Next | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Index | Tellout
6A. Building the Body of Christ's Church 
First century Christians needed no "god houses." Their rites were little more than a sacred meal and fellowship. They initially attended local synagogues but when they were excluded they began to congregate in homes. True Christianity does not need buildings.
God Houses
One of the major problems for the institution of the 2000's is that Christians are hopeless temple worshippers. We rely more and more on sanctuaries, convincing ourselves that four walls and a roof make a church. We forget that the Body of Christ is the real church and that we do not really need shrines. We even keep some shrines going even though the Body of Christ has long since died.
Worship Palaces
The Early Church realized that worship palaces were secondary. One of the earliest surviving Christian buildings from AD 232 is the Dura Europa Church in Syria. It is little more than a modified house. Two rooms were knocked together for the assembly, and another was turned into a baptistery with a canopied font and elaborate wall paintings(1). Later, when purpose built churches were constructed, they were still not modeled on Greek or Roman Temples but on secular meeting halls, or market places, called basilicas.
Building Blocks
Christians themselves are intended to be building blocks in God's temple. Peter writes, "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ"(2). Like bricks cemented one upon another, they share and transmit the roof's load. They shield those inside from the storms of life. Paul adds, "In him (Christ), the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by the Spirit."(3).
Immovable Foundation Block
The living temple of God has Jesus as the largest immovable foundation block. From this massive base emanate all lines and elevations in the structure. Paul writes, "Consequently you are ... built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone"(4). Good masonry blocks are constructed high enough so that the vulnerable clay brickwork is not eroded by rainwater running down the street. Massive corners are very important in an earthquake zone like Palestine.
Spiritual Temple
Jesus is the one strong foundation for his spiritual temple, the Body of Christ. The John Hancock Center towers eleven hundred feet above Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Hidden below ground, fifty eight reinforced concrete caissons support its weight, extending one hundred and forty five feet to bedrock. The superstructure towers so high because its foundations are so sturdy. The Body of Christ is strongest when it trusts totally on Christ.
In the English Midlands, stands the ancient Saxon church of Caverswall which is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. Evil looking stone gargoyles glare out over the north door. Metal rings, where horses and cows were once tied, hang inside from whitewashed walls. In times of peril, great storms or invasion, this building was the only stone shelter for men, women, children and even cows and sheep. It kept them warm, safe and secure but was extremely bare and simple. Perhaps those earlier Christians looked beyond the chiselled stones and carved wood. Maybe they realized that the real church was not really in the bricks and mortar but in the hearts of the people?
Church Buildings Today
Our church buildings are very different today. We inhabit luxurious glazed and carpeted worship palaces complete with air conditioning, and marble. Large injections of resources and energies are required just to keep them going and to satisfy our congregations. The genuine Body of Christ however is not fixed like a building but is a moving and breathing organism. A church building may appear unchanging and inert but it is in fact growing and shifting with temperature, wind and other forces. The twelve hundred foot high C.B. Tower in Toronto sways several feet from side to side in the wind as the concrete and steel stretches and contracts. All buildings expand, contract, and settle. Nothing is quite so immoveable as we imagine.
Couched Within
The institutional church draws its power, devotion, and spiritual resources from the Body of Christ couched within her. The institutional church is not the same as the Body of Christ. Churches pass away, the Mystical Body only remains. Malcolm Muggeridge writes, "All those churches raised and maintained God's name, from the tiniest, weirdest conventicle to the great cathedrals rising so sublimely into the sky - they are for the dead, and must themselves die; are, indeed, dying fast. They belong to time, You to eternity"(5).
Christian Ministry
Unlike the Early Church which trained Christians for ministry in the Body, the modern church educates leaders for the institution. Our denominational executive programs have little relevancy to the Body of Christ and can in fact be a stumbling block to Christ's work in the world. Many Christians who wish to be strengthened in their ministry in the home or the workplace are wrongly separated off for ordination. We often misread a calling to ministry within the Body of Christ with a paid professional vocation.
Question for Discussion
1. What is the difference between a believer and someone who belongs?
Notes
(1) Kraeling A.E., "Excavation at Dura Europa Final Report 8, Part 2: The Christian Building" (New Haven 1967). (2) 1 Peter 2.5. (3) Ephesians 2.21,22. (4) Ephesians 2.19,20. (5) Malcolm Muggeridge "Conversion".
"We are living members of his mystical body"
