Some of the confusion over how we ought to function as the Church in these times stems from the fact that we don’t really know what the word “Church” means according to the Word of God.
In the Apostles’ day, “church” never meant a building. If you had walked up to Peter or Paul and said, “Where do you go to church?” They probably wouldn’t have understood what you meant. Peter might have answered, “What do you mean where do I go to Church? -- I am the Church!”
The Church was (and is) the people of the Body of Christ. Nowhere in the Bible was a building ever called a “church.” They never attended a building that they called “church.” They never built a building that they called “church.” Going to a building that’s called “church” on scheduled days, week in and week out, would be very foreign to the first Church. Sitting on a pew and following a routine service or ceremony never happened in the Bible.
The word “church,” in the Greek language (the language in which it was originally penned -- to our knowledge) was “ekklesia.” It was a word that was created by two separate words: “ek” or “ex,” which was a primitive preposition that denoted the point from where action or motion proceeded -- like “of,” “out” or “from”; and “kaleo,” which meant “call.”3
I know that there’s been quite a holy twirl placed on that meaning. The church is the “called out,” the “separated from the evil world.” But never was the church meant to be so separated that we hide behind lovely buildings and comfort each other that we are “saved,” “sanctified” and “holier than thou.” (Isaiah 65:5)
But have you ever thought that the Church is the origin from where the message is “called out” (The point from where action proceeds -- and that action is to call!)? The Church is that catalyst from where the Gospel of Truth goes forth into the world. The Apostles and saints “ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ ... in the temple and in every house” (Acts 5:42). And when the scripture says “temple,” it means the Jewish Temple. Not a “Christian Temple,” because such a thing did not exist in the Apostles’ day.
The Church didn’t wait for people to come to them. The first Church went out into the field and preached the Truth. Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38; Luke 10:2 We’ve got to get out of the mind set that our “church” attendance is a measure of holiness and a passport to heaven. We need to be out in the fields. That’s where the harvest is. That’s what the Lord told us to do. He never told us to go into all the world and build temporal buildings. The Apostles never operated from within a building’s walls that they called “church.” They were constantly out in the field. The only time that the first Church was found in a temple was when they were either preaching in a Jewish temple (where they went to convert the Jews) or when they went to a temple of some sort of false doctrine, like Mars Hill (Acts 17:19).
We may wonder (here in the United States, specifically) why it is that we don’t have all the power that the first Church had and why we aren’t persecuted like the early Church was. These two actions go hand in hand, because both actions follow the preaching of God’s Word when it is preached to those who are not Christians. God confirms His Truth with signs and wonders (Mark 16:20). Satan, on the other hand, doesn’t want the Truth preached, so he stirs up persecution against Christians that are preaching the Truth. Nevertheless, the Church grows through the preaching of the Word, and signs and wonders from God will accompany it -- along with persecution.
Now I can assure you, if you go down to any street corner and preach Jesus Christ and how the Church is supposed to be operating and the whole Truth -- you will be persecuted. God assures you that if you believe, if you have followed the doctrine of Christ, if you have received His Spirit and go out into the fields and preach all the Truth -- God, Himself, will confirm your preaching with signs and wonders. (But, make sure that you have all the Truth first ... look at the vagabond Jewish exorcists in Acts 19:11-17.) Yet, when was the last time that a Christian entered a Jewish synagogue and preached Jesus Christ? Or did Paul sit down with the rabbis and eat cookies and tea and try to find out how much the two faiths had in common? Today’s Church is a watered-down version of the original Church. If we would get our minds off of fund raisers, social agendas and “performing a service,” and get them back on going out into a lost world and preaching the gospel -- we might see some of the power that was promised unto us by Jesus Christ (“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” John 14:12. Do you think Jesus meant what He said, or not?). That’s the difference between how the first Christians behaved and how we behave, today. We should, as the first Church did, pray for all boldness to preach God’s Word and that God would confirm His Word with healings, signs and wonders in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:29-31).
But, it’s just a little too easy to attend a weekly, biweekly or tri-weekly service, toss in an offering and sit on a pew; then, console ourselves that we are doing our Christian duty. I admit, the church bells sound lovely, the neon signs are impressive and the stained glass windows are beautiful but it’s not what really being a part of the Church of Jesus Christ is all about.
One more thing, remember that water that pools and sits still -- becomes stagnant.