by Robert Burk

Created on: June 29, 2009

Christians agree; believers are the church. But if we are the church then why is there no universal Christian Church? Denominations, creeds and cults all call themselves a church but according to Scripture, there is but one Church and that is supposed to be us.

Christian's talk about the church being a temple built on faith. It is, they say, built from the hearts and the minds of the faithful but when Christians build it is mostly bricks and mortar they use. Where is this edifice carved from the hearts and minds of the Christian believer?

Christians say we cannot measure the size of the Church by counting the numbers who attend services. But then what is a congregation but a number of people in a building and why do we persist in calling this body a church? Why is so much importance placed on the denomination we belong to and the creed we follow if creeds and denominations do not form the heart of the church? Why do Church documents create unbridgeable chasms between people who share the same faith? If the greatest cost congregations face is in building and maintaining the physical assets of the church then how true is it that Christianity is about people and not about things? Christians talk about 'going to church' but if they are the church how can they go to where they are? If Christ is where two or three are gathered in his name then why do so many people who believe in him trek to a particular location and call this, 'the house of the Lord'?

What is sacred about a space, enclosed or not? Christians talk and Christians act but Christians do not act as they talk. They do not behave as they say they believe. They are not the people they would be if what they do arose from what they believe.

There is a contradiction here. There is a contradiction in our talk. There is a contradiction in the way we behave if we truly believe.

Christians need not be surprised. People never live according to their principles; we all fall short of the glory of God. However, the inconsistency between what the Bible says and what we have built cannot be written off simply as a failure of principles.

Our body is the temple of Christ but our resources are spent on maintaining, expanding and upgrading buildings. Our bodies are the Church yet we say that in our sanctuaries we stand on 'Holy ground'? Surely these concerns, this worry, over bricks and mortar is misplaced if the work of building God's kingdom is what we are about? Surely this lifting up buildings to the glory

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>