The Scope of the Gospel – The Church (Part 2)

A key to understanding the Gospel is in the original meaning of the word, which from the Greek translates to “the nearly too good to be true news”. The Gospel is the Good News of salvation and redemption through belief in the New Covenant in Christ’s own precious blood.

The Gospel is not necessarily church meetings, neither is it the rituals we associate with it, such as sacraments, the rosary and so on. I believe that early Christians would not have had buildings whose primary purpose was for fellowship and worship – they would have gathered together in people’s homes around food and drink. Early Christians would have known each other, rather than sitting in an auditorium, surrounded by strangers, as they listen to a man on stage preaching.

The meaning of “church” is the body of Christ, the people – “church” is not a building, as it has become today. The church would have gathered in social settings to discuss the Gospel – it would have been a celebration. There would have been no intimidation from a pastor, desperate to instil discipline and elicit acts of servanthood. There would have been no paid staff and little in the way of formal rules – it would have been natural and spontaneous, truly as the Spirit leads.

When attending a church becomes mandatory, a religious obligation, it often becomes stifling, coerced and even boring. Church has got to be allowed to form through natural, organic relationships. When this happens, the relationships are primary and the Gospel becomes secondary. This sounds sacrilegious at first, but it is the only way it can work. Otherwise, what happens is that people end up following religious routines in a church meeting, developing false friendships.

I honestly see no evidence, Biblical or otherwise, to support the notion that Christians are meant to gather in organised religious settings every single Sunday, engage in corporate “worship”, listen to a sermon and engage in religious ceremonies. Neither do I see any evidence to support Christians talking about God and Jesus as much as they do, or even reading the Bible as much as they do. My experience and heart tell me that once you know the Good News message of the Gospel, to the greatest extent, you are supposed to get on with your normal life, in a way that is natural for you.

For more information on organic churches, check out the book, Reimagining Church, by Frank Viola.

If all the things that man has attributed to the Gospel, don’t actually work, it begs the question what response from man the Gospel was meant to elicit?

Photo Eröffnung Restaurant Rheinspitz (Altenrhein, 07. Mai 2009) courtesy of Poiseon Bild & Text.