Who is the Church

Who is the Church?

I ask upfront that you forgive me for venting in this post.

Who is the church? The answer may surprise you. The church isn’t the nice brick and mortar building you meet in for corporate worship. Many people believe that this is the church and their understanding would be wrong. The “Church” is the body of Christ where he is the head (Colossians 1:18). Therefore if you are a blood bought born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are a member of the church.

 Unfortunately many believe that if you don’t sit in the same building with them that you aren’t a member of the church. Being a member of these different buildings or congregations doesn’t mean that a your not a member of the church. What membership to these different places mean is that you choose to gather with them for corporate worship and also enjoy their fellowship.  I have been a member of many brick and mortar buildings and congregations such as Faith Baptist, Gilbert Street Baptist, Fairview Baptist, New Beginnings Baptist, and now Riverview Baptist as I have followed the Lord directing my life in service to him. Being members of these different places doesn’t mean that I don’t want to associate or fellowship with you. What it means is that God has another place for me to better serve him for the purpose of growing the kingdom and reaching lost souls.

This is a matter that is very personal to me and it really chaps my backside the way people act if you aren’t a member of their congregation. I have been unfriended on facebook and even shunned in public because I chose to move membership to another corporate body for worship. I’ve had “brothers” and “sisters” that have been at my house every other week for years, whose children were best friends with my children, whom we were always doing stuff together as a big family,  just walk away when we decided to change our building of corporate worship. While talking to one individual about their family and mine getting together for breaking bread and fellowship they informed me that “we no longer have anything in common since we no longer attended the same building for worship”. My family have been out in public and been ostracized by other members of these other buildings. They would turn and go another direction to avoid communication and fellowship. After a while we began to believe that we may have done something wrong and began to seek forgiveness for whatever we may have done to find out there wasn’t anything. We also began watching as others were being ostracized by people for the exact reasons we were.

This post is not for you to feel sympathy for me or anger for others. I am stating this because it is so wrong for supposed children of God to act like this. Again I say that if you are a blood bought born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are a member of the church; His Church. We should begin to act like the church, a body, and a family of God and Christ.

The Bible tells us in  1 Corinthians 12 that there is but one body having many members making up only one body. According to this if we all profess to be worshipping Christ and him alone the we are one body. Just as there are many parts to the body that make up the body and causes it to function as a body there will be many different buildings or congregations that form to do their part in the building and functioning of the body.

1 Corinthians 12 goes on to say that we are all to be different (not everyone is a foot or a hand) while at the same time unified in performing their specific functions for the body. The only way the body is going to truly fulfill its purpose is to begin living and acting like the body Christ intended.

In my humble opinion it is past time for those that claim to be of the body of Christ (the church) to grow up, humble themselves, repent, and seek the guidance and will of God. We need to being living by the commandments that Christ have given us starting with John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”! The Bible also tells us that if a man (person) says they love God but hate their brother they are a liar because if they don’t love their brother then they cant / don’t love God (my paraphrase of 1 John 4:20). If you aren’t loving (having fellowship and communion) your brothers and sisters in Christ then your aren’t living according to the Word and therefore may need to examine yourself to see if you be of the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

I love you and I’m praying you’ll receive this with the same heart of humility and love as I’m hoping to send it.