“I could go sit in a garage all day and that don’t make me a car”
Ah how I love that quote from Joyce Meyer. I’ve been listening to Joyce’s podcasts from iTunes during work and between travels to and from work.
I have met many “Christians” who claim their faith because they go to church. Some of them can even tell you how many times they go in a year: twice. Easter and Christmas.
This is a severe misconception of the identity of Christians.
“We don’t go to church to make us something, we go to church because we’ve been made something.”
So what is the purpose of the church if it doesn’t make you a Christian? This is a glimpse of one of the earliest churches (if not earliest!) from scripture,
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. – Acts 2:42-47, BibleGateway
There are some key points that you can extract from this passage in Acts.
- The church was a place of learning God’s Word through the teachings from the apostles, otherwise known today as pastors or priests.
- The church was a place of worshiping God with fellow believers.
- The church was a place of encouraging each other’s faith through God’s tranformation in people’s lives.
- The church was a place of caring for and meeting each other’s needs, be in physical or spiritual needs.
- The church was a place of enjoying one another’s company and friendship in a Christian community.
As you can see, there is no mention whatsoever about a church being in a physical building. The church represents the body of Christ whom we as believers are partakers of it (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
I hope this sheds some light on what the purpose of the church is.