I've often told people that I question if the "institutional" church is even biblical. I don't think it is. I don't mean that it is sinful or wrong, just not the "church" as Jesus intended. He began an "Ecclesia"...a gathering or congregation of people who follow Him. The word "church" comes from a German word which means a building, structure or gathering PLACE, not people.
The Old Testament covenant established the "temple model" of worship, sacrifice and relating to God. This model was built around keeping the 600+ laws God gave Moses. The best example would be that all believers (who were men) must be circumcised. When Jesus came He established a NEW covenant that did away with the temple model and fulfilled the requirements of the Law for those who put their faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection. However, in the immediate aftermath of Jesus' resurrection and ascension, Many Jewish Christians attempted to merge the temple model with New Covenant faith and theology. The Apostle Paul preached, wrote and taught against the merging of these two approaches to faith. He knew that faith in Jesus was to bring freedom, whereas the temple model approach brought bondage to the Law.
So here's the rub: We are still attached to the temple model today. The Roman Catholic Church was largely responsible for bringing Christianity to the Western world and they had merged the temple model with faith in Jesus. So many realities of the institutional church today are aspects of the temple model of faith: Needing to go to a place to meet with God / The establishment of many written and unwritten rules in order to be a part of the church / A mindset that I have to DO certain things often enough to prove that I actually believe (go to church, give money, don't sin, etc).
Listen to what the Apostle Paul said to the church in Galatia about this issue (read all of Galatians, chapter 5 for a much more detailed account of Paul's teaching on this subject)...
Galatians 5:6 - For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Paul is saying that the requirements of the Law and the keeping of those rules holds no value anymore to those who follow Jesus! He says that under the New Covenant that Jesus established, the ONLY THING that matters is "faith expressing itself through love"! WOW! No more rule-keeping - No more guilt - No more failure to keep the law - No more of anything except our faith in Jesus expressing itself through our love for God and for other people!! Jesus said that this was the greatest...and only...commandment! Love God completely and love people authentically (the way you would want to be loved)! In this way, our faith brings freedom...not enslavement to rules! God says through Jesus, "I've got your back, I know you aren't perfect, stop worrying about it and love me as best you can and love others the way you want to be loved"!
So the "institutional church" is largely built on the temple model of a place and the keeping of laws and rules. That is NOT the Ecclesia that Jesus began. That group of people shared their faith, not as a program, but as a natural outflow of the freedom, forgiveness and new life they had experienced. The faith spread person to person and house to house organically. People saw how the early believers loved each other and wanted to be a part of them (Acts 2:42-47).
So I'm still wrestling with how to lead as a Pastor under this reality. Lord lead me and reform your Ecclesia!
