Permit me to question the purpose of Sunday morning gathering of Christian believers.
I am doing this as a sincere follower of Christ that seeks to get more from the 2 hours spent with other believers in the presence of God other than a rebel looking for an excuse to not attend Sunday service.
The need to visit the church practice didn’t just start today as there was a record of Jesus being driven to so much vexation due to the activities in church gatherings that made him whip and drive everyone out of the synagogue. He made a statement during that event the I believe should serve as the basis for Christian gathering. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’“.
I have seen radical change and extreme innovation and branding (a product of modernisation you might say) introduced to Sunday worship by newly emerging churches which has, in turn, contributed to an influx of congregants to these churches. Orthodox churches are now mostly a church for the elderly folks who were raised in that path and can’t derail from custom and of course their teenage and younger kids who have no choice but to follow them.
I have been part of both sides of the coin, orthodox and charismatic and I still have my dissatisfaction.
Should our Sundays be just a time to sit in the pews, sing hymns and listen to a vibrant sermon on Holiness and Godliness, but little or nothing on how we should be fairing on all other aspects of our lives? Or should it be the modernised kind when we hear sermons on entrepreneurship and personal branding most Sunday mornings but nothing on how to combat the sin that lurks in our hearts?
Or should we adopt a practice from more civilised countries where you gather in homes, you chat for a while about life happening while having biscuit and coffee then gather there after for charge from the bible and you wrap everything up by someone saying a prayer?
Please don’t get me wrong, this post isn’t to point accusing fingers but to question the present system. Can it be better? Is this what it is supposed to be?
A great population of Christian youths don’t go to church and those that do are not any better for it, so what is missing?
Who is at fault?
If Jesus is to enter our Sunday gatherings, will He need His whip to chase some practices out of our midsts?
I shared these thoughts with a friend and here are his contributions.
“My belief is that the church needs to be more dynamic and practical. So this is what I propose: Let the usual Sunday service where we teach godliness and righteousness continue and then let’s have weekly, bi-weekly meetings in other areas of life that could help believers. It’s going to be difficult for our orthodox churches to blend Sunday services with business and branding. But I’m sure organizing meetings during the week wouldn’t affect their level of holiness.”
These are questions, please who’s got answers? Kindly contribute to a comment.
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I’ll like to recommend a post similar to this, click here –> THE WHOLE CHURCH THING
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I’m sure it was worth every second spent on it. Thank you for dropping by, hope you’ll leave a comment also ;).
I have these questions over and over, but it seems like I continue to sound like an unbeliever, but then, the church should be a gathering for believers, it however seems like we have had a massive influx of “fake” believers… In the end, let us all, one by one, have a resolve to be true christians. With that, things would change and be better… Nice piece…
Why do you echo my mind? Been pondering this since Easter. I have this to say… I believe church needs to give this family and security belonging. I am of the opinion we share the word in groups, praying one for another. Identifying and touching our needs. We just need to keep fellowship simple, focused and precise. And yes, holiness and wholesome well being is part of it.
WARNING : THIS COMMENT IS KINDA LENGTHY. PARDON THE EPISTLE.
Well, due to the large number and diversity of churches available today, I think it’d be quite difficult to speak about the church as a whole- what obtains in church A doesn’t necessarily hold in church B so what’s ‘wrong’ in church A won’t be what’s ‘wrong’ in church B.
However, I do believe that key elements that will make a church relevant in today’s society are:
1. A place of fervent prayers; not just the ‘kill all the enemies’ or the ‘me, myself and I’ kind but prayers that seek the will of God concerning the events on the earth today. ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ needs to return to our lips.
2. A place of true worship; where there’s ample time for attendees to worship God. Seriously, the 10 minutes quickie sessions of ‘praise’ won’t cut it. Isn’t He (God) the primary object of our gathering? Why give so little time to what He values?
We must make a practice of glorifying Jesus in our services in such a way that anyone who comes in, even for the very first time will know clearly who’s at the center of everything we’re doing. When Jesus is genuinely glorified in a church, conviction and repentance flows almost spontaneously.
3. A place of fellowship; where people can feel and see the love of God practiced in reality. After all the grammar and ‘branding’, if we don’t genuinely love people, we’re just clanging cymbals.
4. A place of accurate and life-applicable teachings; I can’t connect with a long list of Greek and Hebrew words when I cannot see how to import the ‘revelation’ being shared to my daily life. Our teachings (sermons) shouldn’t be to fill people’s heads with knowledge but to change their lives.
As your friend suggested, the church should also host other events to adequately address other areas of life such as family and relationships, business and career development, even health and personal wellbeing. These are very, very important, but for Sunday services, let’s just focus more on Jesus.
I DID WARN YOU…Loll..
I didn’t feel like making any comment but this keeps bothering me, and I mention it in prayers regarding the church where I worship.
First, what’s really the purpose of the church?
At times, when I read my bible and I come across verses where Paul talks about people prophesying and interpreting tongues that he even mentions that there should not be confusion when such is in progress (1 Cor 14); which means, in those times, there were so many people operating the gifts of the Spirit that it was like they take turns to operate in their gifts, I ask myself, why don’t we see that anymore these days?
Holiness sermons are good, and all that, but I can tell you this, I am tired of hearing all those over and over again when I know there’s much more than that.
Leave motivational talks to the ‘Brian Tracys’, management talks to the ‘Warren Buffets’, business talks to the business experts. There are a lot of people who do that and I can tell you that some are not even church people and they’re doing really good. And we can learn from them. After all, we see their books in print all around that you need not to have even seen them in person to learn from them.
All we should see in church is the power of God! That’s what draws people to church fast. The unbelievers would flow into it; is that not the point of the church? If churches would keep hindering the Holy Spirit from moving freely, so that we would see the supernatural power of God descend in our midst, and His supernatural acts, then we’ll keep operating below what we’re expected to. Of course power would come when other things have been set in motion; some of which my fellows above have mentioned.
Well, I can’t go into more details now than I have cos I’m not preaching and I have no idea whether I have deviated now, but I’ll enter this comment as it is. Lol. 🙂
May God Help His Church! Amen.
I strongly resisted the urge to reply your comment but, here I am – felt compelled to add my voice to this (this is an addition, not a correction or anything like that)
When we talk about ‘the power of God’, we must understand that we are talking about much more than the emotional displays and gyrations or being ‘slain in the Spirit’. Every ‘manifestation’ must be towards the edification (building up) of the faith, spiritual strength and understanding of those who attend. Showmanship is so not needed.
And above all, it must all point folks back to God’s love, to Jesus and the cross, not to impress people with the ‘spirituality’ of our services
#Jesus At The center
Hmmmmmm,very timely message…Church ha lost its value..church dnt model christ again…we dnt preach Jesus again, all we hear is personal xperiences nd testimony..sometimes we jst come to hear downloaded/repeated msgs frm spiritual father’s nd G.O’s..all we do nw is doctrines nd wat our pastor’s/bishop/G.O’s wish&desires…Its soooo sad hw church has nw become a place where we celebrate d rich nd tag dia riches as d blessings of God nd then see the poor as sinful nd probably needs to be more righteous nd prayerful so they can be blessed…the church has lost its value..Church is d where u cant excellence&consistency..its still church bro nd sis u will see rocking flexing in clubs nd joint.I like church but I wish it will be a caring family&nt jst a building..I wish it will model integrity..I wish it will affect d community..I wish it can show us d person of Jesus nd nt jst reading stories to us…I wish it can be like”and evrybody brought alk dey have and dia was no one lacking amongst them”….I celebrate ya’ll
The Church in the world has two roles. The edification of saints and the saving of sinners.
1. the edification of the saints: A Christian only gets better when He subjects Himself to the will of God. That’s the purpose of the church on the earth, to show and do God’s will on the earth. That’s why the holiness messages need to ring again and again, our preachers only need to be more dynamic about it because the world is changing and there is a need to point out what holiness is in today’s world.
2. The saving of sinners: we need to be careful about saving sinners lest we become them. that’s the mistake of the modern churches. the world is looking for ways to make us more like them and we have to be wary of what they offer. Our responsibility is not to bring people to the church, our responsibility is to turn them to God. We also have to be flexible in our approach.
Most churches have more than one service a week. Each service should have it’s purpose along these lines. Christianity is about Balance, challenging the status quo by the Spirit while maintaining the moral law clearly stated in the Word. That was Christ’s Example to us.
This same topic as been on my mind for quite a while, I have gone through the comments and honesty most contributions are really good and practical but this I ask myself “How is it that the gathering of believers in acts had so much impact to the extent they (the church) became solution providers not only for the spiritual needs of people but also other needs from attentions to windows and children to financial needs of fellow brothers” I mean the church was so impactful deacons where choosen to tend to the growing population of women and children so the apostle could concentrate more on spreading the gospel read Acts 6:1-4 for reference.
one word echoed in my heart UNITY the church is like a single organism (pardon for the use of this particular word but it buttress my point) God views all “true” believers as one, Paul uses the word his bride(referring to us the church) as in ONE, regardless of our denomination the spirit of God in each and everyone of us should resonate as one. And frankly reading the book of acts especially verses 2-6 we saw the oneness in them Paul also served as an advocate to actually bring the gentiles as one, teaching them the goodness of God and the love of God, he encouraged relationship with God over sometimes mindless traditions some of the Jews wanted to subject them to.
And frankly it seems at times we are getting too cold…..basically I believe you can only give what you have so I am not pointing fingers at any person, in the book of acts something was very common with be livers they SHARED, from revelations( teaching each other), to physical needs,their was a genuineness to actually love,in this day and age it is rare for a brother to be a blessing to a fellow brother or a brother from the receiving end to only appreciate the person God used as a vessel and not subject them to a “god” state in their lives but give glory only to God,the world is a difficult place to stay in alone without the genuine love of fellow believers to help out when you are going through either some tests and hard times. The world system is not what we operate by and so their is a constant battle trying to convince us of otherwise aside the love system we operate on hewbrews 3:13 speaks of this.
Sorry for the length but am just pouring out because this is crucial,I also looked at acts and unity from the families up to the elders was evident, families broke bread and ate(fellowship and teachings and also showing a good understanding of the life they live because of his resurrection power which is reflected by living in love) this was crucial because it helped families to bond as a unit both spiritually and physically.
it is not a coincidence that the rate of divorces and marriages suffering spiritually is on the raise not only in the world but also in the body of Christ “The church” am not a fan of “put the blame on the devil” but his tactic is working out really well divide them from the smallest unit in the family and the society will bear the hurt…..but thank God for his wisdom in his word which over throws all his antics. Unity will be archived when we begin to speak the same language which is the language of our farther love learnt from his word given to us by Jesus taught by the holy spirit the knowledge of his word helps us understand the language but the very act let’s us communicate his language to others which forges unity. The church is here to be the solution providers to this world just like it was in acts let us keep praying and engaging in the little love language we have come to understand as individual…Stay Blessed All, Love You All With The Love Of Christ . I will now stop here. …lool and tolu God will continue to bless you for all your articles this is only the beginning sir……you may not remember me but we will continue to put you in prayers.