I've started reading a book called Pagan Christianity. Sounds rather strange having both of those words in the same sentence doesn't it? Reality is, [and please don't shoot the messenger], the way we do Church today is more rooted in pagan culture and rituals than in the Christian thought of the New Testament. This presents us with an unsettling truth as we reconsider Christ's plan for His church.
The Early Church
So what is the church? Is the church a building? Is it the place where believers gather to worship? Or is the church the people—the believers who follow Christ? The word "church" comes from the Greek term ekklesia which is formed from two Greek words meaning "an assembly" and "to call out" or "called out ones". The New Testament renders church to be a body of believers who have been called out from the world by God to live as His people under the authority of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1 verses 22-23).
Ultimately, church is Jesus himself in a different form - hence using the phrase "body of Christ". In the New Testament we discover the genesis of the church which I believe is church in its purest form. The early first-century church was an organic entity that operated spontaneously and yet solidly grounded in the teachings of the New Testament.
According to the Acts, this organic church was characterised by Spirit-led, open participatory meetings and non-hierarchical leadership. It was defined by an intimate community of believers doing life together and daring each-other to move further and further into the world of broken humanity.
In Acts 2 we are told that all the believers shared everything in common. They sold their goods and possessions and gave to anyone who was in need. Because of this, "there was no needy person among them" - Acts 4 verse 14. The early church was grounded in Jesus' teachings on unification, intentional community and most importantly, love. It fought against poverty, loneliness and injustice.
The Pagan Church?
So where did the vastly different practices of the contemporary church come from? The church building, the pastor, the non-participatory sermon, the costumes...such practices are actually foreign elements that Christians have adopted from their pagan neighbours as far back as the fourth century. If we spend time searching the Word for them, they will rarely be found. Instead, many of them run contrary to the teachings of Jesus and His will for the church. I want to focus on one of these practices today – the use of a "church" building.
Isn't it ironic how we spend so much money on churches, chapels and buildings in honour of our Saviour who had no place to rest His head? In contemporary Christianity, the church building is completely enmeshed with the idea of church, so much so that we usually refer to the building itself as "church". To think that a church can exist without a building is just too radical for many and yet this was one of the defining features of the early church.
Christianity was in fact the first non-temple based "religion" to emerge and Jesus spent much of His time challenging the Jewish temple and priesthood. He tells us that it is people who constitute a scared space, not architecture or costly buildings. Throughout the New Testament, church or ekklesia is always used to refer to an assembly of people and the idea of "going to church" would have been a foreign thought to the first-century believers.
When Roman Catholicism evolved in the fourth to sixth century it absorbed many of the religious practices of both Judaism and Paganism but it was Constatine who is known as the "father" of the church buildings. He was heavily influenced by superstition and magic propelling him to believe that if Christians had their own sacred buildings like the Jews and Pagans, they too would be accepted and eventually popular.
Today, we see the same rationale for spending money on bigger and better buildings to house the people of God and draw in new members. This new concert-style building emerging out of the nineteenth century revivalism usually takes on the form of an auditorium which emphasizes the performance of the preacher and worship band. The church building, though increasingly modern and culturally relevant, remains a dividing symbol between the secular and Christian worlds.
Who Cares?
So why is this history important and why does it even matter that we use buildings when the early church didn't? Well to put it bluntly, I believe this phenomenon greatly limits the functioning of the church and our ability to fulfil our calling as the body of Christ. How does it do that? To begin with, there is an extremely high cost involved in erecting and maintaining church buildings. The money that the modern church spends on creating the perfect space for their worshippers could be freed up and used for delivering much need services in the community as well as for ministry and mission outreach.
Secondly, the church building maintains the unbiblical divide between clergy and laity. This encourages passivity whereby the congregation are spectators unable to engage with the message being shared from the pulpit. This runs contrary to the open, intimate culture of the early church where issues and principles were discussed as a face-to-face community.
Many Christians also underestimate how the location and special arrangement of the church meeting greatly influences the character of the church. This is, for me, the greatest hindrance for the ekklesia in reaching out to the "un-churched". We expect people to come to the church building instead of the church going out to them. But we, the ekklesia are the "called-out" ones.
We are called out to leave our comfort zones and enter into the discomfort of others. We are called to take the love of Jesus into their worlds instead of expecting them to enter into ours. The church building has always created a divide between the "righteous" and "un-righteous". This is perhaps the greatest offence against a King who had equality with God and yet humbled himself to wander among those on the fringes of society (Philippians 2 verses 6-7).
Church is Community
The Letter to Diognetus, the work of an unknown author, written in about 130, describes the Christian movement to the Romans as follows:
"They dwell in their own countries simply as sojourners.... They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time, they surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men but are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death, but [will be] restored to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich. They possess few things; yet, they abound in all. They are dishonored, but in their very dishonor are glorified.... And those who hate them are unable to give any reason for their hatred."
Church is not a building, church is simply community. A community of believers who are counter-cultural, mobile, and representing something different in the world. A community of individuals intimately engaged in each-other's lives and encouraging one another to advocate for people suffering on the margins.
Can the New-Testament church be restored?
The answer to this is an enthusiastic YES! In our modern day and age it would now be impossible to imitate some of the defining ways of the early church. Similarly it is impossible to avoid bringing our culture to church with us. So where does that leave us? It is not wrong to gather in a church building every Sunday and God can certainly use the modern day church to reach out to people.
We serve the King of the universe and there are no limits or boundaries in the way He can use His children to bring the Kingdom here on earth. But as regular church-goers we need to ask ourselves – are we truly living out our calling as the body of Christ? Are we being intentional about seeking out the darkest corners of the world? Are we grounded in the teachings of Christ rather than the comfort of tradition or the attraction of cultural relevance?
Our goal is to be true to God's plan so that we may be the church He desires us to be. I invite you to walk with me on the road less travelled, to be counter-cultural, and to rise above the church walls so we can love within a yard of hell.
Bex Silver is from Auckland, New Zealand and has spent the last year living on the Thai-Burma border working to help people displaced by war in Burma. Delicious Thai and Burmese food is a welcomed bonus! She has a Masters in International Development and is passionate about advocating for social justice through her writing.
Bex Silver's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/bex-silver.html