What is a Church?
Just hearing the word Church may have already given us a number of ideas about what that word means. We may think of the church we currently attend, we may think of the church we went to as a child, or we may imagine something we have seen in a movie or heard others describe.
The word itself has a simple meaning, a gathering of people.* It could be a group around a legislative body, or even something more casual. In the context of Christianity, the gathering is based around a shared belief. A shared understanding of the true nature of God and life itself.
What a Church is at its core, for a Christian, is a group of people, agreeing together about the person of Jesus and following His commands, one of which is to gather together.
A Church must be centered around something and here is where many Churches we could think of might drift away or become something that is unlike what the ancient historical church looked like. When a Church forms around anything other than the Biblical outline of truth, about God, Humanity, Salvation and Christ; they will inevitably become something other than the church of Jesus Christ.
To say that it is important to be a church based around the word of God is an understatement. Because not only will the church itself, its members and leaders, be subject to the evil that can grow out of a misplaced authority. But the purpose of the church will be lost as well. They will fail to be the WITNESS to the world, as they were called to be.**
When someone thinks of a church and it brings about memories of evil, money taken and spent lavishly, of people that are living lives in line with those in the world. The witness of that Church is for something other than the Gospel of Christ. That church is giving testimony to something other than submission to the will of God revealed in Scripture. But to the eyes of the onlooker, they simply think, “that is what Christians/Christ/Christianity is”.
It further deludes the truth claim of Christianity and it makes for a needless stumbling block for those to clearly see the true person of Christ and be able to come to saving faith in His work upon the cross.***
What we must do is make sure the church we are part of is built upon the solid foundation of Scripture, historically in line with orthodox beliefs, and practically calling each of its members to a Christ-like life in their daily walk. We also can ask those that have seen something else, something diluted, something evil, to instead look to our local body of Christ, and as Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
* https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?topic=ET0000828
**https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mat/5/14/s_934014
***https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/1co/8/9/s_1070009
