The Purpose of the Church

 

The Purpose of the Church

 

            I observe very few, if any, articles about “The Purpose of the Church.” Yet, it is one idea that is very much on my heart. Of the churches I have attended in my somewhat long life (nearly 80 years), I have found very few, if any, churches that seemed to understand the need for any organization to establish a mission statement and goals-oriented achievement.

            What I have found and observed is a mishmash of examples. In the reform era of the 1800s up to pre-WW2, we experienced a call to worship in ways that were better than the preceding Protestant and Catholic doctrines and creeds. Yet, virtually without exception, the prior reformers attacked the next reform, and each reform ultimately split and claimed a better way than the others; and on and on and on.  I have been so broken-hearted about the condition of Churches that claim to have Christ as their head, I published a book on Amazon entitled, “Restoring the Restoration: The Christian Church – What Went Wrong?” I have detailed church history in that book, including the events of the twentieth century.

            There have certainly been movements of the Holy Spirit in the 18th Century. Beginning with Barton Stone (one of the founders of the Stone Campbell Movement) in 1801, there is, “The Cane Ridge Revival.” There have been many others, and to name a few, I cite “The Azusa Street Revival,” “The Jesus Revolution,” the simultaneous 1970s charismatic revival (which actually started in the Catholic Church before 1970), and many other singular church renewals that have resulted in some current mega-churches such as those Pastored by Greg Laurie and Don Finto. Thankfully, God never gives up on His people. For each movement that becomes a ‘monument,’ God starts another.

Today, some Christian Churches are getting big for the wrong reason.  This wrong reason is ‘Christian or Church Nationalism,’ meaning politics or political issues driving the Church's agenda.  I do believe it is every believer’s responsibility to have an opinion, a divine discerning attitude, about events around them. I mean that to include church, political, cultural, national, and international morals. But, never should that person force their opinions on other Christians.

Each Christian should carry the truth of the Holy Spirit within them.  Placing Christian people in significant places in business, government, and institutions is a noble idea. This means these Christians will have opinions on hot-button issues, such as abortion, same sex marriage, sex outside of marriage, welfare, and many other governmental matters on which one can have opinions.  Hopefully, these Christians in public office will pray and receive guidance from the Holy Spirit.

            However, I believe so many of these issues and scriptural topics are so complex and difficult to agree on that we walk through mine fields to take them up within the body of the Church.  So many are unresolved. The Protestant Church has bickered and split over the concept of God (the Trinity), divorce, remarriage, Grace, legalism, governance (by elders or pastors), as well as baptism (how to do it), communion (who can and how often), and women in church leadership.  Calvin’s church in Switzerland obtained jurisdiction of a civil court from its government. The Church ran the court and put its members in jail for any public infraction of the Bible that it deemed punishable. Calvin even had one man burned at the stake. There would have been no witch-hangings, drownings, or other capital punishments in Salem if the Colonial English Court had not allowed it. The King of England finally issued an order to stop such activities. Government involvement in Christ’s Church has always been a bad idea.

            So, I say here that I disapprove of churches that try to build their membership by requiring their members to agree on political issues, or who they will vote for. That is Christian Nationalism. Many years ago, Christian Nationalism resulted in wars (between Christians) and one group burning the others at the stake or hanging. Only if the government is involved can a church have civil authority to take someone’s life or jail them. Our founding fathers fought a revolution based on many freedoms, but one of the most important was freedom of religion.

The Protestant Church is in tatters, having been divided by the reformers, and then the reformers attacked each other until there are thousands of divisions. In the Baptist church alone, Wikipedia lists 66 different divisions. There are no numbers to support this conclusion, but I believe that there are as many different opinions in the Catholic Church among the individual members. We have seen divisions as high as the Archbishop level. Within each church, there are as many different opinions as there are members.

Boring into the purpose of “THE” Church, I want to lead you into a thought dialogue over what Church means. I think we have to define what it means before we can identify the purpose. ‘Church’ is derived from the Old English word ‘cirice or circe,’ which traces back to the Germanic language. It is thought that those words trace back to a translation from the Greek word ‘kuriakon,’ which means belonging to the Lord. The word ‘Church’ in its original meaning referred to a building or place of worship. Eventually, in English, it came to mean the building and the people who fellowship within. Ekklesia is the Greek word that is always translated as ‘Church’ in the New Testament, but the translation is wrong!

            The actual undisputed Greek word in the scriptures is always ‘Ekklesia,’ meaning those ‘called out’ to assemble for a purpose. In the context of Jesus' followers, they were intended to be the people called to gather together. Ekklesia, translated as ‘assembly’, is more accurate. Church is the modification of the Greek meaning to fit the English translations, which did not develop until the end of the 13th century. In Spanish, the word for church is the more accurate ‘iglesia,’ a closer representation of the Greek. I use the spelling ‘Ekklesia’ in my published novel, “The Life of the Apostle Philip,” as a closer representation of the Greek spelling, commonly used, and is interchangeable with the English “Ecclesia (from which we get the English word ‘ecclesiastical’). I believe ekklesia is the most accurate term because the idea of ‘having or holding’ Church would be a foreign phrase to the ears of the early Christians. They assembled or were an assembly of believers.

            Coming to my point, the reader asks, "What are you trying to say?” I am saying that the early church, when believers assembled and got it right, first followed the Holy Spirit’s direction. They studied scripture together (and when Paul referred to this, the New Testament did not exist yet, so he was obviously referring to the Old Testament). They took communion together to commemorate the command of Jesus at the Last Supper.  They often had a meal for all who came in, and for anyone who was poor, so that they could have a good meal. They told the story of Jesus, His life on earth, His miraculous birth and heavenly sacrifice on the cross, taking our sins on Himself. They had prophecies and speakers, with many coming to believe and be baptized.  They had healing services. They spoke the prophecies from the OT that taught of the risen Christ and the letters from the Apostles. They repeated the teachings of the various Apostles who had come through their city and taught them.  They sang praises to God from the Psalms and their own created praise. What they did not do, until they were 3 to 5 generations away from the original members, was bicker and fight (although the Corinthians may have come close, bickering over speaking in tongues). The bickering and fighting continue to this very day.

            I believe the only solution to stop the bickering is to realize that brothers and sisters in Christ do not have to agree on everything to have a relationship. One of Barton Stone’s favorite sayings was, “In Faith unity, in opinions liberty, and in all things, love!” We must learn to tolerate others' opinions when we assemble and discuss God’s word. We must do that in love, respecting each other. The rapture and the millennium are two different topics that the churches always bicker and fight over. One side is pro-rapture and the other is anti-rapture. Some sides are pre-millennial, amillennial, post, etc. David Reagan said it best when he said, “Whatever your view, we should all be pan-millennial. That is because everything will ‘pan’ out in eternity if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, believing in Him as God’s Son.”

            We have been trained for generations to study its benefits and features when we acquire something, to examine its features and benefits to decide if it is for us. We do that with houses, apartments, cars, televisions, computers, etc. I believe it has become a habit for many Christians to study a potential Church to see if its features and benefits fit them. Nothing is wrong with that, but we must know that we should first search to see if the Church meets its primary or first obligation.

            So, the point is this – that the first obligation of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth is to ‘point the way to eternal life, to all it comes in contact with. That is to tell all who will hear what the church says about Jesus Christ; to tell what He did for us; to tell of His salvation he purchased for us; to talk about His forgiveness of sins; to talk about His prophetic foretelling in the Old Testament; to talk about His return for us and with us.  In short, to teach every ear that will hear about the ‘eternal life’ He has procured for believers and His guaranteed promise of ‘eternal life.’ If the ‘ecclesia’ does not do this, it is not the Church of Jesus Christ.

             A ‘Church’ may be a great Christian Social Club. There is nothing wrong with Christian Social Clubs. Fellowship is always good.  After teaching the Word of Truth about Jesus Christ, koinonia (fellowship) is encouraged in the New Testament and is a very good thing. Sunday School, VBS, kids', teens', and adult parties are also very good practices. Children’s Church is an excellent option for teaching little ones during the main sermon and worship. Women's and men's seminars and meals are very good activities.

            It is also good to meet and discuss all the subjects that divide us.  Or rather, it is good to meet in an atmosphere of harmony and Christian love to discuss them all. We always learn from each other if we listen. I have a favorite saying: "If I only talk to people who agree with me, I will never learn anything.” I mean that. We need to learn to talk with one another and learn to agree without being disagreeable.

            But none of these good things count toward making a Church (or Assembly) unless the church is a giant beacon, shining a bright light into the heavens, teaching about the God of the Universe and His son, Y’Shua, and what was done for us to be reconciled to God.

            Therefore, I conclude with the statement, "The primary purpose of the Church (Assembly) is to point the way to eternal life to all who come into contact with it. It must emphatically be that first and foremost, to be pleasing to God.

That is the primary purpose given to each believer. We are commanded to be ready to give an answer to anyone who will hear us as to why we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and as the Son of God.

Are you ready?

 

Robert Lee Hurley, Retired Atascosa County Judge

Author of “Restoring the Restoration,” What Went Wrong? And, a historical novel “The Life      of the Apostle Philip; Email: hurley6469@gmail.com; Phone: 830-200-8744

 

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