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Exclusive: What a church should be...
Posted on Monday, June 04 @ 18:14:23 PDT by Virgil Vaduva

PlanetPreterist Columns by Virgil Vaduva
This past Saturday I spoke for a long time with my friend Marty Davis about the purpose a local church should have, and it so happened that this conversation took place while I was in the middle of compiling a list of church purposes, or something I believe the Church is. Marty, being a practicing Orthodox Christian had some amazing insight into the Church and expressed his frustration with the many “non-denominational” churches sitting across the street from each other but treating each other as enemies. Here is my short list of what a church should be or should try to be. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section; we can perhaps work together to define a fuller purpose.

A church should be:

A mirror of New Jerusalem described in Revelation…

thus, the place to find God the Creator...

...and build relationships with Him...

...for the healing of the community, the nation and the world.

A community which values families.

A community which honors women and offers them a real role to serve and teach.

The center of the community to create, serve and give hope to the community.

A community of people which is partnering with God to fulfill God's purpose and dreams for the world.

A community of people focusing to become creators rather than consumers, in both worship and content.

A community valuing art and artistic expression as God’s gifts.

A community which is generous.

A community which heals and fulfills the creation both spiritually and physically.

A community which is dynamic and willing to accept people as they are rather than first demand change...

...therefore a place that can both give and seek forgiveness.

A place where one can find light, be it from others or simply from a candle.

A community which challenges its members but also gives them opportunities.

A place rejoicing in the noise created by children.

A community which values people more than dogma.

------

Virgil Vaduva is a columnist for PlanetPreterist.com.

View Virgil Vaduva archives

Note: Opinions presented on PlanetPreterist.com or by PlanetPreterist.com columnists may not necessarily reflect the position of PlanetPreterist.com, or reflect the beliefs, doctrine or theological position of all other preterists. We encourage all readers to first and foremost carefully analyze all articles in the light of God's Word.


 
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Re: What a church should be... (Score: 1)
by PeytonLucy on Monday, June 04 @ 18:48:52 PDT
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A place where we can mention Jesus Christ by name


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Re: What a church should be... (Score: 1)
by Ed on Monday, June 04 @ 20:09:43 PDT
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I watched for the second time the movie "The Fighting Temptations" this past weekend. It isn't the greatest flick but I used it in our family devotion this morning to discuss the difference in "religionists" and Jesus. It is funny how religionists are the quickest to point out how Jesus is missing from the list.

In the movie, the pastor's sister is an overbearing, self-righteous biddy who won't let sinners come to church or sing in the choir. Cuba Gooding Jr. is a self-absorbed, lying ad exec who, in order to get his aunt's money as decreed in her will, leads the church choir to the annual competition.

But it all goes astray when he encounters the love of other sinners, and realizes his own shortcomings. Fortunately, even the pastor's sister changes her ways at the end and embraces the members of the choir.

I love the song they do for the competition too. It's worth seeing the movie for. The song speaks about our unworthiness, but that God loves them anyway.

Of course, to some folks, the movie was worthless because it didn't have an altar call and invite everyone in the audience to "accept Jesus."

ed


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Re: What a Christian Community should do. (Score: 1)
by DavidF on Monday, June 04 @ 21:57:19 PDT
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That's a good proposition Virgil. I noticed you like to use the political word "community" quite a bit so I will add a list of what I think a Christian community should do.

A Christian community should:

* Honor the God and Father of Jesus Christ as their only source of government. "You shall have no other Gods before Me".

* Confirm Jesus Christ as their only ruler and consent to His election of community officers by the lot, not by the counterfeit "popular vote". "You shall not make for yourself an idol".

* Not convey the nature of Jesus Christ in a religious meaning, or His teachings as a religion. "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God".

* Accept citizens into the community only if they have proof of entering into rest with Jesus Christ. "Observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy".

* Comply with the instructions of community elders more than the younger generations. "Honor your father and your mother".

* Put murderers to death. "If a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death." Exod. 21:14.

* Put adulterers to death. " 'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death." Lev. 20:10.

* Make thieves pay back double to their victims, and no jail time. "In all cases of illegal possession ...The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to his neighbor. Exod. 22:9.

* Punish false witness. "If the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you." Deut. 19:18.

* Encourage contentment and generosity, and reprimand covetous materialism. You shall not covet.


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Re: What a church should be... (Score: 1)
by mazuur on Tuesday, June 05 @ 06:45:04 PDT
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Virgil,

I love all of that, and I'm right there with you!
But, with that said, what you are missing is discipline.

Yes, it's nice to think in terms of love and generosity, but the reality is there are people who will and do not. These people will come into the community and do very bad things. You can't merely ignore them and act as if everything is hunky-dory. You can't just say to yourself, "well if we just love enough they will change" (mean while others in the community are damaged and great harm comes to them).

Just look to the first century Jews as an example. There was the community of Israel. But in that community there was a segment that just would not accept God's grace that was coming in. So what happened in AD70? God killed those who were resisting his new community, and it wasn't pretty. He purged the evil.

How do you plan to purge the evil that sneaks into the new physical community? I say physical, because in reality the new community is a spiritual dwelling (the new Jerusalem with gates where only those who are not unclean can enter it - Rev 22:27), where false brothers can't really enter. But they can deceive us, and dwell within our Churches, and they will cause great harm.

Discipline has to exist. Now the question is who lays out the rules of discipline, and who implements the discipline? Might I say the office of Elders is still required!? And there has to be excommunication to protect those who they may harm, whether that harm is physical harm or spiritual harm (teaching false doctrine)? And don't kid yourself. There is such as thing as false doctrine that does have serious spiritual consequences.

Of course, now comes the problem of agreeing what is false doctrine. Here the punches will start flying.

Just some thoughts to consider.

-Rich


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Virgil (Score: 1)
by KingNeb on Tuesday, June 05 @ 09:48:44 PDT
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How are you defining "doctrine"? I thought I'd ask first before jumping on you first. lol.

It's just that i don't understand how or why anyone would downplay doctrine, if they understand the word to mean what i know it to mean, which is simply "teaching".

Is that how you would define it? And if so, how could you remove that from a church's priority? In fact, how would you even be able to define what a "church" is apart from "teaching"?

I long for a community of believers (believers are just that by the way...people who believe teachings) who value dogma BECAUSE they value people.

This is the Biblical approach.


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Re: What a church should be... (Score: 1)
by chef (kontoya@earthlink.net) on Wednesday, June 06 @ 04:34:30 PDT
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Maybe I'm too simple minded, but it is my scriptural understanding that the "Church" is the body (the literal body) of Jesus. He is the Kingdom, the city Jerusalem etc...

I suppose too, that why in Matt 25 Jesus informs us that half (5 of the 10) are foolish virgins.

Chef Tony


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Re: What a church should be... (Score: 1)
by Ed on Thursday, June 07 @ 15:33:14 PDT
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I thought this little thought was interesting. Follow the link to The Ship of Fools website:

http://ship-of-fools.com/Columns/frameit.htm?Gempf/2005/Gempf0305.html


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