Matthew 9:13-
"Then he added, "Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: 'I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.' For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.""
"The LORD is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices."
Repost from Facebook -
"Definitely as I began to dig further into the history, there was a definite paradigm shift for me, and consequently my family as well. Many customs and traditions that the various churches I had attended over the years I had found at least odd, but I admit that at that time I accepted them because I trusted the institution (whatever church was at that time), was following what they should have been doing... Inevitably, as I continued to dig deeper into the scriptures, as well as the multitude of subjects I researched, I continually found discrepancies, or maybe even contradictions in church practice. Eventually, I figured if every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the body of believers are truly the church with the Lord as its sole leader, then it became unnecessary to "go to church" because the church became a mindset, a way of life. That was 4 years ago, and we have never looked back.
I posted this in 2014 from "Reimagining Church", by Frank Viola:
" The present-day notion of “church” is frequently associated with a building. (The building is commonly called the “sanctuary” or the “house of God.”) According to the Bible, however, it is the community of God’s people that is called the church. The believing community is said to be the “house of God”— never the brick and mortar. One of the most striking marks of the early church was the absence of special religious buildings. In Judaism, the temple is the sanctified meeting place. In Christianity, the believing community is the temple (1 Cor. 3: 16; 2 Cor. 6: 16; Eph. 2: 21– 22). Both Judaism and paganism teach that there must be a sanctified place for divine worship. Consequently, the ancient Jews erected special buildings to carry out their spiritual functions (synagogues). So did the pagans (shrines). Not so with Christianity. The early believers understood that God sanctifies people, not objects. In this way, the spatial location of the early Christian gathering cut sharply against the religious customs of the first century."
So exciting and amazing, with Jesus Christ as the head of the church, there is no man made institution or human being who serves in any function over the church, but only through the Holy Spirit is the church guided and led... this is real spiritual guidance and not a superficial nod to the Lord."
Introduction:Let me elaborate on this a bit. Frank Viola and his book Pagan Christianity has inspired this post. Almost five years ago, my family and I left the institutional church or rather organized religion. We still gather together and worship the Lord in our own way we feel the Lord has called us. We share our lives together, talk about our weeks, we also point out how the Lord is growing us spiritually in our daily life. Everyone gets a chance to express themselves in a way the Lord has called them for that time. Everyone in the family, as well as guests get to participate. In addition, we study the Bible and talk about the meaning of various scriptures. We also watch worship music videos on YouTube. Mind you all of this is done in our own home, together as a family.
Going to Church:
If you feel compelled to go to church, or you feel that is what the Lord calls you to do, or it is a requirement of the religion that you have chosen to belong, I see this as a person's personal decision. It is essentially their own business. I do not feel the need to go around and tell people whether or not they should go to church, but as for myself, and my personal relationship with the Lord, I do not need to attend worship at some institutional religious building. By that, I mean "go to church". There is a lot to unpack in that last sentence because I do believe, and it is revealed in scripture that there is both a personal and a communal relationship with the Lord, but more on that later.
Where "to go to church" goes awry is when others or the very believers themselves are forced to go. I emphasize forced. This can manifest itself in many ways. Perhaps this is because they feel this is what the Bible teaches, this is what God wants them to do, expects them to do, or it could be something as basic as wanting to please a friend, a family member or spouse. All of these are the wrong reasons for "going to church". It should be fueled by personal conviction, personal devotion as to be completely free from guilt or needless temporal compulsion.
A faith powered by guilt is an unhealthy faith, and will, in the long run, cause more harm than healing, and can distort the view of the world one possesses. It will also drain a person physically, emotionally and spiritually. It will be an empty faith that cannot bring about transformation and maturity.
There should never be any guilt associated with attending a church service. There should never be a "Why didn't you go to church on Sunday?" or whatever else humans come up with, which can constitute just a simple question for information, or it could be a veiled attempt at guilting someone as to why they didn't go to church.
There is more freedom for the Christian than many Christians understand. This can also depend on spiritual maturity (I might get into this later to explain), as well as an understanding of one's relationship with the Lord. It must also be known that one's relationship with the Lord is not stagnant. It doesn't remain the same throughout one's life, but like a tender flower, if one cares for it, nurtures it, it will grow into a large, abundant and beautiful plant, that not only graces the place that it is planted but by its sweet aroma blesses all who pass by. Think of that one picture as one of the many metaphors of one's personal faith.
Doing things (work) to gain the approval of the Lord is warned about many times in scripture, especially in the New Testament. It is not so much referred to in the Old Testament, as the Mosaic Law was full of do's and don't's, "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots". The Mosaic Law, firstly, in that time and place was intended to be what God expects of the people he was in a covenant relationship with, not the entire world. Secondly, as we are told in the New Testament, it is revealed that the Law laid down by Moses was to say, if one expects to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord, one must follow every dot and tittle of the Law. In actual reality, it is impossible for a human being, unless that person is the Messiah to fulfill every aspect of the Law in total. In addition, for a human being, trying to meet every commandment of the Law within the confines of human power is futile.
Galatians 2:16-"Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law."
Galatians 5:3-
"I'll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses."
Galatians is one of my favorite epistles in the New Testament. Here Paul is writing to the Galatians in this section about avoiding the temptations of what must be Judaizers or those who wanted these new Gentile Christians to fully accept the entirety of Mosiac Law in order to be saved. Fortunately for us today, Paul wrote fervently against this, and freed us from the bondage of legalism and being bound by religious duties, that Christ has fulfilled and made obsolete.
Hebrews 11:6-8-"Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him."
So in short, I have dealt with the issue of being required to attend an institutional church service. There is so much more that could be said, but I will save this for a later blog post or posts.
Some denominations have recreated in essence the Old Testament liturgy, or some similitude of it, thinking this is what they are required to worship the Lord. It's very interesting to me, that there is a myriad of ways of worship, with some denominations claiming theirs is the only way to worship, saying they are the only ones that are right and everyone else has it wrong. They may even go to the point saying if God is not worshipped in their way, their possibility of being saved or even being a "true" Christian is called into question. This is something I and many others call dogmatism. I will get into this much later, and explore this concept. Humans desire to be right and in that they treasure their self-righteousness. They believe that following a set of rules, a liturgy, a worship script or schedule that this is what pleases the Lord. Unfortunately, I believe these people have perhaps been led astray, or better, just ignorant and confused.
Again, I want to reinforce the notion at this point there is room for interpretation, for conviction, for devotion and what a believer feels they are doing is right. I would seek to lay down that there could possibly be more than one way. For me to even suggest this, most would label me a heretic or blasphemer, and that is OK.
So again, we should ask ourselves, what is Church?
I think the bulk of mainstream Christians would accept the notion that any body of believers is the "church". As to whether one is required to go to church is a whole other matter of discussion entirely. A quick Google search will inform one of the origins of the word church, as it is derived from Old English and Western German. If one takes the trail back far enough, we reach Greek loan words and the first term to be used to name a body of believers were called an "ekklesia", or an assembly (literally means to be "called forth" or "called out"). Not trying to get too academic here, but the word can suggest a group of people assembling together for common purpose. Here they can worship the Lord together, in this case.
Again, as I have said, we have around 2000 years of various incarnations of "church" to go by, and some believe they are the only ones doing it the right way. To some extent that is their business, not mine. It's when, and this has rarely ever happened personally, anyone told me I must "go to church" that a problem would arise.
The Point and Summing up...
There is one primary passage in the New Testament used to defend the "going to church" bit. The passage is below:
Hebrews 10:25
"And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near."
This verse is used to support the entire construct of the modern day notion of people leaving their homes and going to a church building to worship and serve the Lord.
First of all, the authorship of this very book, while very good indeed, is called into question. Some believed it to be written by the Apostle Paul, but most scholars now do not think this. It could have been one Apollos. But for the most part, scholars cannot agree or confirm the Epistle of the Hebrews authorship.
Next, if we read the entire context, this refers to continuing in the faith and knowledge one has come to have in the Lord as well as with the community one worships with. What does this look like?
Attempting to sum up this lengthy introductory post, I will leave the reader with these thoughts until we can address this issue yet once again.
I do not deny that this verse is referencing that believers associate and gather together to share with one another in some kind of community. But the real question is what does that community look like and what exactly does one do at this gathering? I will delve deeper into this later. The original appearance of the church was not what we see today in the contemporary churches of the world, but rather had more to do with a small group or even a family, a group of friends or acquaintances sitting around together sharing their lives with one another.
It is of note, that in the Acts of the Apostles, households are referred to often comprised of believers. Actual families that had come to the Lord. They were most likely baptized and worshipped together. This is a lot to unpack in just that one idea there, and that is for another post.
Coming in the future are more posts I wish to address on this subject:
Continuing What is Church?
The modern concept of going to church and the misunderstandings associated with it.
Jewish and Pagan buildings of worship.
Households and the Early Church of the 1st Century
The cost of maintaining church buildings and its drain on the mission of the "church" (i.e. "keeping the lights on")
How the modern church has intertwined the existence of the church building and church building programs with the spread of the Gospel as well as church membership and attendance.
Thank you for reading.
Jewish and Pagan buildings of worship.
Households and the Early Church of the 1st Century
The cost of maintaining church buildings and its drain on the mission of the "church" (i.e. "keeping the lights on")
How the modern church has intertwined the existence of the church building and church building programs with the spread of the Gospel as well as church membership and attendance.
Thank you for reading.
