What Is The Church, Why Does It Matter?

The beginning of church is said to have risen from the resurrection of Jesus. In fact after the Pentecost, the disciples were celebrating the blessing given to Moses at Mount Sinai in which he experienced the presence of God. After this experience, the disciples were believed to be bold, understanding and Courageous. These characteristics till this day are still celebrated on Pentecost Sunday and are used for the sacrament of Confirmation, which is receiving the responsibility of a Christian and accepting the Holy Spirit. Church has been the backbone of people's faith. It has given them a comforting home to pray and be one with God. Today, however, more people are practicing faith outside the church. The majority of followers believe in God and life after death, however, many have lack of interest in the church. Church must be looked as a community of disciples. The book uses a suggestion from a Roman Catholic theologian Avery Dulles. He suggests, "that most appropriate image of the church for our times is the church as a community of disciples"(pp. 157). I totally agree with his suggestion. In order for Christians to find fulfillment in ones faith, one must help others understand their faith. We need to be grounded in grace; by being a Christian community your focus on believing is responding freely to a personal call and

When many think of the early Church, they think of a perfectly uniformed group of individuals praising and worshiping together. This, in fact, is not true; the early church was not perfectly unified and had many internal and external conflicts. The apostles preached about Jesus and tried to get followers through talking about his life, death, and resurrection. When the church was starting, many internal questions arose like: Who can hear the gospel? Who was in charge? And what does it mean to be free? Many also were not sure whom to turn to ensure that something was valid within the church. With so much confusion, people turned towards the principle apostolicity, which connected the work and intentions of the apostles and ensured reliability. They used the partnership with the spirit to make decisions.

In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”

One organization that is becoming increasingly popular, is the new youth church. These churches are made up primarily of young adults; those that attend gain a sense of belonging by their family-like structures and “cell groups”. They also dabble with the postmodern and nontraditional ways of worship, to attract outsiders, and they have a strong emphasis on missionary work.

God loves his Church and Jesus is the one who builds the Church. Then, it goes without saying that God loves the local church and Jesus builds the local church. Unfortunately, there are many factors that come into play, causing churches to become complacent or stagnate before entering into a season of decline. Yet this can be avoided through the process of revitalization.

Dulles states, “It picks up the biblical theme that God has fashioned for himself a people feely communicating his spirit and his gifts” (50). The Body of Christ as stated in Dulles is, “the main point of mutual union, concern and dependence of the members of the local community upon one another,” (43). The body of Christ will only function is the whole community is willing to work together to reach a personal growth in their relationship with God. Now that we have an idea of what Church as mystical communion consists of I will discuss the strengths and weakness of this model. The strength of this model is that emphasizes a shared life with the community instead of shutting them off. This is a strength because when people come together as a whole everything holds so much more meaning and people can form a stronger bond with God, now that it is much more personal and voluntary. Another strength is that this model improves people spirituality and prayer life now that they feel that personal connection that they formed. A weakness of this model is that it creates unsure relationship between the visible and invisible, since Grace allows people to get closer to God through the invisible such as communion while the visible structure like institutionalism tries to emphasize their power over the whole people. I have discussed what the models mean, their strength and weakness of each so now I will note the difference and

Author Dan Yarnell suggested seven characteristics of a Christ-honoring church in the 21st century: worship, fellowship, interaction with Scripture, discipleship, community, living sacrificially, and living missionally. However, Yarnell contradicted himself when he stated that the church originated at Pentecost (Acts 2) and proceeded to provide examples of the effects of cultural development and new missional opportunities on the church prior to Pentecost. While the term “church” or “” is unique to Acts and the following New Testament writings, its concept and precepts existed from the time of Genesis. In fact, Yarnell did not reference any Old Testament passages or practices. Therefore, Yarnell contradicted himself and ignored Old

We interpret this timeless truth today to mean that Christ provides people for his church and there is no appointed office of ministry for the building up of his church.

They give scripture which identifies the importance of unity. Ephesians 4:14-16 shows how the body of Christ should be unified in the midst of diversity. Leaders should work extra hard to keep the church family worshipping together. The authors condemn chronological snobbery and suggest that both the young and old come together. The young generation must grow up and the older generation needs to adapt.

Base of the different church structure mentioned, there’s no conclusive evident that one church model is better than the others, it’s a matter of prefer to the believers on which model they will follow. The scripture show no evident that any one model should be followed. Whatever model a believer chooses cannot prove by scripture that their model is mandated. The only visible scriptural goal for all the models would have a structure that is harmonious, has revelation of God’s plan and should be use according to His purpose. An ideal church structure is nearly impossible from what I can see. Unless we go back to Eden, where it all begin and change what Adam and Eve did in the garden, church structure will always be flawed. Free will has changed God’s plan for man, and there will always be people who will not transform by the renewing of their minds. The NT only speaks about Jesus’ church, also known as Ecclesia from two words. Ek means “out” and kaleo means “to call”, so the gathering of the called-out believers is the Church. The ideal church structure would be the believers who are called-out to represent Jesus’s church. Scripture does not mention the traditional church, organic church, hybrid church, or the attractional church (Gray, 2012). In my opinion the simple church would be more ideal for me. Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger confirmed through a case study on churches that the kingdom is expanding through churches with simple process and the more complex

In the first section, we deal with the biblical foundation of church growth, health, and evangelism. In details, he gives three main reasons why we have church in the world. Our first responsibility as a church is to glorify God’s name.

The church ministers to everyone of any race and age. To put faith into practice one needs to do service. Giving puts the word of God into action. The church has many services such as a food pantry, missionaries, and a community center in Haiti. I have been going to the church since I was six years old. It was until 2010 I got involved in the church activities. I have got involved in a praise dance team, junior and youth choir, and the youth group. All have shaped my relationship with God. I learned to have a deeper connection and to understand more about him. It also taught me what God has done for me and what I need to do for him. There are numerous events and celebrations held each year. Couples’ Seminary is a Couples ministry event usually held on February 14 to ensure couples know and learn what their relationship means in Christ. Revival is during the first week of March, this calls the congregation to repent in the lord again and remember the church history. The last few days of Jesus’s life is told through a three day long Easter celebration. Throughout the month of May, it is known as family month due to many family holidays around the time. Food festival is a summer day event celebrating and representing the Haitian

What is the church? Many Christians today think of the church as the building where they go to worship and to only be thought about on Sundays; however, this is an all too common misperception. In actuality the church is the whole body of believers whose main purpose is to grow in their walk with Jesus Christ. The early church, the church of the first century, lived this out in the most literal sense. While both the early church and the modern American church share the same core beliefs, the way people lived, dealt with each other, and viewed the Holy Spirit then, was significantly different than the way many people do now.

15- To the best of your knowledge is the church help Christians discover their place in God's plan?

Gilbert Bilezikian gives four areas that need to be addressed when administering the church here on earth, 1. A shared faith, 2. A share purpose, 3. A shared lifestyle and 4. A shared authority (Bilezikian, 1993, p. 195-197). A shared faith is noted in Ephesians 4:5 where God’s people are told to have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (NIV). Gilbert tells his readers, “every church needs to formuloate clearly its understanding of the Christian faith” ( (Bilezikian, 1993, p. 195). With this written statement everyone within the church will have a common ground from which to govern, with all people knowing what the belief of that church is.