The Bible does not say, "Do not give up meeting together."
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together...but encouraging one another."
You can see what the author of Hebrews is emphasizing here. Spurring one another on toward love and good deeds and encouraging each other: THAT is what is supposed to happen as you meet together!
I believe many people who attend church services aren't "meeting together".
Going to Church
I've been talking a lot lately about going to church. Of course, I'm referring to a group event that takes time at a specific time and place, and involves certain activities.
And I'll just tell you now - church services in the early church, as far as we can tell, did not involve listening to a single appointed leader or singing with a person leading. Elders were elected to help people in the faith, not to be in charge. Services were "popcorn" style as people were moved by the Spirit and shared: a song, a prayer, a letter from Paul, a recitation of Scripture, an update on missionaries, stories of God's provision and miracles.
I'm not saying our services today are wrong. However, they are restrictive compared to the original intention of "meeting together". They encourage passiveness. You can "meet" someone by making small talk with them for 60 seconds. You can sing along to a song. But these things do not involve you actually spurring someone on toward love and good deeds or encouraging each other.
Can you imagine a popcorn service today? I bet 90% of us wouldn't like it. Imagine someone saying they feel led to share a teaching, but they're not good at speaking? Or someone saying they want to share a song they wrote, but they have a bad voice? Would we contribute? Very unlikely. Fear of judgment and embarrassment would keep us away. We would say, "I don't have a lot to offer. I'm new in my faith. I'm just a shy person." We wouldn't like the lack of structure. We wouldn't like being without a leader to tell us what to do.
Don't get me wrong: I value our church leaders and their dedication to encouraging us through teaching and song, through prayer, and all the things that the early church did. But if we are not also taking responsibility for our participation - in a figurative way, as the early church did - we may as well be going to a concert and hoping for some good content.
My neighbor, Doug, stopped by when I was outside recently. We talked about COVID and Jesus. We talked about our role as believers in today's world. We discussed Scriptures that we both knew, because we are both Bible readers. We prayed together.
We spurred one another on toward love and good deeds and encouraged one another as we were meeting together.
That was church. It involved learning, worship, prayer, Scripture. Being in the same space as him - that would not have been church. Listening to a Christian podcast by myself, singing worship by myself, reading the Bible by myself, praying by myself - that is not church either.
It is only church when we gather for the express purpose of spurring one another on toward love and good deeds and encouraging one another.
Excellent thoughts, and a little controversial. A thought I had is that while it can be church for two people to share scripture and converse. Having more people creates opportunity to confirm the teaching as well as correcting if needed. As always your thoughts are well shared and I thank you for your willingness to be open.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! We will benefit much more if interacting with many believers for exactly the reason you suggested - the more people, the better accountability. Another reason I've been thinking of, too: If you're part of a larger group, you're participating with all kinds of people, hopefully. People with lifetimes of serving God, people with histories, people who make poor decisions, people who are believers but whose interpretations of Scripture make you raise an eyebrow.
DeleteAnother benefit I've experienced: if we stick with a small group of close friends like us because it makes us comfortable, we miss opportunities to encourage one another - not to mention adding to the "judgy church person" stereotype.
Is this Rich?