No Such Thing as a Church
by Brett Jacobsen
In order to get our heads around this topic we will have to remove our Greek style, tradition infected mindsets and flow with the Spirit of truth and revelation.
Please pray (Eph 1:17-18, 2 Cor 10:5-6) and proceed.
Because most Christians have been a part of the contemporary church for some time now it is quite natural to kick, at least a little, against truth that challenges where we’ve been and what we’ve done as the church.
In the same way as the children of Israel demanded a worldly leadership structure, when they cried out for a king (1 Sam 8:1-20), so to does the humanness of the church crave an institution as its identity rather than flowing organically in Christ. Due to Israel’s history repeating itself in the church it didn’t take very long for worldly institutionalism to arise, dominate and set in.
Defining church
The New Testament word for church is the Greek word ekklesia which is derived from the word kaleo- to call, it means “called out ones” and so is a description of the people that God has called out of darkness into His glorious light.
If we are going to use the word church in a correct context then we need to be using it to refer to the called out saints, not a building or organization.
Here are some scriptural examples of how the word is used; we shall look at them using more accurate terminology as for what church is:
Acts 2:47 the Lord added to the church (the number of called out saints) daily such as should be saved.
Acts 8:1 there was a great persecution against the church (called out saints) which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad
Acts 11:26 he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church(called out saints), and taught much people.
(Not a church at Antioch but the Church / called out saints at Antioch)
1 Cor 16:19 Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the Church (called out saints) that is in their house.
(Not a house church but the church / called out saints that met in their house)
As we can see, church is always referring to people. The importance of this truth is enormous as it will cause us to see the church and its function as God sees it, a body of people flowing throughout society, rather than how mans shortcomings have led us to see it.
The Building Hoax (Rome’s wineskin)
Thanks to a few large humanistic land marks in the church age, such as; Ignatius transplanting the Roman city government structure smack bang in the middle of the church community and sun worshiping Emperor Constantine usurping the rule of the church rather than Jesus, we have a modern church structure that is more Roman and pagan than it is heavenly and scriptural.
From out of the midst of this man focused, fear filled, controlling, worldly Roman system sprang much of what we tend to base our modern church structure from.
For example, because Constantine was a Roman ruler with special privilege and status he couldn’t be found meeting publicly and house to house with the saints, as the church (called out saints) were accustomed to do. He needed something more contemporary and stylish, so he had beautiful (not) buildings erected for the church (called out saints) to gather in. In doing this he effectively shifted the emphasis from God’s glorious majesty towards mans pitiful counterfeit, he also turned the saints focus from an outward looking, community transforming, go mentality, to a self-centered, safe, pride injected, community abandoning, come mentality.
I know what you may be thinking, didn’t Jesus say come? Indeed He did say, “come unto me” Matt 11:8, what He did not say was come unto church, probably because He viewed them as the church not buildings and programs. Let’s not forget that Jesus also said, “Go into all the world” Mark 16:15.
Results, results, results
As we see from Constantine and company, one of the main reasons for our heaping together Gods people into contemporary cathedrals is that we love the feeling that we are succeeding and producing results and to be more accurate we love to have people see our results. After all success is the theme of our self centered culture, of the which, I’m told, we have to blend with to be effective.
Truth is, usually these outward results are a glossy cover-up for our lack of real fruit and eternal results.
If we were to be church (called out saints) as the New Testament shows us to be, it cuts directly across our modern humanistic paradigm which strives in mans murky brilliance. The glory of man, which is a non-event, becomes hidden in the glory of God, as He gets the credit for what He builds throughout society, with the yielded assistance of man.
The early church, as well as the modern Chinese church and the like, may have been underground in part because of persecution, but from a more eternal perspective, because God gets the glory when man doesn’t.
Gods eternal purpose and intention still is to make known, by His church, His manifold wisdom Eph 3:10-11, not ours.
De-program
God works with and flows through people, not programs. Sadly our over organisation has led to a major lack of organism, and so has retarded the people of God from relating effectively to one another and to the world which we are called to reconcile to Him.
We tend to have all our bases covered in order to run a tight ship. The problem with that is we leave very little room for the spontaneity and flowing of the Spirit. We also, largely do away with the excitement of the miraculous power of God in the every day believers lives in the name of safety and security.
Jesus didn’t say to go and have meetings, He actually said, “go and make disciples” Matt 28:19
The Balance
Of course the balance of this is that the saints aren’t called to be a bunch of loners who never come together. Quite the opposite is the case when we examine God’s way of doing community in His Word. The early church (called out saints) did meet together in ways that could be categorized under two headings:
Publicly – In Acts chapter two we see that the church (called out saints) gathered “daily with one accord in the temple” v46 which was a public place in full view of the community abroad. This, in some respects was a setting not too different from our modern day shopping malls.
House to house – Continuing in verse 46 they were also daily “breaking bread from house to house” which doesn’t look anything like the professional programs that we attend these days. It gives us the picture of a Spirit led, covenant relationship oriented community that did daily life together as the church but not in church.
Acts 20:20 Paul speaking of Ephesus combines the two, “have taught you publicly, and from house to house”
The early church did community from house to house and came together as a city or region for celebrations and other larger community matters.
With His methods Gods unfading brilliance takes the reins from the hands of man, puts the saints in the public eye were they are most effective and in the homes were they live their lives and be who they are without the facade of keeping up appearances in professional meetings.
Oneness, the Body of Christ
One of the most rotten fruits of our going to church mentality, rather than being the Called out Saints, is our denominating. It was a natural progression that once we made organizations called churches they would succumb to the consumer drivenness of society and provide a wide range of styles, classes and doctrines thus embracing division and dressing it up as choice.
The fact is that Jesus prayed for oneness in His body (John 17:21, 22, 23), not choice between the bodies. Our modern attempts at unity are usually no more than a politically motivated ecumenical meeting with the local pastors fraternal which have no intentions of dropping their separate organizations and name tags in pursuit of Biblical oneness.
It would seem that God’s way of being church (the called out saints that make up the body of Christ worldwide) is the only way to fulfill Jesus’, so far unfulfilled prayer for oneness. Although it is a big ask, to drop our human organizations and identity to have only His identity, it is His command none the less.
If the present day saints would embrace the Biblical blueprints of meeting together from house to house to beach to park etc, in everyday life, usually over communion meals and larger public regional gatherings of worship, prayer, apostolic teaching etc, separated only by geographical location, then and only then would Jesus prayer be fulfilled.
No such thing as ‘Out of Church Christians’
In light of the truths that we have just explored we must draw the conclusion that there is simply no such thing as ‘Out of Church Christians’. Given the fact that the church (called out saints) is referring to the Christians themselves and not the modern organizations and programs within Christendom, we may need to refer to these blessed people, that, for the most part, are part way through a journey to freedom, as “out of Rome’s worldly church system saints” or something the like.
It is imperative that the large amounts of Christians that have left the modern Roman system don’t get stuck in between, as there is structure that is from God and does line up with New Testament scripture.
Such a structure will be outward focused and not inwardly self seeking at its core, having the transformation of society and individual lives as its main mission. It will have strong and real accountability amongst the brethren instead of a political covering, and proven character coupled with humility will be the prerequisite for the overseeing and parenting examples called to function in leadership.
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Thank you.
August 27th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
I find it interesting how we as the church have shifted the focus off ‘us’ in a somewhat subconcsious effort to shirk the responsibilities of accountibility, spiritual ‘mother and fatherhood’ and delivering a sometimes offensively potent gospel to a world in desperate need of the love and grace of Christ Jesus. And have shifted the focus onto our consumer friendly buildings, (and pulpits) where comfort and enterainment seem to be the order of the day.
I find the above article refreshing as it pinpoints a key issue that on the surface may seem trivial but with closer inspection exposes underlying mindsets that must be addressed if we are to see REAL unity and a church that is equipped with an uncomprimised gospel, that points people to Jesus and not to the ‘new comers lounge’.
October 8th, 2005 at 3:26 am
I feel that because of my teaching as a young Christian throughout my church years, there is an undoing that must take place. I have become such a custom to being entertained through professional music and comedy preaching that i would determine whether church was good or not by the perfomance.
It is a hard knock to accept the fact that i am spiritually spoilt and retarded. I needed to have a professional band, flashing lights and big bold words infront of me to enter into Gods Presence. You would think that after 13 years of being a Christian, I would be able to feed myself and enter into Gods Presence and have powerful spontaneous worship with my own words in the presence of my own bedroom with my Lame voice. But truth be told, i have enjoyed being entertained. I have jumped from venue to venue to find the best show. It was easy not having to pick up my word all week and get a revelation from some one else.
We have created a lazy generation of spoon fed saints, that enjoy being entertained and tickled. The fruit proves our Laziness as Christians float from church to church, separating ourselves from the world, in our own little safety zones. For me, i have had enough. Its time for me to grow up, feed myself and get out into the world to bear fruit. I dont want to waste my time making Christians comfortable, it about time they feed themselves. The Holy Spirit and the word is all they need. I care about those that dont know the lord getting born again, and getting new born Christians on their feet for themselves. I have seen a lack of fruit in my past years and its time for a change cause i’m over the BS.
December 3rd, 2005 at 12:55 am
I think that one of the most exciting aspects of the New Testament Church is that there is no longer the clergy, as now, in Christ we are all made kings and priests.It is interesting, having just watched the movie: Luther, reading this article and seeing that not much has changed in the body since the reformation, we are still slaves to those above us and decieved into accepting a form of Christianity, that offers no real saving power: just spoon fed heresies. I am encouraged by the scripture: “Be dilligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2: 15-16). It states the consequences of not seeking Gods word, as found in (Hosea 4: 6): “My people are destoryed for lack of knowledge) and the worshipers that God requires are those that worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-25). There has probably been no greater urgencey than in this current Church age, for Christians to hold fast to the truth of Gods word in all aspects of the Christian faith, and it is long over due for the Church (as an insitution) to look at the fruit of this man made structure: for the Lord will build his Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will finish off with a quote from the Cross Movement: “If its blessed, come lets test it, bring it down manifest it” We need to hold true to the confession of our faith and not be swept away by every doctrine of man. We are the Church: Praise GOD!!!!
Awesome article Mr. Jacobsen!!!!
June 20th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
8 years ago I thought if I was to bring this message through I would be stoned, I love the truth of this and can only say that my wife and I walk talk and flow in the miraculous of the Holy Spirit daily and whilst painful at times it is the most exciting walk one will ever have…
Richard
Evangelist for our Lord Jesus.
October 6th, 2006 at 1:11 am
An insightful and relevant msg mate, really helpful! I used to be frustrated inside when talkin to da gc boys who have chosen ‘gospel’ over ‘church’ as it is commonly known nowadays…simply because I felt like I might be straying on the wrong path and generally offendin the lord if what they had to say about it was legit. From readin about it now and seein it in the context of church being the ‘called out saints’ of God I am clear of confusion. I still think its funny that the title of this article is “No such thing as a church” when there is still in fact a church, just different in the way it is defined…but that is of course trivial to the deeper arguements conveyed in this article. I spose that can be used as an attention grabber, as anyone who comes from an institutionalised, dare I say mega-church background is automatically gunna want to know more. But, in saying this I think its important to be loving when trying to explain to these people the many misconceptions that have been bred into them regarding church. I guess it is up to the individual to view that as an attack or as an attempt for unification.
Sick point about the rome wineskin…that is an eye opener and something I never really thought about. I am by no measure ignorant that such ‘organisation mentality’ has been around for a long time and therefore has its origins, but I gotta say I never have been able to pinpoint a place and time so accurately. Nice homework! Its interesting to note that such a view of church stemmed from such blatent pagan roots. Wack…wot else can one say really….
Finally, couldn’t agree more with the statement describing denominating as one the most rotten fruits of ‘modern church’. That is where the real rubber meets the road with my view of church. I don’t have a problem with still meeting in the one place every week, sitting down learning from a sermon or praising the lord through music, as long as it is all done with that outwardly focus and in such a fashion that it does not lead to spiritual retardation as woody commented on (easy to do bloke). But indeed the body is one body, singular not plural…that is the real shame of the modern take of ‘doin church’, and I am sure the one which would shatter the Lord the most.
Keep up the good revies!
Peace. Nick.
October 6th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Response to Nick,
Thanks for the kind words mate.
When I say ‘no such thing as a church’ I am not saying ‘no such thing as THE church’. For instance: it would be wrong to say “I go to A church” when in fact there is only THE church, which is the body of Christ. It is just as misleading to say “I go to A house church”. Although I could probably be grammatically backed into a corner on this point, I think most will realize that I don’t mean there is no such thing as THE church.
Keep pressin’ into what the Lord is doing in this hour and the next.
Blessings
Bretto
October 6th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
“The church” vs “A church”. Touche’! Soz bretto I too am gramattically challenged. Anyway that wasn’t a big deal really…just a side issue mate, as you can hopefully tell. I myself am part of a non-denominational gathering, but still call it church because basically I am lazy bum and can’t find any other term for it. But once again, besides the point because I know my position as a ‘called out saint’ and thats all dat matters. One question mate…do you think its bad/disturbing that my ‘church/gathering’ is looking at becoming affiliated with one denomination for legal reasons or sumthin else (i don’t really know the reason)? Affiliated as in we are not part of them but under their banner even though we do our own thing. Since we are no ‘cookie cutter’ bunch of saints the task is proving more difficult than first predicted, because we can’t find one with similiar ideals and mission statement. Secretly I hope it doesn’t go ahead because I really believe its unnecessary…but yeh anway wots your thoughts man?
Peace.
Nicko.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:36 am
Bretto that just creased me, the Word is just the final authority on everything and how can we who have tastedof the truth go back to our own ways and the traditions of man??? It’s all so different from everything I have ever been taught, but its so true and I can’t deny the Word of God. Thanks so much for hitting the truth, I’m so tired of hearing stuff that is just pleasing to my ears when there is truth that will buckle me. How amazing is Jesus, nothing I could ever say or do could ever come close to describing his beauty in the least bit, he is so far above and beyond my comprehension. As Heb 13 says, our hearts have gotta be completely rooted on His grace…what unbelieveable grace He has! What is man that God should be mindful of us? Lets hit the truth and let Him manifest His presence through us and diffuse His fragrance in every place. Let us behold His glory as in a mirror! I have no boast but in Jesus Christ! There are no other names or titles or organisations, only Him! Thank you Jesus. Lord Please soften people’s hearts to Your Word and Your Truth and may Your will be done, I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. Please do Your thing with Your body Jesus!