They are generally pursuing intimacy and fear losing it.
By way of contrast I have also continued to run into folks that believe that the building was “nothing” and therefore you can do anything with said building that you wish. They have thereby wrapped Jesus’ name around everything from country music shows to strip dancing. Yes… here in Wichita a group recently tried to mingle the worship of God with a strip club!
Locally we are trying to raise enough for a down payment and to find financing to buy our first building… so we have been discussing every aspect of this question for the last year.
Here is some of the rationale often given to dismiss church buildings;
- Organized religion is corrupt. (No one can deny that some, if not most, of it is!)
- Constantine founded modern Christianity in the 300’s AD. (Not true…)
- Church buildings were not used until after Constantine’s edict of Milan in 313AD. (this is a blatant misrepresentation of history!)
- In the first century the church was composed of “house churches.” (Some were in homes… only some… not all or even most.)
- If a local church owns a building, then its work ends up centering on the building rather than saving souls etc. (This can and often does happen. This argument is like saying ‘since some marriages fall apart we should do away with marriage.’ Simply put, it is clearly an over-reaction.)
We are also still wading through the false assumptions of 19th century liberalism that has infected our society, as well as our churches. Said false assumption is that the Bible isn’t truly inspired. They taught (as if it were fact) that the Bible was not trustworthy and that Christianity actually evolved over several hundred years. “They” were wrong!
Unfortunately many of the preachers produced over the last century were taught to believe such. It has produced an anything goes mentality and it’s corresponding over reaction to replace such with nothing goes.
In fairness, several departures from the Christianity of the Bible have evolved over several hundred years, but true Christianity was founded by Jesus Christ… and established through the work of the Apostles. Over the space of about 35 years… what we today can know from scripture, was all in place during the first century. We can understand and find “modern Christianity” in our two thousand year old Bible if we just look for it.
From the beginning, Christianity was organized around local congregations. They consistently chose public buildings for collective worship. The church of Christ then and the church of Christ now are essentially the same. (If we follow the Word of God.)
As far as Christians are concerned the “beginning” was on the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 1-2. Note that they were in an upper room (Acts 1:13) where they were staying. Now note the upper room was not some little closet on a roof top. One hundred and twenty people were “living” there. It is true that it was a temporary living arrangement… but they were living there nonetheless. This was not a “small” private residence. When the Holy Spirit came Acts 2:1-2 the church started out in this place. They immediately moved outside into the public and 3000 people obeyed the gospel through baptism that day.
Here is the summary statement made by scripture Acts 2:46-47…
“Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”Note that the worship of God and the teaching in the homes is integral but not exclusive. Leave out either one and you are not what they were… or what you need to be. About three years ago I had a disagreement with a local preacher over the “house to house” thing. As far as he was concerned his ministry was to the saved. He preached from the pulpit. He didn’t believe it was his job as an evangelist to go “save souls.” He snubbed the house to house side of the equation. Many churches do. The other side though is that some wish to snub the public work of the church. Either extreme is a serious mistake.
Many years later the apostle Paul at the end of his life said Acts 20:20-21…
“I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As the book of Acts is about to close it is worthwhile to note the message and the kingdom of God expanded but the approach was consistent. Our approach must also mirror that of the early church.
Given a choice, the early church always chose the public proclamation of God.
They could be driven to homes but only for awhile…
Let’s note two specific instances from the book of Acts that give us a little detail in this regard.
First the beginning of the church at Corinth. Acts 18:4-8
“And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul {began} devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood {be} on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.”
Our local congregation has followed a similar history. A majority of Christians in another local congregation wished to depart from Bible authority. They gained a majority and drove off those of us committed to adhering to what the Bible taught. Our group met for a couple of months in a private residence and then found a public location in order to proclaim the gospel in as public a manner as possible.
Note the similarly, the church in Corinth didn’t stay in Titius’ house. In Corinth’s case we have two letters written sometime later to this particular church. By that time some had partly succeeded in turning the church into a social institution and had forgotten their purpose or focus. Obviously this is an ongoing struggle today as well. What we now know as the book of “First Corinthians” was originally a letter written back to this church to straighten out this problem among other things.
Note the rebuke of I Corinthians 11:18-22
“For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you…”
I would be negligent not to ask… How many churches that you know today, ignore this inspired rebuke and just go right on behaving as if the Bible didn’t prohibit the church from operating in such a manner? Now look closely at what he said in verse 22 for the subject at hand.
He didn’t say you can do this at “Titius Justice’s house! He said do this in your own house. He repeated something similar as the discussion progressed.
I Corinthians 11:34.
“ If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.”
At the same time, it is just a few feet from a Jewish synagogue that obviously went through a similar life cycle. It is clearly the synagogue where Jesus taught, and this house, just a few feet away, was His headquarters. The Bible mentions both locations during the Life of Jesus, but then moves on.
Don’t overlook the obvious… what archaeology now projects as happening in Capernaum is almost what we read in the Bible as having happened in Corinth (noted in Acts 18 above.) Driven out of the synagogue, they went a few feet away and started right in again publicly proclaiming the gospel.
Archaeology fills in some fascinating facts. One clear point is that public Christian meeting places were also maintained right through the years of persecution.
Note the Bible does refer broadly to how the church came to Capernaum among other places in Judea.
Acts 8:1-4
“Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. {Some} devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul {began} ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.”
In Capernaum Christian and Jew appear to have coexisted for centuries, most of the persecution being centered in Jerusalem.
Here’s a link to a fairly comprehensive article on the archaeology of Capernaum if you’d like to pursue this subject further. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia article on the same.
Two hundred years ago, liberalism could say pretty much anything they wished. Archeology was a new science. Today however, one after another of Liberalism’s criticisms have proven to be rooted in their own fantasy. . . not in fact! Discovery after discovery makes the image of what really happened match up with (and often expand) what the Bible has preserved for us.
So… is a private residence a better setting for congregational worship? Not in the view of the Holy Spirit! Clearly private residences gave way to larger, dedicated, meeting places! (From the beginning. . .)
Let’s note the second example to justify my statement above. The beginnings of the church at Philippi are found in Acts 16: 13-18
“And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us. It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." She continued doing this for many days.”Note that they started out in the public meeting place. If the Jews in a particular place didn’t have a quorum of 10 males they couldn’t have a synagogue but would establish a “place of prayer.” Paul begins the church at Philippi from one of these Jewish “places of prayer.” A wealthy lady (a seller of royal purple) obeys the gospel and opens her home to them.
If ever the church would have chosen to stay in a private residence when a public place was open to them… this would have been the time! Note that the rest of the story tells you that they continued to use the public meeting place they had started with… even with the wealthy accommodations open to them. In this case there was no uprising on the part of the Jews … there was acceptance. (The secular population eventually rose up)
The possessed girl harassed them as they daily went to the meeting place presumably from Lydia’s house.
What is the earliest written reference to a Christian meeting place? (a church building)
“For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes.” James 2:2.This is one place the various translators of your Bibles did you a disservice. You read right over the term assembly here and never realize that James uses the word “synagogue.” The term “synagogue” occurs 56 times in your New Testament. This is the only time it is translated. Every other time it shows up simply as “synagogue.” Jesus went into the synagogue… same word. It is a Greek translation of the Hebrew “Beth Knesset.” (House of prayer.)
Now, like today, very loosely “synagogue” can refer to either an assembly or the assembly hall. Today people often refer to the church’s place of assembly as a “church.” In a strictly Biblical sense the church is the people. Over time the place of assembly and the people who assemble there become intertwined. So it also was in Jesus’ day. Technically Jesus went to an “assembly” of the Jews to teach. The Bible says He went to the synagogue. James makes the same interpolation with “synagogue” that people do with “church” today. In Palestine especially, because of the quantity of Christians, they continued to worship in and eventually took over some of the synagogues. Hence by the time the book of James was written he says “your synagogue.”
Many people date James as the earliest (first written) book of your New Testament. If such is the case, James gives us this earliest written reference ever to an actual Christian meeting hall. For some time Christians called their meeting halls “synagogues” which simply means “meeting hall.”
Here is a link to some archeological evidence relating to the “church of the apostles,” AKA the upper room of Acts 1-2. It appears that they once again, have found the actual site.
This location was made famous for the last supper, the choosing of Mathias, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Through excavation it has been demonstrated to have been in use prior to 70AD, destroyed with the rest of Jerusalem then rebuilt partly from the rubble of the temple and finally was in continuous use right up till the time of Constantine. It follows a similar pattern in that newer buildings were built right over older buildings.
This fact clears up some confusion… Constantine didn’t begin the use of church buildings. He remade a bunch of them that already were in use and turned them into shrines. When your congregation chooses to have (and use) a public building to assemble for congregational worship, you are doing and making the same decision the apostles once did. You are in fact making the same judgment call that the followers of “the faith.”
There are several applications of this knowledge. . .
One application is that yes, it is scripturally desirable for a church to choose to proclaim and worship Jesus through the use of a public meeting place.
Another is that unlike many liberal assumptions today… the New Testament does in fact cover the time of church buildings and therefore their use. They never “chose” to turn the weekday uses of a church building into a daycare or any other business.
Yet another is that they never chose to use their locations for plays or theaters or even sports arenas though they had such options in their day. Many of the things thought impossible by an unsettled Christianity are now clearly “able” to have been done. Archaeology can find and define such activities from building ruins. All such behaviors are new deviations from the original pattern of both scripture and the records of history.
The churches of Christ chose NOT to do any of these things. In the case of Corinth they were “ordered” not to. There was clearly a distinction between individual things and “church” things.
If fact the churches of Christ chose to be satisfied with simply being a church. The distractions done in the name of Jesus today were not and are not a part of the New Testament.
The church was clearly “able” to do what it wanted to do. They (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) chose to do what God wanted them to do. So…how about you?
Are you content to be a part of God’s kingdom? Is your church content to be “just” a church? When “your” community looks at “your congregation’s” church building… is it known for entertainment or for being a church?
The testimony of the Biblical record and the archaeological record clearly agree… That is what “they did.” Now, what will you do?
The choice predates the coming of Jesus…
Joshua 24: 15. "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Hi I am glad you stopped by our blog. These articles are from an emailing that we did several years ago. Today most of our work is on facebook
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If you wish to worship with us....
Las Vegas church of Christ
709 Dora Celeste
Las Vegas, NM 87701
Our meeting times are
10am Sunday morning for Bible study.
11am Sunday morning for the worship service.
6pm Wednesday evening for Midweek Bible study.
If you wish to contact me...
yakipreacher@gmail.com
Be well
Jerry Blount
