Discovering Biblical Church

By Brother Barnabas

Biblical church -- organizing our churches, leadership structures, meetings, and ministries the way the New Testament teaches us -- has been long forgotten in many churches today. Many of us are either doing things the way they have always been done or we are looking to the business world and the culture around us to try to find out why our numbers are shrinking and our influence in the community around us is negligible. It's time for us to get back to the basics of New Testament Christianity and pattern our churches and our lives upon the teachings of Jesus and the leadership and organizational principles taught by Paul and other writers of the New Testament. Discovering Biblical Church takes the readers through 40 thought-provoking devotional articles that compare churches today with the church described in the New Testament. As we look honestly at how we do church and what we value most, and then compare that with the values that Jesus and Paul taught, we will be shocked at the difference. So open the pages with an open mind and an open heart, and let's discover together how to pattern our churches and lives in the way that the Bible teaches us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brother Barnabas
• Release date: Mar 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370051670

Brother Barnabas

Brother Barnabas is the pen name for a cohort of like-minded writers and editors whose goal is to encourage pastors, priests, and church leaders across the Body of Christ at large. While many articles are written by the same author and have a similar style, the life experiences related in the articles come from a variety of people rather than just one person. In fact, some of the illustrations are fictitious and were created to help make the point of the article.

Book preview

What Is Church?

Which of the following is the Biblical definition of church? Or, to put it another way, what did Jesus have in mind when he told Peter, On this rock I will build my church.

A) A church is a building and Jesus was a carpenter so he was telling Peter that He would build a magnificent cathedral with towering steeples and awe-inspiring décor.

B) A church is a worship service and Jesus was telling Peter that He would establish a Sunday morning program where the multitudes could come and receive the blessings and wisdom of the clergy.

C) A church is an assembly of people called out from the general population so Jesus was telling Peter that He would build a body of people who would be called out to follow Him.

The well-educated among us will be quick to point out that the answer is C and that the Greek word for church is ekklesia and it refers to an assembly; a gathering of people called out of their homes to meet in some public place. (Thayer's Greek Lexicon) Greeks originally used ekklesia to refer to representatives coming together in a public place to debate the issues of the day. Christians began using the term as Jesus did, to refer to an assembly of Christ-followers who came together for worship, teaching, and mutual encouragement.

However, in today's culture, this original meaning has been overlooked and at times seems to be completely lost. People everywhere, whether well-educated to the original meaning or not, use the word church to refer to a worship service or a building: Are you going with us to church this morning? or I left my Bible at the church.

To many people, it might seem as if I am splitting hairs here and it really doesn't make much difference how we use the word church and what the original meaning is. But take just a minute or two to think about it more. What are we losing when we begin to think about the church as a building rather than the people? What are we losing when we begin to think about the church as a worship service or performance that we attend rather than a group of people of which we are a valuable part?

When we routinely refer to the church as something outside of ourselves, whether it be a building constructed and maintained by others, a worship service dominated by others, or even an organization led by others, we cheat ourselves out of our proper place as valuable members of the body of Christ. We see ourselves as outsiders looking in rather than as a valuable part of the body. We stand back and criticize instead of being part of a solution. Problems are seen as someone else's problems and not our own. We lose out on the joy and fulfillment of serving God and his people because we are standing on the outside looking at the church rather than being the church.

So try to change your thinking a bit and help others along the way by the calling the church building the church facility, campus, or building. Call the Sunday morning service a worship service or Sunday celebration or whatever is an appropriate name for the meeting. And when people ask you why you are making changes to your vocabulary, just tell them, It is because the church is the people! And we need each and every member of the church to realize that he or she is a valuable part of what God is doing in us and in our community. The church is not a building, service, or organization. We are the church; we must come together and be the church!

Let's Pray Together: Lord, help me to see Your church the way You see it, as people and relationships rather than buildings and services. Open my eyes so that I can see all that the church can be and should be. Reveal to me any mistakes I have made or misguided ideas that I might have about the church. Thank you that any mistakes I have made are covered by the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross provides forgiveness not only for me but all who call on Your name. Thank you that You see Your church as a radiant bride, pure and without blemish, perfect in every way through the cross of Christ. Help me to see people as You see them and help me to forgive my brothers and sisters in Christ with whom I have had disagreements and hard feelings. I forgive these people I bring before you now...(continue praying as you feel led…)

Join the Conversation! To leave a comment or to see what others are saying, go to the What is Church? Comments Page on the discoveringbiblicalchurch.com website.

To receive encouraging emails about Discovering Biblical Church: Sign Me Up!

Discovering Biblical Church Day 2:

The Body of Christ

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)

Heard by a fly on the wall in a meeting of denominational leaders: Why is it so hard to find pastors these days? When we graduated back in the day young men were lining up to have their shot at being a pastor! And why are so many pastors burning out and quitting the ministry? Every day dozens if not hundreds of pastors call it quits and nearly as many churches are closing their doors. What is wrong? What has changed?

The conversation that was birthed by the comments above ranged from the obvious pressures of church leadership – the responsibilities of being a leader, the weight of the church, the midnight calls for pastoral care, the conflicts with people, the countless hours of meetings and sermon preparation, the backseat pastors and the front-row critics – the list of lamentations went on and on. But not one person brought out the unfortunate truth – God never intended the entire weight of the church to be on the shoulders of one man.

Nowhere in the New Testament does the Apostle Paul or anyone else describe the role of the senior pastor and how many hours he should put in and how much he and his professional staff should get paid to take care of the laypeople. Instead, Paul draws a picture of a church body where everyone plays a part and everyone grows in the Lord and everyone is a servant of God. The weight of the church and the responsibilities of leading meetings, teaching the Word, and shepherding people is not laid upon one person but upon a group of Spirit-led leaders who get their direction from the Head of the body and then carry out His instructions to the members of the body. Unity among the church leadership comes from staying connected to the Head so that they can then move together in unity to direct the affairs of the church, teach the Word, and care for the people.

And yes, those that teach the Word are worthy of double honor and those that put in many hours of service for the church and the Lord are worthy of compensation. However, college degrees and ministerial licenses are not required for a church leadership position and the lack of a degree or ministerial license does not disqualify a person from church leadership or being able to teach the Bible or lead a service or meeting. In fact, a healthy church body will grow its own church leaders on its own without the help of Bible colleges and seminaries. It will simply be what happens as the church represents Christ to the lost and invites newcomers to follow Jesus and grow in Him and become leaders in His body.

In a healthy expression of the Body of Christ, the distinction between the clergy and the laity – between those who are ministers and those who are not – is not emphasized. For if all the ministry is being done by one or two ministers while the rest of the members of the body become immobile, the body becomes dysfunctional and crippled. In fact, it is not much different than a man who is paralyzed and his effected members waste away due to lack of activity and exercise. Many members of the Body of Christ waste away and cease to work simply for the lack of exercising the gifts and callings that God placed within them.

In other words, the Body of Christ as expressed in many local churches today is quite literally crippled by a reliance on one or two professional ministers or a senior pastor and staff to do the work that ought to be done by a whole body of believers. Many sincere Christians today have become paralyzed by a belief that the work of the ministry is supposed to be done by only a handful of people who have a special calling on their lives.

We have totally ignored whole portions of Scripture like 1 Corinthians 12, where the church is described as a body, and Ephesians Chapter 4, where the church is described as being led by a group leaders made up of prophets, apostles, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. There are many other Scriptures that speak of this, especially about the church being a body and every member having spiritual gifts and diverse abilities, but for now we will leave those topics for another time.

Before we close for now, though, let's answer the question the denominational leaders were wrestling with: Why is it hard to find pastors? Why are so many pastors leaving professional ministry?

It's because God never intended the weight of the church to be on one person's shoulders. It was meant to be spread out over the whole body of Christ. He clearly shows us that in the Bible but we have chosen to ignore His instruction and we have done so at our own peril. We justify it by saying it's the way we have always done it but that does not make it right nor functional. The present-day hierarchical church structure is based upon traditions that syncretized into the church from pagan religions and they are not Biblical. It is time for a change. It is time to discover what Biblical church looks like and make the changes necessary to become the church described in the New Testament.

Let's Pray Together: Lord, give me a vision for the church as You want it to be. Show me what my place is in Your church – as a leader, as a servant, or as both, or whatever it is You want me to be. Help me to rise up and be the person of God You want me to be and help me to encourage others to do the same. Speak to those in my local church who see themselves as spectators and help them to see that they are valuable members of Your Body.... (continue praying along these lines as you feel led)

Join the Conversation! To leave a comment or to see what others are saying, go to the The Body of Christ Comments Page on the discoveringbiblicalchurch.com website.

To receive encouraging emails about Discovering Biblical Church: Sign Me Up!

Discovering Biblical Church Day 3:

The Temple of the Living God

Which one of the following is in the Bible?

A) For your church sanctuary is the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in the sanctuary and walk among them. Keep the carpets and the furniture clean, for the sanctuary is holy ground.

B) For your church meetings make up the temple of the living God. As God has said: If your people wear their Sunday best, dressed and adorned appropriately, then I will dwell in them and walk among them.

C) For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

(For help, see 2 Corinthians 6:16)

Which one of the above is important to the church you attend? Do church members put a high value on the building and especially the sanctuary, calling it the house of God and the place where He dwells? Or is there an emphasis on dressing up and looking nice to go meet with God?

In either case, I’ve got a reminder for you: God doesn’t dwell in temples or sanctuaries made by human hands. And you don’t have to dress