WHY ARE YOU GOING TO THAT CHURCH?

    "In a news article, dated March, 2012, I read: "Is the American Evangelical Faith approaching the sunset, or the sunrise of its influence? Readers of Church history note the panoramic ebb and flow of the Gospel's influence upon the moral direction of nations. Western Europe, that once officially embraced the faith, no longer does.... American culture, with its own rich history of Gospel influence intertwined with its cherished individualism, pivots between abandoning its own moral moorings and experiencing a re-awakening to the Lord of the old virtues in ways.
      Regrettably, too many pastors have already decided which direction the country will take.As Church leaders, you set the tone of expectation for the rising generation. But, what will it be?" Ecclesia, March 2012
      Christianity, now due to adhering to these old virtues, increasingly has become less popular.  I have no doubt, so future Church leaders will face choices regarding old virtues that cannot be dodged.

     Now, three years later, the world is facing a new threat.. We have a new fascist type of enemy, motivated by their religious fervor, called ISIS.This is the name of a new Muslim country called the Islamic State. They have a conquered much of the Mideast plus much of Africa, and hope to set up a Muslim Leader.  America has fought a long war in Iraq and surrounding countries, costing much blood and treasure. America now the president that has been very reticent about fighting any Muslim, even refusing to call this new country, Islamic.this man has been elected president twice in America by Americans.
   
      I have always thought that the only hope for America was that the Church would turn our nation's moral decay around,  I don't think that's very likely today. Chuck Colson's 1992 book, The Body, expresses some of Chuck's own feelings about this.

       "A 1990 Newsweek cover story heralded the dramatic religious resurgence among the nations baby boomers, reporting that more than 80% consider themselves "religious and believe in the life after death." But "unlike earlier religious revivals, the am of this time (apart from born-again traditionalists of all faiths) is support, not salvation, help rather than holiness, a circle of spiritual equals rather than on authoritative church or guide. A group of affirmation of self is at the top of the agenda which is why some of the least demanding churches are now in the greatest demand."
     What many are looking for is a spiritual social club, an institution that offers convivial relationships but certainly does not influence how people live or what they believe. Whenever the church does assert a historical Orthodox position, one that might in some way restrict an individual's doing whatever he or she chooses, the church is accused of being  "out of touch"--as if it's beliefs are to be determined by a majority vote or market surveys."

    This is precisely what a large church offers. I have served as a church pastor for close to 30 years, and the thought of having a cup of coffee in the coffee shop is appealing to me. And I know the service of taking care of the kids must be appealing to the younger generation. However, that church is attracting people for the wrong reason. Church really has come to mean their building on 12th street, and the services it offers. In fact, some Christians will judge your loyalty to Jesus Christ on your loyalty in coming to their particular building.

     Why a Christian would go to a particular church may be a very individual preference, but I can say from experience that this usually is not from doctrine. The churches, I served in, ranged from different denominational backgrounds, coming from the Presbyterian to the Mennonite Brethren, to name a few.  I very rarely had a doctrinal difference. Usually the church that I served in, were small--usually under 100 members. While they all had some problem-all churches have some problems, but one problem, which these churches usually shared, was some large church, in a nearby city, drawing off their members. 

    One other thing these small churches all share. They were all struggling, and, in some cases, they didn't make it. So the witness of Christ was lost in that spot. 

    The Mission, which  I belonged to, originally started with the idea of getting those small churches growing again. The way the Mission encouraged me, as pastor, for building up the church, was to get to know the people. I would visit 4-7 families a week, beside the 2-3 Bible Studies, prayer meeting and Sunday Services . So I got to know the peopl, and the people I visited were not necessarily church people, but people living in the church area. So there was a witness for Christ

          The small church people get to know each other, and when one family leaves, the whole church feels it. In a large church, there is kind of an insulation of a staff between the pastor and the people(with an Eldership Rule arrangement, role identity--I would think, especially leadership roles and responsibility for the flock would be badly blurred). Any pastor hates to see empty seats or pews in the Sunday congregation. In a small church, however, it's more than a matter of empty seats in the congregation, it's a matter of friends leaving. 

   
     Some Christians judge you on how loyal you are to going in their building. One

      We, as Christians, do come before the judgement seat of Christ

            One burden which I felt, as a pastor, and I still feel that burden. Not because my feeling is fearful about being judged--I respect the Lord's judgement and know it's just. But it's the church people that I feel responsible for, and maybe being more wrapped up in my own problems and actions.What I'm talking about is the Christians that I pastored. One example of this is a person by the name of Ken. 

          Ken came out of a background of drinking and carousing with other women--even though he was married at the time the family. Numerous times, because of a marital fight, he would take off for Texas, but this one time we, his wife and my wife and myself started praying for him. He said he got near the statee border and hhe threw thee whiskey bottle out of the car window.   But Ken came to Christ, and he got involved in home Bible studies and church. Most the people of this Bible study were what I would call nonconformists Christians. But these folks are some of the most genuine Christians that I have ever meant. The Bible study was usually in a huge old barn that part of it had been made into a house.  Now I had a number of home Bible studies and it may be that Ken wasn't a member of that study, but that's how some of the people were like there.

          Then the Lord called us to a new field, hundreds of miles off, in another state. At that time, Ken was going through some very bitter trials. His wife had run off with another man, and here I was leaving the whole area.

          Ken called me up when we had been at this new field some month later, and he shared about his wife being gone and the problems that he had. And I remember the sweet time we had in prayer over the phone. How I prayed that man.

          Fast-forward two decades or more, and I received a phone call from one of Ken's kids. He wasn't a kid anymore. But he was still calling me, pastor, and he wanted me to call his father on the phone. Ken , his father, was close to death, he wanted me to call and make sure his father knew Jesus. Well, course, I called Ken .

          Ken had left the country, to move far off to Texas. He was living with his brother. Ken must've been aware that his kids felt he was close to death, because I had not gotten much beyond saying hello, and he brought up knowing Jesus as Savior and he was totally comfortable in whatever the Lord had for him. I don't remember everything he said, but that he was praising God praising the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. My wife, in calling back, said his brother answered: he had died.  For some reason I wasn't in on this last conversation, but my wife said, his brother broke down in describing Ken's going to Jesus.

      Christians absolutely need the fellowship and spiritual support of the Body of Christ, and I strongly believe in the leadership of the the church pastor.

      Christianity, I believe, is not some religious structure or social institution. It is not merely a set of beliefs or crazy about the nature of reality. The Christian faith rests on the truth: ultimate reality. Chuck Colson also said that and he continues: "the Christian faith rests on the truth: ultimate reality. Christian experience begins with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ made possible as men and women are declared righteous by their faith."

       Using the word faith sometimes is linked with things not real reality. I disagree with that thought--"not the landscape of reality", The biblical faith is linked with hope, something everyone utilizes. In reality:Faith in itself is something that everyone exercises continually in the reality of everyday life.

         Quoting Colson again, "these born-again individuals then constitute a new society that points to the coming kingdom, which is centered on the core of all meaning--the God Who was, Who is, and Who is to come, and the God who has revealed Himself in human history.
         "The One who said,' I am the truth,' also said that' (the Father's) word is truth. But truth is propositional and revealed; God has spoken through Scripture, and thus we are given a comprehensive revelation of reality. Thus, the orthodox creeds, which flow from Scripture and which have historically been regarded as the fundamentals of the Christian faith, are rooted in absolute and ultimate truth.
          "In the middle of the darkest night of Pilate's life, Jesus told,' Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.' Pilate had ears, but he did not hear. And he turned away asking, but the What is truth?' even as he stood before the truth Himself.
         'But Pilate is more than a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions, condemned by history to wish is bloodstained hands forever. We symbolizes the very mind of man, particularly modern man. You can see Pilate asking his disdainful question in living color any day. Simply turn on your television." Ibid pp.163 – 164

      "Spiritual consumers are interested not in what the church stands for but in the fulfillment it can deliver. Thus the under 45 generation, 60% of whom defined themselves as independent spiritual seekers, reject the notion that one should be in limited to a single faith. The result is "an age of mix'em, match'em, salad bar spirituality." And it really doesn't matter whether it is Orthodox or New Age, majority of Christians believe all religions worship the same God." Ibid
   

     George Barna, astute observer and critic of the church, and concerned Evangelical Christian writes "This consumer demand will intensify shaping the future church. Increasingly people will come not for hearing the words of Christ but for their own personalized religious systems that will meet their need for a religious perspective without requiring the sacrifices and commitment that traditional Christianity demands"

     "This consumer mentality, in turn pressures churches to respond in kind. When the findings of a major foundation study revealed the sharp decline of several Protestant denominations, the chief researcher acknowledged with disarming candor: "The challenge, I tell ministers, is that they must ask themselves why people are in front of them on Sunday mornings instead of somewhere else. The church is in a competitive situation for people's leisure time." We are competing with cable television, Nintendo games, theme parks, and health clubs."

        What about Super Bowl Sunday with the National Football League Super Bowl?

·        NOT CENTERED ON JESUS CHRIST

·                       In reading some book reviews online, I came across some interesting viewpoints. I    wonder if the evangelical church is not doing precisely what this author, Michael Horton, is  saying in his book, "Christless Christianity".

·                       Doesn't these quotes sound like the Laodicean Church in Revelations, in an  updated fashion?

                        The church that says, "My building mortgage is paid off, and we're out of debt,  etc." or "as I am rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing." And now if we  avoid any disturbing political or relevant social messages or "... Neither cold nor hot." In other  words not the message Jesus Christ would have.

·         

·        “Not that evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal but that it is becoming  theologically vacuous....

·        The most numerically successful versions of religion will be the least tethered to the biblical  drama of redemption centering on Christ...

·        we are living out our creed, but that creed is closer to the American dream than it is to the  Christian faith”

 SOUTHERN VIEW CHAPEL's BOOK REVIEWS; Christless Christianity (The Alternative Gospel  of the American Church) by Michael Horton

 Horton comes out with both guns blazing in this critical analysis of the church in America.  As the  title suggests, he is accusing the church of being nothing less than “Christless.”  That is, the church  has become so distracted by everything from false teaching (examples given include Joel Osteen and  Joyce Meyer) to energy-sapping programs, to faulty understanding of the purpose and mission of the  church, that it has lost Christ Himself in the mix.

  Christianity need not explicitly deny any key foundational teaching to become Christless; it  merely needs to buy into a “series of subtle distortions and not-so-subtle distractions” (p. 20).    “My argument in this book,” Horton writes, “is not that evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal but that it is becoming theologically vacuous” (p. 23).  It is for this reason  that “precisely the most numerically successful versions of religion will be the least tethered to the biblical drama of redemption centering on Christ” (pp. 54-55).  In Horton’s view “we are living out our creed, but that creed is closer to the American dream than it is to the Christian faith” (p. 21).

These are damning critiques of the American church.  If true, Christians have misplaced Christ in the midst of our service for Him and are dangerously close to losing Him altogether.  Have we, like the Pharisees of the first century, marginalized the Lord out of the faith even as we passionately pursue Him?  Does Horton present evidence that proves his case?  I have to say, he does a pretty good job.  Still, to me he seemed a bit long on generalities and short on specifics.

For example, Horton is on target when he writes, “I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself.  Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups” (pp. 16-17).  "

.                                                                                                                                                    

       "Few church boards sit down and decide to replace their Orthodox doctrines with warm, soothing nostrums. But pastors feel the pressure to make the message as inviting as possible to draw people in. So the processes gradual: Little rationalizing here..  a little rounding off there...
       The spiritual odyssey of one evangelical church reveals how the process works and where it can lead."
        "Realizing that the median age in the church was rising--a grave danger sign, according to church growth experts--the pastor of this long-established Baptist congregation commissioned a market survey of upscale families in his area. The first discovery was that most of the potential market was put off by the term "Baptist."...
         Some would argue that this congregation was simply striving to the "user friendly," a computer term that has spilled over onto everything, including church planning. Unfortunately they didn't stop with names and architecture. They also decided to abandon standard theological terms.
      "If we use the words redemption or conversion," the pastor explained, "they think were talking about bonds." So he has banished all "hellfire and damnation" preaching and proudly displays a version of a Bible he personally produced, which is just right for the McChurch generation. All essential passages are in boldface and it can be read in 30 half-hour sitting....
        "There's a spirit of putting people over doctrine. The attitude is that they are for life, love, and liberty."
         Churches across the country are responding to the McChurch space consumer by disguising their identity. Even the conservative bastion like Denver's Fall Gospel Chapel has changed its name to the Happy Church. "It draws people," says the pastor.. Apparently so. The church has just taken over a $7.8 million shopping mall.
          Hard to argue with success. Except that capitulating to consumerism has profound consequences for the church.
           First, it dilutes the message. Some clergy have simply "airbrushed sin out of their language. Having substituted therapy for spiritual discernment, they appealed to a nurturing God who helps Is (or Her) people cope....
        No wonder the church has an identity crises. We speak glibly about going to church (even though the church is not a place) to feel good (absolutely the wrong reason). Then we compound the air by measuring the church against the wrong standard.
         Over the years I've conducted my own pastoral poll. "How are things going in your church?" I'll ask. With few exceptions, the answers are quantitative. "Membership up 20%... 100 baptisms last year... Starting a new building... Going to three services..."
         Cultural values have so captured the church that we equate success with size. Answer reflects reaction. If a church isn't growing, someone is doing something wrong. Maybe the pastor and the board haven't analyzed the market well enough or invested in the right programs. This is why church growth has become the hottest business in the religious world today. If "the consumer is King," and the church has to react as any organization does to consumer demand, which means finding the right marketing strategy. According to one Church Growth Movement leader, a ministers performance is measured not by faithfulness to the gospel but by whether "the people keep coming in giving."
Charles Colson, THE BODY,pp.42-47
               A church, which is a body of Christians, is a local witness for Christ, and should be reaching neighbors in the locality that body of Christians live. Many times Christian people will leave their own locality to "go to church" which is larger and more services.

BIBLICAL MEETING PLACES IN THE N.T.

PAUL'S LETTERS MENTION HOUSE CHURCHES    
         
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house.
Romans 16:3-5 (ESV)
19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. 20 All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
1 Cor 16:19-20 (ESV)

15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her  house
Col 4:15 (ESV)


To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
Philem 1:1-2 (ESV)



   "No perception is more firmly rooted in our culture than that the church is a building-a view held by both churched and unchurched. Ask the unchurched the direction to church.  In a thousand com­mon expressions we refer to the church as a place.

Who does not say, "I'm going to church"? We call the BUILDING where we worship, the church.  not that we are building men and women in spiritual maturity. 

This is no harmless colloquialism. It both presupposes and conditions our view of the church, creating what some have aptly called the "edifice complex," wherein the importance is directly measured by the size and grandeur of the structure itself."  Chuck Colson 

I accepted the Savior, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in 1950. I have been a Christian since 1950. I have no doubt that a Christian believer critically needs the both to give and receive the support and fellowship of other Christians. I served 25 years as a missionary pastor, committed to work of Christ and His Gospel by a board of peer review--fellow pastors. I still love and pray for my brothers and sisters in work. 

OUR LORD'S COMMISSION TO HIS CHURCH

   Jesus calling (commissions) His church(also called His Body).

   These words are used the King James Version Updated rendering.

  "Go all of you therefore, and teach all nations,  baptizing them
   in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: (o. pneuma
   MATTHEW 28:19

   His Apostle Matthew  records Jesus' words in a common Greek.

   19 Go all of you therefore, and teach all nations,                                                                           pore

    poreuqevnteß   ou\n maqhteuvsate pavnta ta; e~qnh, 

   baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: (o. pneuma
   , baptivzonteß aujtou;ß eijß to; o~noma tou' patro;ß kai; tou' uiJou' kai; tou' aJgivou pneuvmatoß,

   Greek Word: πορεύομαι  Greek Strong's Number: 4198

  Transliteration: poreuomai Phonetic Pronunciation:por-yoo'-om-ahee

  Root: middle voice from a derivative of the same as <G3984> Cross Reference: TDNT -    6:566,915

 Part of Speech: v     Vine's Words: Depart, Go, Go onward, Journey, Journeyings, Walk

 Usage Notes:  English Words used in KJV: go 117  depart 11  walk 9 go (one's) way 8 

middle from a derivative of the same as <G3984> (peira); to traverse, i.e. travel (literal or figurative; especially to remove [figurative die], live, etc.);-depart, go (away, forth, one's way, up), (make a, take a) journey, walk.

—Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary

  But this perception of the church as a building is only a symptom of a much broader problem-a genuine   identity crisis. Not only do we see the church as bricks and mortar; we also misunderstand its character and       its biblical purpose and mission.

WILL YOU REALLY DO THAT UNDER PERSECUTION? ??

.I've heard preachers say that we may have to start meeting in small groups, When persecution starts. REALLY??

I wonder if we really will do that.  We say we'll meet in small groups, when persecuted, but maybe not. Why do I sound so pessimistic? 

What happened to the Institutional Church--the church had been built around a building? The church  that is identified by everyone-- the government-the locality-both friends and foes--with a building. I don't say that this is a grave sin that we need to deal with immediately if at all-- I don't know.  This is like Jesus's Parable in Matthew 13-- the kingdom of heaven.  to tear out the false seed--the Darnell seed--would bring drastic effects to the surrounding good seed. Sad to say, good Christians will judge me on how often I go into that building, or even my raising any issue on the matter. Good Christians will spend both blood and treasure to defend or maintain that building.  No where in the Great Commission or even the Bible are we told to go out and start building buildings or focus our efforts(a lot of the Lord's money) on buildings . Constantine was the first one to start focusing on buildings, and that was in 300 AD.

It's instructive to look at the world and what's happening right now.

The church, under communism in the Soviet Union, had been originally been built up with the institutional Constantinian building ideas. Not surprislng, the totalitarian government recognised the the church-building-relationship, and their Church buildings were made into museums or taken over by the government for government functions. In some cases, the Christians were allowed to meet in the institutional Church Buildings, but they were controlled and used by the ruling government. They suffered greatly under persecution, and, with no buildings or institutions, consequently, the Christians were largely silenced, almost disappearing entirely.  This persecution in the Soviet Union was not too different from than that suffered under the Roman Empire. The house churches under the Roman Empire grew Incredibly, spreading world wide. What is happening in Iraq right now? after paying taxes to Muslims for probably centuries, the Muslims have decided to apply more pressure to get rid of them. I don't mean to detract from the fact that they are suffering under this persecution, but it seems like the church's main concern is that they're losing their buildings. What are they doing? the institutional  church has been in Iraq since the beginning, and now, they're moving out.

  Again, I don't mean to lessen the fact that in both cases good Christian brothers are suffering, but compare the Institution church in Iraq to the house churches in communist China. The house churches in China are thriving!  The good Christian Brothers in Iraq are moving their Christ witness out the country. But the good Christian Brothers in China are not only thriving and growing, but any moving that is happening is that they're moving as Christian missionaries.

   In the New Testament, in Ephesus, Athens, all through Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean, we read in the New Testament about a thriving Church. From the New Testament and archaeology of that time, it is generally agreed now that they met in house churches. Later archaeology shows that they must have BUILT large Church buildings--after Constantine, but  then the Muslims came. Now it's all Muslim country. All of Asia Minor, . there was thriving Christian churches, is now under Muslim domination-- very few if any Christian churches exist there now.

  What happened to the Christian church in Asia Minor? Today the land is Turkey and it's all Muslims.

Why? 

Obviously, the ruling government will have some rule, if not total domination, in its relationship with any Institution. Most certainly, this is true, especially true, with a ruling Muslim government. While the church did pretty well under a persecuting Roman government-- that is until Constantine, the Muslims cleared them out of Asia Minor. I don't believe that was because the Muslim.
. Constantine did much for the Christian church, perhaps too much. It's certainly true, Constantine did end a terrible  persecution, but  he started making an institution out of Christianity--'building Cathedrals and basilicas. I believe, that's when these large church regions begin building buildings--we know Constantine's government did.  this was the most powerful person in the whole country, the mighty emperor of the Roman Empire, recognized by many as a God. How could anyone, let alone the church that has been persecuted-- which he had stopped, not receive the blessings of Constantine as if they were blessing from God. Stop and think about that situation, they must've loved their church buildings, as if they were the temples of God.

  So what would we do under persecution?

I say this because that's the way the Church has been trained to do church. And that's been going on a long time. Since Constantine most have been thinking about the church as a building. After all, that's where the services are. . 
CHURCH services mean that we are to come into the building, take a seat and be quiet and listen to a sermon--more often a lecture, until the appropriate time for singing--and now, at least, for me, it's listening to loud noisy drums. 
Maybe I'm just showing my age-- I enjoy  hymns-love bluegrass gospel, but today's music is mainly just noise for me.

At any rate, it's natural that we measure success of that church by the numbers of people that come to the building-- the services, of course,  held in that building.especially designed to listen.

Even when we attempt to start our young Churches-a new church, we build a building, than we will measure our success of that church by how many is coming into the building,  and are discouraged or even give up the church if that doesn't happen. That's the way I did it.

Now this is a matter of going along to get along.  But we know that that's not really the Bible way.  think about this, if you're not doing it in the good times, do we really think that we're going to meet in small HouseChurch
groups in persecution times? I wonder. 

The local newspaper has printed things that have desperately needed answers in apologetics. I have yet to see any church elder get up and write anything, let alone do it with any real Bible knowledge.

THE BIBLICAL CHURCH MODEL

THE HOUSE CHURCH IN ACTS 2

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47 (ESV)

3000 JEWS CAME TO CHRIST
These 3000 Jews responded to Peter's words, as recorded in Acts 2. Suddenly converted by God, the Holy Spirit; He also baptized them into the Body of Christ, the Church (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:11-16). While ignorant of Christianiy, they knew they would be exposed to much persecution and contempt, and many trials, yet the record is that they adhered to the doctrines and duties of the Christian religion. The word rendered continued stedfastly, \~proskarterountev\~, means attending one, remaining by his side, not leaving or forsaking him.

THEY HUNGERED FOR GOD'S WORD.  
The apostles' doctrine means that they adhered to, or attended on, their teaching or instruction. Doctrine also means a collection and arrangement of abstract views supposed to be contained in the Bible. One evidence of conversion is a desire to be instructed in the doctrines and duties of religion, and a willingness to attend on the preaching of the gospel.

KOINONIA  BROUGHT  SOMETHING LIKE BONDING
And fellowship. The word rendered fellowship, \~koinwnia\~ is often rendered communion. It properly denotes having things in common, or participation, society, friendship. It may apply to anything which may be possessed in common, or in which all may partake. Thus all Christians have the same hope of heaven; the same joys; the same hatred of sin; the same enemies to contend with. Thus they have the same subjects of conversation, of feeling, and of prayer; or they have communion in these things. Communion--common all come from the Greek, koine. Even the Greek is koine greek.  Actually

A BONDING AND UNITY DEVELOPED IN THE JERUSALEM  CHURCH
The early Christians had their property in common. The word here may apply to either or to all--to their conversation, their prayers, their dangers, or their property; and means that they were united to the apostles, and participated with them in whatever befell them.
The effect of a revival of religion unites Christians more and more, and to bring those who were before separated to union and love. Christians feel that they are a band of brethren, and that however much they were separated before they became Christians, now they have great and important interests in common; united in feelings, in interest, in dangers, in conflicts, in opinions, and in the hopes of a blessed immortality

LARGE NUMBERS OF CHRISTIANS, SUCH AS IN JERUSALEM--ANTIOCH--EPHESUS MUST HAVE BUILT LARGE CHURCH BUILDINGS. no
!

N
O -they did not

Many if not most still-standing ancient churches are large or very large mainly empty structures: basilicas etc..  These churches according to experts "...were built over older churches" that belonged to the Ephesus--Corinthian era.
Usually, the general public identify the building of where church meets is the church. However, Evangelical Christians will agree they know the Greek word Ekklasia translated "church" really means an assembly or group of Christians, and "church does not mean a building."
However, invariably Western culture Christians, Evangelical or not, will eventually  build a building--if not immediately, sometimes before assembly exists.  This idea of building a structure and calling it "church" has been with us for close to 2000 years. We as Evangelical do the same as they, we go to and attend services, maintaining it at some exspence.  We do this as a place to meet God.

3000-- CHRISTIANS HAD NO CHURCH BUILDING WENT FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE
Christian archeology has reinvestigated old church sites. The findings: Without exception, revealed without exception no church building or any other kind of Christian meeting place to be found / buried beneath any Constantinian-era church buildings. Archaeologists found either virgin land or pagan temples or marketplaces or shops, but no evidence anywhere of any kind of building used for Christian gatherings.
The implications were staggering-and still are! They are a call to the whole church, Catholic and Protestant, to rethink the nature of what we call "church."

TRUE CHURCH?

TRUE CHURCH?

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE WORD, "church"?

We have trouble even defining what the church is. Is it a local congregation or a denomination? Is it all Christians worldwide or just those who are on membership rolls? What about those who watch services on television, those who are baptized as infants, those who have never been baptized?

Chuck Colson writes:

Normally Christians "will fight valiantly to protect not only the orderly pattern of their lives, but also their property. In protecting their building and property, they be­lieved they were protecting their church. They were one and the same."

        "No perception is more firmly rooted in our culture than that the church is a building-a view held by both churched and unchurched.

And this perception has been with us for a long time--if you don't believe , look at the 
Christians suffering persecutions today. who are the ones lamenting from the loss of buidings

This is not to say these are not persecuted christians or christia n loss, but christianity never was buildings.
       Who does not say, "I'm going to church"? We call the place where we worship, the church. And when we say we are "building a church," we mean we are constructing a facility, not that we are building men and women in spiritual maturity. In a thousand com­mon expressions we refer to the church as a place.

This is no harmless colloquialism. It both presupposes and conditions our view of the chuch, creating what some have aptly called the "edifice complex," wherein the importance is directly measured by the size and grandeur of the structure itself.

But this perception of the church as a building is only a symptom of a much broader problem-a genuine identity crisis. Not only do we see the church as bricks and mortar; we also misunderstand its character and its biblical purpose and mission.

JESUS TELLS US:

I Am the Good Shepherd

1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5  A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."

John 10:1-18 (ESV)

ONE BODY AND ONE SPIRIT 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift....
THE GIFT OF LEADERS 
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 
THE GOALS OF THE LEADER'S WORK
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Eph 4:4-16 (ESV)

THE DYSFUNCTIONAL CHURCH INVOLVING LEADERSHIP 

The Corinthians are not ready for the solid food of Paul's teaching

1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Paul and Apollos, fellow workmen for God, are nothing without His increase

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 

JUDGEMENT OF THE LEADER'S AND EVERY CHRISTIAN'S WORK

13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Every man is the temple of God and the dwelling place of His Spirit

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

1 Cor 3:1-17 (KJV)

All ministers are servants of Christ

1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful

1 Cor 4:1-2 (KJV)