Questions for us to consider: · How would you describe the local church? · What does 'church' mean? · What is the difference between 'going to church' and 'being church'? · What does 'building the church' mean?
It?s all Greek to me?. The word, "church" comes from the Old English word "circe", which is derived from the Greek word "kyriakon (doma) meaning "the Lord?s (house) from the Greek root word "Kyrious" mean "Lord". CHURCH translates 'ecclesia' which is included in our English word 'ecclesiastical', ECCLESIA is made up of two parts. EK is 'ex' meaning 'out' and CLESIA is the verb CALEO which is where we get our word CALL from. So 'church' is those 'called out' by God. We might prefer to say 'those who respond to being called by God' because everyone has a choice to respond or ignore God's call. | A History of Religious Architecture from Abraham to today in * bullet points · Noah made an offering · Abraham built an altar · Moses given instruction on how to build an altar · Common Worship for Nomads · Solomon?s Temple (in spite of God?s wisdom) · Temple destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed again, and stays destroyed · Synagogue and home become the place for celebration, teaching and learning. · Constantine adopts Christianity as the state religion and buildings are planned?looking like palaces - to house all these new Christians · These meeting places become known as the church · Ordnance Survey put a ?cross? on the map · The people ?called by God? get confused · Some learn that the church=people not buildings · They get confused again?when someone says x goes or asks ?how many people went to church today?? · Then some bright spark with a degree in theology points out that we can BE the church and we can talk about how many of the church gathered at the meeting palce or house of the church?but anything else is CNSFUINGO!
Jesus of Nazareth spoke to Confused of Jerusalem and said as they were leaving the temple: ?I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.? (Matt 24:2) |
