A NEW NAME FOR "CHURCH"
I recently read an editorial in the magazine called Mission Frontiers, by Ralph Winter, in which he quotes a man named Bob Goldmann. Mr Goldmann makes the point that we should no longer use the term "church planting", but instead we should adopt the term "movements to Christ", or in other words fellowships built on families, not groups made up of loose individuals. His point is well taken because of the misunderstanding of what "church" really means to the average person in our Western society in this 21st century. In recent articles about the church we pointed out the scriptural meaning of the term church, and how it has come to mean something completely different in our day. To quote Mr Winter "We Americans live in a country where families are almost expected to drift apart, creating artificially 'individualized' people. Thus as a result we produce artificial "church" fellowships which collect loose individuals or family fragments into a surrogate family--which we then call a "church".
In much of the world this fragmentation of the family unit hasn't happened. There we still see families that are truly "multi-generational", which is much like those from NT times. In the scriptures we often read about whole families becoming "worshipping households" when one person from that home accepts Jesus as Savior. This is more the pattern of a local "church" as we see them in the NT. They didn't have buildings called "churches", so they met in each other's homes. This all changed of course in the 4th century when the church became part of the Roman Empire, and large cathedrals were constructed and called churches.
Today in our Western world we are seeing a definite move toward so called "house churches", where people can experience "koinonia" which is more like that mentioned in the NT. Perhaps these groups should even drop the term church from their name, and simply be known as "home fellowships". At least until we understand that the scriptural term "church" does not mean a building, a denomination of churches, or anything other than a group of followers of Jesus meeting for fellowship with their Lord. Jesus did say that wherever "two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among you" (Matt 18:20). It seems to me that is a proper description of "church" as it should be held, according to Jesus. And He should know because He said "I will build My Church" (Matt 16:18).
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer 2/10/11
I recently read an editorial in the magazine called Mission Frontiers, by Ralph Winter, in which he quotes a man named Bob Goldmann. Mr Goldmann makes the point that we should no longer use the term "church planting", but instead we should adopt the term "movements to Christ", or in other words fellowships built on families, not groups made up of loose individuals. His point is well taken because of the misunderstanding of what "church" really means to the average person in our Western society in this 21st century. In recent articles about the church we pointed out the scriptural meaning of the term church, and how it has come to mean something completely different in our day. To quote Mr Winter "We Americans live in a country where families are almost expected to drift apart, creating artificially 'individualized' people. Thus as a result we produce artificial "church" fellowships which collect loose individuals or family fragments into a surrogate family--which we then call a "church".
In much of the world this fragmentation of the family unit hasn't happened. There we still see families that are truly "multi-generational", which is much like those from NT times. In the scriptures we often read about whole families becoming "worshipping households" when one person from that home accepts Jesus as Savior. This is more the pattern of a local "church" as we see them in the NT. They didn't have buildings called "churches", so they met in each other's homes. This all changed of course in the 4th century when the church became part of the Roman Empire, and large cathedrals were constructed and called churches.
Today in our Western world we are seeing a definite move toward so called "house churches", where people can experience "koinonia" which is more like that mentioned in the NT. Perhaps these groups should even drop the term church from their name, and simply be known as "home fellowships". At least until we understand that the scriptural term "church" does not mean a building, a denomination of churches, or anything other than a group of followers of Jesus meeting for fellowship with their Lord. Jesus did say that wherever "two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among you" (Matt 18:20). It seems to me that is a proper description of "church" as it should be held, according to Jesus. And He should know because He said "I will build My Church" (Matt 16:18).
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer 2/10/11
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