What Is A Church ?

When we think of the definition of a church, in this country we think in terms of a steeple, maybe a cross or crucifix, wearing your “Sunday best” and going out to eat after the service. We “give” God an hour or two, listen to a sermon that is timed to meet the attention span of the intended audience and go out into the world at best marginally affected by God’s word through this homogenized religious encounter.

We allow the priest, pastor or other “official” in the church to do the heavy religious lifting in regards to understanding God’s word and interpreting it for us. We can then choose to operate in a clueless state that defies judgement because of our total lack of personal insight and knowledge.

Paul tells us in first Corinthians, chapter 12, a definition of what the church is supposed to be, is defined in the old King James:

12 ¶ For as the body is one, and hath many members and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. Rom. 12.4, 5

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

14 ¶ For the body is not one member, but many.

In Luke 11:43, Jesus admonishes the religious leaders of the time, as He points out the perks of being a religious leader. What was true then, is true today. The religious phonies of our day walk through the marketplace on television or radio, have the suffix of “reverend”, “bishop” or a variety of other salutations installed so as to give the illusion of holiness. They fill our air waves pontificating the word of the Lord and run their ministries through coercion, lies and untruths. In my life time I have watched “reverends” shake down corporations, participate in sinful human affairs, falsely accuse people of imaginary crimes, sell prayer towels and “anointed” diet plans, speak hatefully from the pulpit and lead hundreds to their death in the jungles of Africa.

After being insulted by the words of Jesus, the religious leaders should have been prepared to be peppered further. Starting in verse 46, Jesus went on to say that religious leaders who burden their flock with impossible religious, moral and monetary demands and never lift a finger to do anything to help people, really make Him mad. The fact that they call upon the memories of the faithful saints of the past so as to promote their ministry but in fact represent the exact opposite of these holy people, really seems to fire God up.

In September of 2000, a debate entitled, "Does Organized Religion Hold Answers to the Problems of the 21st Century?" took place between Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz at Franklin and Marshall College. Mr. Keyes is a well known political conservative took the position of defending organized religion against the famed attorney, Mr. Dershowitz. In this lively debate, which you can read and hear it in its entirety at Mr. Keyes website, located on the web at http://www.keyesarchives.com/transcript.php?id=147, Keyes chose to debate the existence of God and His value in society, based on premise that organized religion held the answers that modern man wanted to know.

I remember watching this debate on public television and while I thought Alan Keyes did a very good job making his points, Dershowitz was a worthy adversary. The fact that the location of this debate was a college that was founded by four German ministers who received a monetary grant from Benjamin Franklin to get the ball rolling, and would probably be considered a modern day bastion of liberal thinking, it would be fair to say that Mr. Keyes faced a “stacked deck” at best. I felt that as I watched Mr. Keyes lay out his argument that he would have been better off to have stuck to the words of Jesus and not the frailties and failures of an all too human church. Dershowitz picked the flawed history of organized religion apart pointing out all of its shortcomings and acknowledging any of its human accomplishments. Dershowitz, who as far as I can tell, rejects God and religion, while failing to offer any alternative other than randomness. Like I said, Keyes did his best but the flawed character of the human church was and is too difficult to defend.