Back to Church

It is pretty clear now that the impact of the 2020 global pandemic will be felt for a long time.  As restrictions change we are beginning to think about going back to meeting in person but things will still be quite different for some time.   We need to ask what is God teaching us through all of this?

For months now, God has allowed church buildings and services to be shut down, forcing us to find different ways to gather and minister.   I believe God is giving us an opportunity to take a fresh look at the scriptures and rethink church in light of New Testament principles. If all we had was the New Testament, no church tradition or experience, what would our gatherings be like?  How would we go about being the church?

The writer of Hebrews gives us the reasoning behind the church gathering together regularly: 
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (Heb 10:23–25 ESV).

Most of us have lived all our Christian life with a ‘Church Service’ in a church building as the primary format and mainstay of ‘church’.  It has become central to the cultural paradigm of our Christian experience.  It is easy for us to think that anything other than a Church Service doesn’t really count.  We tend to think that other forms of gathering are not really legitimate or at best just optional ‘add-ons’.   This is probably why when we read this passage we equate meeting regularly together with a weekly ‘Church Service’.  But does this way of thinking really capture what the passage is saying?

Leading into this quote, the author is explaining how Jesus himself has replaced temple worship. That the entire sacrificial system and way of approaching God has changed because of Jesus.  Jesus opens up a new and living way to know God, to be in right relationship with God with 24/7 access to his presence!   This is a paradigm-shifting reality!  There is no need any longer to go to a temple, or climb a mountain, or to face a particular direction or to perform any ritual (see John 4:21-24).  Christian worship is not confined to a ‘Service’ or limited to one particular format of meeting together. To think this way would contradict the Gospel. Yet this passage goes on to say we are to keep meeting together regularly.  Especially as the day when Jesus will return is getting closer! What for?

“Hold fast to the confession of our faith”
The good news of the kingdom is so incredible and so opposite to the way the rest of the world thinks that we struggle to truly believe these things in our hearts.  We need to gather for orderly instruction, correction, clarification, reminders, re-enforcement, assessment and encouragement in order to truly internalize our faith and hold fast to the ‘confession of our hope’ in a world that challenges faith at every turn!

“stir up one another to love and good works”
We are to come up with ways, not to pamper one another and make everyone feel comfortable, but to motivate even ‘provoke each other’ to put faith into action; to sacrificially love one another and do good works.    Then in verse 25, it tells us to keep meeting together.  Why?  Because ‘holding fast’ and ‘stirring up’ require one another. 

The bible commands us to meet regularly to encourage and spur one another on so we are becoming the family he has called us to be; a community of people who devote themselves to the Apostles Teaching, to true Biblical Fellowship, the Breaking of Bread and Prayers (see Acts 2:42ff).  Yet, nowhere does the bible demand that we must hold a weekly ‘Church Service’ or that any of these things must be limited to one specific meeting or format.

For many years churches have centred their community life primarily on holding a Service, but for now, God has taken the ‘Service’ away! Why? Could it be to show us that there are other practices, other forms of meeting together, which are just as valid, just as important, and possibly even better at accomplishing God’s purposes in a culture that is rapidly changing?

Things may not fully go back to the way they were.  Some normalcy may be a long way off.  So as we consider going back to church, instead of simply thinking about how to re-create a church service let's think through how we can truly uphold New Testament principles for being the church today.  We can learn lots from the churches we read about in the New Testament. Their gatherings were very different from what we know today as a Church Service, yet no one would say they were not legitimate churches!

Some Questions to consider: 

• How well does a typical church service fulfill the principles in this passage?
  
• Are there other types of gatherings you have experienced or that you can think of that uphold these principles well?
  
• Why do we tend to think that other forms of gathering together outside of a 'church service' are less valid or just optional?  How does this way of thinking impact our growth in the faith?   …our ability to endure and bear fruit under persecution or loss of religious freedoms? 
  
• What are some possible reasons why the church is growing more in countries where public church services are restricted?  How might they apply this passage and view meeting together?