11/the-church-series-pt1-introduction/

Matt's Sermon on the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2: https://subspla.sh/r8zp4j5

We have spent our lives trying to be good Christians that “go to church”. However, you would be hard pressed to find anything that looks like modern day American church anywhere in the pages of the Bible. It might even surprise you to know that the word “church” isn’t in the Bible. We have created the traditional concept of what we call church. In this series we’ll be looking at whether the text of scripture affirms the western form of church and what might a better way be?

We are happy to support anything that seeks after God but what we do here on x44 is look at what is biblical and Jesus’ ideals and then try to align our lives with that.

Ekklesia

The reason the word ekklēsía is (rightly) used is because it meant “the called-out ones.” It is an invitation, particularly focused on God’s provision of salvation (which in Hebrew is better described as an exodus or rescue). To be part of the body that was summoned and invited by the sovereign God for the purpose of rescue from immediate danger.

Revelation

The reason we want to start our series with revelation is that it’s about 7 churches living in the midst of empire (Roman) and the religious (Jewish) world as called out ones. It gives some practical things to watch out for in the churches and also things we need to strive for to be a healthy church body. Revelation is a prophecy, apocalypse, and a “pastoral” letter to 7 actual churches in Asia Minor

How did we get here?

Like most things the church became institutionalized by merging with the world. In the 5th century Christianity became the national religion of the Roman empire under Constantine. This led to a lot of problems.

professional clergy

Clergy/Laity hierarchy

Buildings

Handcuffing of gifts in the body

Institutional mindset

Back to the Start

The 2 major metaphors for the church in the Bible are the body and the family. This explains why the word adelphoi, translated “brethren,” appears 346 times in the New Testament. It appears 134 times in Paul’s epistles all the Christians in a local assembly. In most places, this word is Paul’s shorthand way of referring to all the believers in the church—both women and men. By contrast, the

word “elders” appears only five times in Paul’s letters. “Overseers” appears only four times. And “pastors” appears only once. (346 to 10)

The stress of the New Testament, then, is upon corporate responsibility. It’s the believing community that is called to carry out pastoral functions.

The big idea is that the church is not an institution … it’s an organism (it’s organic)!

Throughout this series we’re going to be looking at what could be a better picture of the church. Invested in relationships rather than rituals, being a living organism rather than an institution, having all the giftings of Christ on display rather than a few gifts by a few people, making disciples rather than converts.