ecclesiology 101
For we are God's building... like living stones being built into a house. (1 Corinthians 3:9; 1 Peter 1.5)
The New Testament teaches us three radical truths about the nature of the Church.
God's building is not a holy place;
God's building is a holy people...
God’s building is not inanimate;
God’s building is alive…
God's building is not complete;
it is still under construction…
God’s building is a holy people. Followers of Jesus Christ do not go to church for the simple reason that followers of Jesus Christ are the Church. We do not go to church each week; we go to worship each week. Christians in our culture have to fight against an Edifice Complex that tempts us to place our identity in buildings rather than in relationships. A building has never preached the gospel, housed the homeless, fed the hungry, healed the sick, loved the lonely, or delivered the afflicted. Together, we are God’s building—He promises to dwell among us. Individually, we are not the building, we are the brick!
Individual followers of Jesus Christ may not echo the proclamation of Henry David Thoreau, "I am my own church." Time and again, Scripture exhorts us not to neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some (Hebrews 10.25). Nothing guts the momentum of a Christian fellowship faster than sporadic participation and attendance. How will the bricks be built together if they remain scattered and distant? Scripture is very clear: God expects our faith to be lived out in the community. He intends us to be contributors, not merely consumers—to be otherwise is to deprive and weaken God's house. He calls us to be a vital part of a people movement that is much greater than we can ever imagine or implement alone.
God’s building is alive. The Church is made up of living stones, not cold, inanimate ones. The building God is constructing is alive to Christ and responsive to His call. It is neither ostentatious nor pretentious. It is not constructed for the privileged few or for other bricks that look just like us. The building of the Lord is a multipurpose structure designed to be a living reference point for the arrival of God's kingdom. The bricks are not fixed or inflexible. While this analogy may be an architectural impossibility, it reflects God's design for His Church today. He is building one Church—united, interdependent, and alive. Yet our impact upon the world shall be contingent upon our—the bricks’—willingness to be built together by the Lord into the house of His choosing.
God’s building is still under construction. It may be helpful to remember that most buildings under construction look like a terrible mess, at least to our untrained eye, until the last stage is reached. The same is true with the Church. The dust and dirt, chaos and confusion may make it hard to believe that this could really be the temple of God. Yet, if we have faith and patience, we will see that the Architect and Builder is hard at work and knows very well what He is doing. He has established our foundation and set our cornerstone—Jesus Christ. His personal oversight ensures that the house will be radiant, responsive, and resilient. It is the life of Jesus among us that will sustain the whole and give shape to what is built. In Him, the whole building is joined together and will arise to become a holy temple in the Lord (see Ephesians 2:21).
Every generation that fails to grasp and implement these simple truths is destined to create a church that will be little more than an irrelevant religious icon on the cultural landscape and not the transforming presence that God has intended her to be. She will be visionless, passionless, exclusive, and mired in institutional self-preservation. Membership will displace discipleship. Conformity will eclipse creativity. Political agendas (whether on the right or the left) will replace God’s Kingdom mandates. Quid-pro-quo will consume agape.
The apostle Peter observed, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house." This raises two immediate questions for every follower of Jesus Christ— including pastors (!):
Does your commitment to Jesus Christ reflect His high priority and design for the Church?
Does your lifestyle reflect a priority for worship and community in your local congregation?
Don't deprive the Temple of the “brick” God made you to be!
