What is 'Church'?

I have been considering this simple question having read some friend's blogs and had some discussions with others. It seems that this simple question should have a simple answer, but that does not appear to be the case. The simplicity of the question almost generates inordinate complexity in response - and the reason I think for that is personal preference. Society today has become a very individualized system of relationships - not connections, but relationships. (Two buildings standing side by side are in relation to one another, but there is no connection between the two.) So to answer the question 'what is church?' - the answer would appear to be 'church is whatever I want church to be'.

Where did we get this notion from? Where did we get such a sense of entitlement where we believe that we can determine what church should be. When did we believe that those whom God has gifted, called and appointed to leadership should listen to those of us who are not called, gifted and appointed, but have an opinion nonetheless? When did we take Jesus out of the Captain's chair and set our own fat selves in that position? When did we determine what church should be?

There has been a lot of talk over the years about the Acts 2 church yet there does not seem to be that much activity to become the Acts 2 church. If you are wondering what the Acts 2 church is then read all of Acts 2 - not just the last few verses. The Acts 2 church was the beginning of the church - it started with an intense anointing and empowering by the Holy Spirit and ends with the disciples devoting themselves to their leader's teaching and to fellowship with each other. These people didn't just do Sunday services, check the box and live their life until the following week. No way! They did life together - every day.

Now I know what you are going to say - that is not practical. How can we meet every day? Wrong question. we should be asking How can we afford to not meet together each day?

The bottom line is that it comes down to priority. We face conflict in our lives each day and yet we only receive encouragement once a week. How can we adjust our lifestyle such that we place a higher priority in meeting together? How can we make sure that we are doing life together with the people that we meet with on Sundays? How can we be an Acts 2 church?

I think it comes down to a simple decision - like Nike proclaim to the world - JUST DO IT!!

We need to look at our day planners and schedules and not see where we can fit church in, but see where we can fit the other things that we give priority to into our fellowship and meeting with the body of Christ.

What would your week look like then? What would our church look like then? How would we impact our city if we met together with other believers every day? How much of a difference would our neighbors see in our lives? If we lived the way the Acts 2 church lived, do you think we would see the results they saw? Do you think we would see new converts added to the church EVERY DAY? Do you think we would see the sick healed EVERY DAY? Do you think we would see HIS KINGDOM COME like never before?

Wouldn't that be something. But I fear that we know best and the way we have decided to do church will continue and those results will be a thing of dreams and stories.