A Definition of the Church

The church buildings which share space in my memory are mostly traditional looking.  Some were large in size and one or two others could have vied for the smallest church in the county award.  Despite the size they all are remembered as rectangle shaped buildings with a steeple and windows of one sort or another running down the sides.  Inside were rows of wooden pews that led to a pulpit behind a altar.  One thing each held in common was the way they breathed quietness. 

 

Of course, the way a church looks has nothing to do with its spirit and ministry.  Today the church seems architecturally so contemporary it is easy to mistake it for a large fitness center.  Perhaps, the building communicates something about the way the builders of the building view the church, but there is no word which sets forth the correct view like a Word from God found in Ephesians 1:23.  "And He (God) has put all things under His feet and made Him the head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."  To ponder this Word is to come to the place of understanding that the church is the expression of Christ in the world. 

 

What we do not find here is a Word which physically describes the church, but a Word which sets forth the nature of the Church as it is present in the world.  As we seek to know what it is that the church should be about, there is no better place to start figuring than the way Jesus expressed the nature of God in the world.  There is no better place to start figuring how the church should position itself in the world than to ponder how Jesus positioned Himself in the culture of His day.  As Jesus expressed the nature of God in His flesh, so does His Spirit and ministry express the true nature of the Church in any day.