The Church Is The People

If church is the people and not the building, then what makes church, church? The answer must be fellowship or gathering together. When those who have faith in God through Christ meet together or gather, that is when church happens. God’s Spirit living in each person makes the gathering of those people a church, not their place of meeting. There are more instances in the Bible about God’s Spirit coming upon or filling someone than instances of His Spirit inhabiting a place. He inhabits the praises of His people and is present when two or three gather in His name. Even unclean spirits seemed to prefer taking up residence in living creatures. Jesus always cast out demons or unclean spirits from people and never from a place or locale.  


So why do most believers think that the church is the building or even worse, the organization hosting them? This is likely a vestigial holdover from when the Israelites needed to visit the temple or carry the Holy Tabernacle. The early church - meaning the early “gathering” of believers - went to the temple and then went to fellowship in each other’s homes. They were seen as Jews in the temple and what would later be considered Christians the more they gathered in their homes. They needed to transition from the old ways to the new way. If the people are the church then it means that the church goes with those people. A single person brings the presence of God in an area and two people amplify that presence. We need to understand that one person’s body is God’s dwelling place and more “believing bodies” are more of God’s dwelling places. The Holy Spirit fills a person.  


Jesus’ death on the cross changed everything. His blood made a human body “holy” enough to house the presence of the Lord. His sacrifice removed the need for a sacrifice in the temple. We are in a new age and we should embrace this new found freedom. The freedom that Jesus made us the new tabernacles of God. We cannot hold on to the old ways which were limiting. We have to embrace the widening of the tent of meeting. God works with our level of faith and is patient with us. God never “throws the baby out with the bath water.” He seems to bring organic growth that allows us to have a solid faith, resulting in a deeper walk with Him that we can share with others. Growth calls for us to pivot into this new and expansive way. An embrace of a multitude of evangelical mediums (digital and non-digital). 


Does this mean that the church should not have a building? Not by any means. It just means that the church, which is the people, needs to understand that the building that they are meeting in is merely a shell to keep them sheltered from the elements. Nothing more than that. The people are the church and should therefore participate in their fellowship. Whether meeting in someone’s house or under a tree, they need to bring a psalm, scripture, word from the Lord (prophecy), or anything edifying. 


They should not neglect gathering together, but at the same time remember that faith is personal. Jesus is our Shepherd and Mediator so we need to have a personal relationship with Him. What makes a good church is the good practices when in fellowship and/or in the world. Do they minister to one another or do they tear each other down? Do they encourage and equip each other to go out and reach the world? Do they remember what God did for them and the world by sending Christ to die on the cross and be raised from the dead? Do they speak life? Are they the hands and feet of Christ? Or do they come together to measure each other’s piety and material possessions?


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