Church1

Church

The original meaning of the word church is a group of people called by God.  Today, the English word church is somewhat secular.  Often in a media report a church refers to a church building.  This is one of a few cases that Chinese translations are better than English.  Two words are used in Chinese: “teaching + building” and “teaching + assembly”. 

Another distinction we should know is that there are two important usages.  One is the universal church, which includes all true (born-again) Christians, starting from those in Acts to today until perhaps the end.  The second refers to a specific church, such as Fremont Community Church in Fremont, California.  Then, there are denominations.  Church is closely related to the Kingdom of God, hence, quite important. 

Parables of weeds and mustard seed

Important teachings in NT all have roots in Jesus preaching.  Let us consider parables of weeds and mustard seed in Matt. 13.  All these refer to the Kingdom of God. 

The good seed in the weeds parable (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43) may be interpreted as the word of God.  Various religions and sects may result from the seed.  This is why a well-recognized Bible version is so important. 

The mustard seed parable (Matt. 13:31-32) may be interpreted for different churches.  At first, this parable looks strange.  A mustard seed grows into a tree.  The bird implies Satan (13:4,19).  One interpretation is that this implies the Roman Catholic Church, which became corrupt.  One lesson here is that big is not necessarily good.  If a church grows too big so that it lost its focus, man made rules become implicit laws. 

A distributed system

When church grows big, a distributed system is better than a centralized system.  One might think of the word democracy.  However, democracy is a political term while the word distributed has no such implication.   Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Local Churches are too centralized. 

Biblical

A good church has to be biblical.  Not only it should use a widely recognized Bible but also its doctrines and creeds must be sound. 

The NT consists of 4 books on gospels, Acts and epistles, and revelation.  Gospels are mainly historical records of Jesus teaching.  Acts and epistles give a blueprint of saints (Christians) and apostolic churches.  

Churches today

All Protestant churches today try to be biblical.  Two things are important.  Should we use a scientific approach or an engineering approach?  Perhaps a mixed one is more appropriated.  We would like a church to be perfect.  However, a church consists of a group of sinners.  Its leaders (pastors, elders, or deacons) are sinners as well. 

I hope that you can see why I insist on using English Bible now.  Tense and plurality are very important but not reflected in Chinese. 

Denominations

W. Nee strongly criticized denominations.  This is understandable at the time and place.  I disagree with him on this.  In fact, when I visit a church it is always helpful to know its denomination and history.  This helps me to know its creeds, doctrines, strong features, and weak points.  Every church has problems.  It is better to be open about it. 

Fellowship among the churches

I Corinthians 12:12-26 (although individual Christian was meant here, I think that these can apply to churches) and Matt. 7:1-5.  Leaders of churches should fellowship often on doctrines, truths, methodologies, etc.  Of course, they must start with the Bible. 

Chinese or American 

Actually, the term Chinese church is unclear.  Is it a church of Chinese or a church of Chinese speaking Christians?   Let us use a Chinese church for a church for Chinese speaking people and American church for a church for English speaking people. 

You may have noticed that I used the term Local Churches above.  This is an oxymoron but I cannot find a right phrase.  After all, there is a Buddhist Church advertised in the Argus, a local newspaper in Fremont, California. 

In the Bible, apostolic churches can be as small as a house church and can be as broad as a large region.  There are no Jew churches, Greek churches, Syrian churches, etc.  I Corinthian 12:12-13, Colossians 3:11, and Galatians 3:26-28 are teachings on this.