From the time I was a child, I loved church and was there every time the doors opened because my dad was the pastor. I loved the services, singing, friends, fellowship, banquets and potlucks, celebrations, volunteering, and outreach to the community. I went from crawling under pews and lying on them in my younger years to putting hymnals back in their place and picking up discarded bulletins as I got older. I have great memories of it all. I missed church when I moved out of my parents’ house as a young adult, but not enough to attend regularly.

When my conversion happened at 27, I dove right back into church. I loved it then, too. I loved some of the same things I did as a child, but as an adult, I became a member, and I took my membership seriously. I loved serving on committees and teaching classes for little ones (especially my own), as well as some classes for adults (hello, Dave Ramsey!). But as an adult, and now knowing Christ, I was more invested in doctrine and theology. I took reading and understanding my Bible seriously. I listened intently to sermons, trying to glean as much information and knowledge as possible. I loved Christ. I loved his Word. I loved his people. I loved church.

After you’ve been involved in church for any length of time, you start seeing the problems, not only with fellow sinner-saints like yourself, but also with how your church runs and what its priorities are. It was only a couple of years before we moved on from that specific church because of theological differences, and eventually, after attending a myriad of different types of churches, we ended up in a Reformed Presbyterian denomination. We spent the next 16 years in that same denomination between two local congregations (the only Reformed churches in our area), as active members in good standing.

I loved being a church member and using my gifts to encourage and bless other people. I loved the Westminster Catechism; I loved the clear, easy answers it gave to questions I had asked since childhood (We weren’t catechized in the Assemblies of God, and I didn’t even know what catechism was). It fit me well, and I fell into the reformed “camp” and all that it entailed.

Then, reality hit. The leaders who were supposed to guard against wolves and false teachers instead became gatekeepers of information, protecting themselves rather than the congregants they were responsible for. When the Gospel was not being preached, and another Jesus was, I knew we were no longer assembling together as we had been instructed, but were just attending a moral club. And no one seemed to care.

Do you remember that old poem that used your hands? It went like this: Here is the church, Here is the steeple, Open the door and see all the people. Your hands would mimic the church building, then you’d point your index fingers together to make a steeple, and lastly, you would roll your hands over to see all your wiggling fingers -the people. It’s cute, but it’s not accurate. The church is not a building.

I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I heard the song “House of the Lord,” and I thought, “Hey, wait! How is this the ‘house of the Lord’ if the Holy Spirit resides in us individually? Our body is referred to as His temple. Then I started realizing how often we treat the church building as if it is “The Church,” the Holy of Holies, a sacred place. We call the rooms we congregate in sanctuaries. Some churches have altars.

We arrive at this idea easily enough, since the temple and the House of the Lord are frequently referenced in the Old Testament. King David desperately wanted to build a permanent temple (or house) for the Ark of God, but God would not let him; instead, God gave this work to David’s son, King Solomon (2 Samuel 7). Recently, as I was reading through Ezekiel, I was struck by the amount of detail in his vision describing God’s new temple (starting in Ezekiel 40). Some believe that this will be a literal temple built in the future, while others interpret this as a symbolic vision of how God blesses His people through Christ. Regardless of the meaning, the lengthy description of the temple seems noteworthy.

Acts 17:24 states, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.” Instead, the New Testament makes it clear that believers in Christ are the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 6:19-20)

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Cor 3:16-17

The church is not a literal building (1 Cor 3:9). It’s not a system. It’s not a tool for political, societal, or individual gain. It’s a body, made up of many members, that are all valuable. They assemble themselves together in various places; in the New Testament, it was mainly people’s homes. Which some people still do today.

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many…27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27

Some things our current church systems lack are:

• One anothering – Loving one another, bearing each other’s burdens, encouraging one another, confessing sins to one another, being of the same mind, to name a few. Here’s a list of many more: https://overviewbible.com/one-another-infographic/
• Multiple Perspectives: We should hear from more than one person preaching a sermon each Sunday and have orderly interaction with one another in this setting. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:26 that when we come together, we should each be bringing a song, a lesson, a revelation, etc., in order to build one another up. Here are a few more thoughts on that: https://freegrace.in/did-every-christian-get-to-participate-in-worship-1-corinthians-1426/
• Opportunity for Development: When we are given opportunities to edify one another as Christ has called us to, it fosters maturity and prevents us from stagnating or remaining infants in the faith, unable to teach (Heb. 5:12-14). Here’s some more information on building up one another to maturity in Christ: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Maturity,-Spiritual

“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.” Hebrews 10:24-25

The true Church loves and cares for each other and for those outside of their assembly.

Recently, I listened to an interview from the Church Dropout Podcast titled “What if We are Getting Church Wrong? Recovering NT Church Practices. Their discussion is so good! Dr. Tom Wadsworth points out that the current approach from the (institutional) church does not lead to mature Christians. Even if you don’t agree with their conclusion, shouldn’t we be asking the questions they are trying to answer? To be clear, Dr. Tom is not necessarily encouraging people to leave their church, but encourages small groups where people can use their gifts.

(Check out his series of 7 videos on Worship: https://www.youtube.com/@tomwadsworth)

I still love Christ, his Word, and his people, who are the Church. But the American church model has taken the true Church (a body of individual believers) and turned what was supposed to be a place of growth and fellowship into a place of ritual and entertainment. The current church model has turned Christians into consumers and observers who no longer connect with others when they assemble, but check “church” off their Sunday morning to-do list and move on with their real life. There is something insidious inside the American church system, and it cannot continue this way.

“…and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18