Do we need the Church buliding today?

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breno785au

breno785au

Senior Member
#41
Jul 23, 2013
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#41
Scribe said:
Many churches have also canceled their small group meeting because they say they are not working. They claim that people are not growing in the Word, in character or in close fellowship as intended. I think this is because you can't artificially create the kind of Holy Spirit fellowship in the body of Christ by scheduling small group meetings or making up church programs or following a book on church growth etc. It happens when individuals get on fire with the Holy Spirit and want to get involved in outreach and evangelism. These individuals will meet with like minded individuals and do things to win the lost such as soul winning and outreaches and there they form bonds of brotherhood that spill over to meeting in homes for dinners, birthday parties or "after glow" fellowship to discuss the exciting things that happened on the evangelism outreach. So it comes back to going to the "big church" and getting involved.
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That's the first I've heard that church's are cancelling them. Every church I've gone has heavily encouraged people to attend a small group mid week because they recognise people get to grow in intimacy, share what God has done etc. amongst each other. - which is what we are meant to be doing when we gather.
 
S

Scribe

Guest
#42
#42
breno785au said:
That's the first I've heard that church's are cancelling them. Every church I've gone has heavily encouraged people to attend a small group mid week because they recognise people get to grow in intimacy, share what God has done etc. amongst each other. - which is what we are meant to be doing when we gather.
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Another common complaint of pastors is that they are constantly dealing with immature home group leaders who start trying to act like pastors and teach flaky things and offend other members who leave the church altogether.
 
breno785au

breno785au

Senior Member
#43
Jul 23, 2013
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#43
Scribe said:
Another common complaint of pastors is that they are constantly dealing with immature home group leaders who start trying to act like pastors and teach flaky things and offend other members who leave the church altogether.
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Yes well, that's been happening since the beginning of Christianity :cry:
 
breno785au

breno785au

Senior Member
#44
Jul 23, 2013
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#44
Nehemiah6 said:
Really? Then the church in that locality would not be gathered TOGETHER into one place for the Lord's Supper. And that itself has spiritual significance.

Paul was criticizing the Corinthians while reminding them to "come together INTO ONE PLACE" (1 Cor 11:20): When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper [since you do not observe it properly].
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We're all not gathering into one place anyway, there's many places people gather on a Sunday - usually divided by doctrines.
 
Lucy-Pevensie

Lucy-Pevensie

Senior Member
#45
Dec 20, 2017
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#45
I like home gatherings & long may they continue. But church buildings have been a focal point in Christian towns & villages in dozens of countries for over 1000 years. Church buildings for community assembly are tradition in a positive sense. They are an important part of our inheritance. Our forebears took their faith seriously enough to leave a lasting reminder. The devil is quite territorial. I don't like the idea of ceding ground to him.
 
Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#46
Dec 15, 2018
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#46
weddings, funerals, and the church potlucks all happen in church buildings. the building was meant to serve the whole town, plus where christians would all be buried next to the church so that come resurrection everyone would be together.
A lot of people dont have the space or carparks for more than 20 in their home. Its ok if you are well off and own a mcmansion I suppose! Or maybe you have an Empty nest. that wasnt even a phenomon in the past.

Most churches the pastor or minister would live next door in the manse. Their home was a bit more private. It was literally a place to stay. It was a manse...not a mansion!!!!
 
breno785au

breno785au

Senior Member
#47
Jul 23, 2013
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#47
Lanolin said:
weddings, funerals, and the church potlucks all happen in church buildings. the building was meant to serve the whole town, plus where christians would all be buried next to the church so that come resurrection everyone would be together.
A lot of people dont have the space or carparks for more than 20 in their home. Its ok if you are well off and own a mcmansion I suppose! Or maybe you have an Empty nest. that wasnt even a phenomon in the past.

Most churches the pastor or minister would live next door in the manse. Their home was a bit more private. It was literally a place to stay. It was a manse...not a mansion!!!!
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Lol you know what's funny.. We home school our kids and when we tell people that we do, it perplexes them because they try and fit how schooling is traditionally done and try to make it fit with the concept of home schooling and draw a conclusion that it cannot/shouldn't be done.
But it requires a whole new train of thought because that's the whole point to home schooling, that it's not school. Same people may try run it like that, however you go forward is up to the family and this is very similar.
You can't really take the traditional means of how we gather and apply it to meeting in the home, it requires a whole new train of thought and understanding of the saints gathering. Obviously if someone wanted to organise a gathering and could host 20 plus they would. If someone wanted to and could only do 5,6,7,10 they would. The point is gathering and fellowship of the saints where a meal is shared, someone can share a word, receive prayer, help each other, laugh with each other, sing together, mourn together, grow together, live life together, be together.
It is totally and utterly different to traditional means and try to draw conclusions between won't work.
Doesn't even have to be in a home, why not a cafe, restaurant, outside somewhere? Anywhere! :love:
 
P

presidente

Senior Member
#48
May 29, 2013
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#48
laymen said:
The influence of the synagogue was important. The Scriptures and Christian documents (such as Paul’s letters) were read and expounded (1 Thes. 5:27).1 1 Marshall, I. H. (1996). Worship. In D. R. W. Wood, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 1250). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Reason's they had to go to the church was for info but had they of had the internet like we do today , would they of had the need for a synagogue? Most were only meeting in their homes anyways.

What would be the need for a church building today? or should we just meet in homes instead like the old church did for the most part? Because some lived to far from a synagogue, and they did not have the Bible in print like we do today and they did not have the internet.

Meany online churches have come up Due to COVID 19.
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We need to actually assemble. Homes are fine. Online is okay for extra fellowship, but switching to completely online church is not okay.


When I first hear of online church, I imagined people clicking wafer and grape juice vial buttons and having their cartoon avatar eat them, having the cartoon avatar getting baptized. It's a good thing that's not how they do it.
 
Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#49
Dec 15, 2018
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#49
breno785au said:
Lol you know what's funny.. We home school our kids and when we tell people that we do, it perplexes them because they try and fit how schooling is traditionally done and try to make it fit with the concept of home schooling and draw a conclusion that it cannot/shouldn't be done.
But it requires a whole new train of thought because that's the whole point to home schooling, that it's not school. Same people may try run it like that, however you go forward is up to the family and this is very similar.
You can't really take the traditional means of how we gather and apply it to meeting in the home, it requires a whole new train of thought and understanding of the saints gathering. Obviously if someone wanted to organise a gathering and could host 20 plus they would. If someone wanted to and could only do 5,6,7,10 they would. The point is gathering and fellowship of the saints where a meal is shared, someone can share a word, receive prayer, help each other, laugh with each other, sing together, mourn together, grow together, live life together, be together.
It is totally and utterly different to traditional means and try to draw conclusions between won't work.
Doesn't even have to be in a home, why not a cafe, restaurant, outside somewhere? Anywhere! :love:
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its because in the past only rich people could afford to do it where they would hire governesses. Although most rich people just parcelled their children off to boarding schools. It was so their children could socialise and meet other children everyday and not be just with their parents and siblings ALL the time.
Not every parent has the time or the education to teach..,plus what if you want to teach a subject you dont know in more depth? You cant. Your children want to learn how to speak russian or mandarin and they want to do a sport that you have no facilities for or they need to learn chemistry and you have no idea how chemicals react. Good for you if you can do all these things all at once but a lot of people cant be stretched that far.

If I only met my with my homegroup I would only really be seeing a few out of the entire church body. I would miss out on everyone else. Its possible to do both you know its not all or nothing.
 
Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#50
Dec 15, 2018
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#50
presidente said:
We need to actually assemble. Homes are fine. Online is okay for extra fellowship, but switching to completely online church is not okay.


When I first hear of online church, I imagined people clicking wafer and grape juice vial buttons and having their cartoon avatar eat them, having the cartoon avatar getting baptized. It's a good thing that's not how they do it.
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its just kinda like televangelism for some. televangelists get a bad rap, but they have their place.
 
laymen

laymen

Senior Member
#51
Apr 6, 2014
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#51
presidente said:
We need to actually assemble. Homes are fine. Online is okay for extra fellowship, but switching to completely online church is not okay.


When I first hear of online church, I imagined people clicking wafer and grape juice vial buttons and having their cartoon avatar eat them, having the cartoon avatar getting baptized. It's a good thing that's not how they do it.
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You make a good point about baptizing!
 
breno785au

breno785au

Senior Member
#52
Jul 23, 2013
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767
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Australia
#52
Lanolin said:
its because in the past only rich people could afford to do it where they would hire governesses. Although most rich people just parcelled their children off to boarding schools. It was so their children could socialise and meet other children everyday and not be just with their parents and siblings ALL the time.
Not every parent has the time or the education to teach..,plus what if you want to teach a subject you dont know in more depth? You cant. Your children want to learn how to speak russian or mandarin and they want to do a sport that you have no facilities for or they need to learn chemistry and you have no idea how chemicals react. Good for you if you can do all these things all at once but a lot of people cant be stretched that far.

If I only met my with my homegroup I would only really be seeing a few out of the entire church body. I would miss out on everyone else. Its possible to do both you know its not all or nothing.
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I didn't say everyone should be home schooling, neither am I saying everyone should be gathering in the home.
You pose some common concerns about home schooling which have been addressed many times, when a child expresses interest in in a certain field, they will naturally gravitate learning that field, our job as home schoolers is to guide, enable and hopefully learn ourselves a long the way. We meet with other children regularly throughout the week as there are thriving home schooling groups who do things together. But this is another topic all together, I just merely drew a parallel.
 
K

Kim82

Guest
#53
#53
Nothing wrong in gathering in homes for worship. Nothing wrong in listening online. Nothing wrong in going to church either.

The sick can listen online in the hospital or at home. The socially anxious may prefer a smaller meeting at home. Those who love live music and love being around others, meeting and greeting etc will prefer the church. Or perhaps lonely people go to meet like minded individuals.

Its not about just worshiping one way. Options must be availabe so that people can choose what is best for them. So yes, the church is very much relevant.
 
mustaphadrink

mustaphadrink

Senior Member
#54
Dec 13, 2013
1,987
372
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#54
laymen said:
The influence of the synagogue was important. The Scriptures and Christian documents (such as Paul’s letters) were read and expounded (1 Thes. 5:27).1 1 Marshall, I. H. (1996). Worship. In D. R. W. Wood, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 1250). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Reason's they had to go to the church was for info but had they of had the internet like we do today , would they of had the need for a synagogue? Most were only meeting in their homes anyways.

What would be the need for a church building today? or should we just meet in homes instead like the old church did for the most part? Because some lived to far from a synagogue, and they did not have the Bible in print like we do today and they did not have the internet.

Meany online churches have come up Due to COVID 19.
Click to expand...
The synagogue was the be-all and end-all for Jews as the whole of life revolved around it. Even today, most Jews will live within walking distance to the Synagogue because of the prohibition of travelling by other means on the Sabbath.

The need for buildings today is not necessary because God dwells in our hearts so where two or three are gathered together in his name he is there. That is made possible by the indwelling Christ.

If for argument's sake, all religious buildings were closed by an atheist or secular government, Christianity would thrive better than it does today because they would have to worship in a temple not made with hands. People would be more genuine than at present because they could not depend on ritual and religion. They would have to discover the reality of relationship which invariably brings people together and makes them stronger.
 
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