What is the church?
Discussion question for August 6, 2010.
There are various ways to understand the church, and what it is. What role should the church play in the life of a believer? What does Scripture teach us about the church? How can we discern among our traditions which are meaningful and which are distractions? What personal insights have you gotten as you ponder this question?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
We got a good start on understanding the defining characteristics of church. Most of our discussion had to do with things that come from Scripture, and we recognized that the “how” of their implementation tends to be traditional.
Singing Psalms, hymns and songs: Col. 3:16
Teaching and Admonishing: Col 3:16
Fellowship, gathering together: Heb. 10:25
Preaching (reproving, rebuking, exhorting): 2 Tim 4
Church building, sanctuary: Rev 21:9ff
Bride of Christ: Eph 5:26
Body of Christ: 1 Cor 12
Equipping the saints: Eph 4
Discipling: Matt 28:19ff
Ministry of Mercy: Acts 6
Coordination of giftedness: 1 Cor 12
Family: Mark 10:29-30
We talked about the “church universal” as the representation of all believers, and how that relates to the “local church” with physical and spiritual implications. Having run out of time in the discussion, we need to reengage the topic next week.