The casualness with which so many Christians currently take the matter of a visible church is a cause for concern about clarity and truth. The faith and conduct of true Christians themselves, who are the Church according to the Bible, is the main point and that before any sectarianism is introduced to assist in advancing the church as a social institution. The first involves all Christians who in aggregate comprise the Church, and a structure seen by all passers-by identifying a congregation as a church. The difference in spiritual congregation and the secular building (office of a congregation) is important, even vital in the understanding of the meaning of Church as it appears in Scripture, and as a guide for persons having interest in understanding what Christianity means. Our concern here is for the physical mass we call a church.
Recently in a full article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune the reporter quoted the minister he was interviewing. Interest related to a house church. That is, a congregation met in homes, in buildings not dedicated to the sacred purpose of worship and ministry. The pastor of the Epic Life Church stated: There is no place in the Bible that teaches that folks should meet in a building. There was a feeling, stated succinctly by someone, No Church, no steeple, but a lot of people. This group had a significant number of good people as constituents. The problem is, if my long experience may be some indicator, these congregations tend to fade away. Further, the pastor’s statement is really incorrect. The Bible has considerable to say about the center where persons enter for the prime purpose of the building – to have a House of God on earth. The Tabernacle of Moses and Aaron occupies chapters in the early books of the Bible. The dedication of the Temple under Solomon is a high point, perhaps the highest, in the Old Testament. The Restoration Temple in the days after the release of Israel from Babylon is a bright part of that era. Jesus gave the concept strong support, not only in his own attendance in the Temple refurbished by Herod, but also in the synagogue movement. To make a statement that the building is somewhat superfluous to Christianity gives strong support to part of secular society that would do away with virtually anything om earth that would be related to spiritual vision, and specifically to God in Jesus Christ.
All this is a drama of the tension between mankind and God. Why do we not sense the meaning (when we do not) in a statement like: I dwell in a sealed house, while God dwells in a tent, or even a believer’s home? There is an implication of value, or priority, of arrogance in the author, unless it is a recognition that something ought to be done to make right some disparity. That persons may worship God in the privacy of their homes, there ought to be no doubt. That they can, for a period, make the plan work, there ought to be no doubt. Will the congregation be alive fifty or so years from now, I have serious doubt. The early Church of the New Testament years quickly addressed the issue. Home churches would in the course of initiation of Christian faith in a community, be natural. The Catacombs, used as a place of worship, was not the first choice of Roman Christians, but a response to state suppression. To worship among skeletal remains was to inform the State, perhaps also God, of the determination of believers to congregate. One of the ways, an important one, believers express their faith is in the church edifice, but that without an edifice complex. The history of the development of the physical church structure has offered considerable evidence of the faith of the people, and an influence in a community. Many communities, for a period of time, would not permit a building to be constructed that would be taller than the highest local church spire. Some decades ago in a well-known American city, a storm wrecked two large church buildings. I had spoken in one of them a couple of years before the destruction, and was impressed at the use of the building and its effectiveness. It was rebuilt after the storm and flourishes. The other church decided to go to house churches and meet in a rented auditorium once a quarter and special days – like Easter. A few years later, the last of the house churches closed. The people had drifted away to other visible churches. Few new persons had joined while the plan was failing. The physical building is necessary. Scripture so carefully prescribes the physical sacred temple of worship that we regard the import. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020