Church Building Made Easy

An entire industry has been built around methodology and tools to build churches. Studies have been done to determine what people are looking for in choosing a church. Cost analysis are made to determine which method will yield the most numbers of people - more bang for the buck. And it has worked! There are mega churches all over the United States.

In a country and culture where bigger is always considered better the mega church movement has proven that axiom, at least in the minds of men who tend to look at the church as an institution that they are to build. If it is left up to us to build it and they will come then in many cases it looks like it works. But there are questions that must be asked.

The first question is what is the church? And the second question is; are we supposed to be the one who builds it? The answer to these questions will either support the man built mega church movement or will condemn it.

What is the church? There are as many answers to that question as there are denominations, movements and local congregations. In fact there are sub-answers within the congregations, depending upon whom you ask the question. The question, "What is the church, to you," is one of the questions used in studies to determine what the church will look, sound, and act like in order to bring in the largest number of people. And then question number two, "Are we supposed to build this church?"

The modern day church building movement is much like market research for a new product roll out or for an entertainment endeavor. To be successful in those realms you have to learn what people want and fill the need. In some cases you even create the need in people's minds and then you are Johnny-on-the- spot with the product of service to fill that need. This seems to be the method used by the mega churches in the United States today.

The problem with all of this is that the church is not a product or service to be tailored to each individual's requirements. The question, "What is the church to you," is unimportant when it comes to building the church. The whole concept of the church is that it is to be an organism that functions as it is directed by the Creator and, as He leads, the members of the church work together, share together, and help one another. The church is not a man instituted and defined organism. It cannot be left up to men who are faulty at best. The church is defined by the Scripture as the body of Messiah. If the church is His body, and Scripture says it is, then He is the Head of His body, and Scripture also tells us that as well. So where does that leave man in the mix?

Well man will say, the LORD left us here with the commandment to go forth baptizing in His Name and building the church for Him. But does Scripture bear that out? Well not entirely. As in most things we do in every issue of life, but particularly when it comes to the Scripture, we have a little bit of Truth and the rest is of our own imagination born out of ignorance or, in some cases, rebellion. The Scripture does tell us that we are to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." This portion of text from Matthew 28 is used in sending out missionaries all over the world. But the verse preceding this text says, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth." This was Jesus speaking. The authority was given to Him not to men. And then when He says to teach "them to observe all things I have commanded you," we are told clearly that how we are to make disciples and the concept of baptizing people in His Name is to be accomplished according to His established, prescribed manner, in His authority. Men only have authority as He gives it and cannot take authority on his own. So does this commandment in Matthew 28 give authority to men to build the church, the body of Messiah?

In Matthew 16 Jesus says to Peter, "And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Here is the definitive statement by Yeshua Messiah - Jesus Christ. He says clearly that the church belongs to Him and He will build it. He has a plan to build His church - His body and He's been doing just that since the creation, in Genesis.

Peter evidently got what Messiah was telling him. In 1^st Peter Chapter 2, Peter says, "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted the that the LORD is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Yahweh through Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ)." The church, the body of Messiah, is being built up by Messiah into a spiritual house. This is not a man made institution of brick and stone and man engineered systems to grow the church. This is talking of His body that He nourishes with "pure milk of the Word."

Scripture is clear. The church is supposed to be His body that He builds. Jesus builds His body and the gates of Hades cannot prevail against it. What men determine to build decays and crumbles and, as the years go by, are replaced by another man's ideas of building. And each subsequent builder's construction fails. When it comes to the church, His body, only His building will stand against the enemy, Satan. It is the height of arrogance of man to think he can build it autonomously. It is sheer folly that man believes he should be able to define what the church looks like, sounds like, and acts like. This is especially so when the whole precept of the church is that we are lost and undone in our faulty reasoning, logic, and judgment of what is acceptable to Yahweh. He paid the price that we might be His body so that He can be our Great High Priest and that we can come to Him for grace to help in time of need. Grace, the divine influence on the heart, with the reflection seen in the life, is how He builds His church - His body, in the New Covenant.

It is no wonder that the world is disenchanted with the representation of the church. It is a man made monstrosity that bears no resemblance to the body of Messiah.

It's time that we do less market research and focus group study and seek Yeshua and His Word, His Instruction as to how we are to build alongside Him. Paul said clearly, in 1^st Corinthians Chapter 3, that we are Yahweh's fellow workers but the body, the church is His field and His building. We are to build according to the grace given us to be builders. Grace is His divine influence on us. That means we are following His direction, according to His Word, to work alongside Him while he builds His body. How can we build ourselves? We are part of that body needing to be built by Him. We are involved, as Paul states, in planting and watering, but Yahweh provides the increase - Yahweh builds and causes growth.

Paul goes on to tell us that there is sure foundation to build upon and we must make certain, as we are working alongside Messiah, that we are sowing the right seeds into His field and that we are watering the right plants. The seed is His word and we are the plants that need the water of His Word in order to grow. The foundation is Yeshua Messiah, the Living Torah. The Torah is His gentle, loving, instruction to us that we might grow and be protected when we obey by grace through faith. We grow together as His body as He provides the increase. We do have a part to play in it, but it is not left up to us to define how we work and the tools we use. It's high time we all take a step back and be ready to lay every preconceived notion, along with generations of long held tradition and belief on the line, and look at them through the pure lens of Scripture, all of it in context, to see if we are of the faith. We need to see clearly if we are building on the right foundation, planting the right seeds and watering the right plants with His Word. This is our part of working alongside Him in building His church. If we do this we will begin to look like, sound like, and act like Him, instead of Fifth Avenue marketing gurus who build a consumerism based church that looks like, sounds like, and acts like the world. And just as the methodology and results of marketing in the business and political world decay, crumble and change, so does the methodology and results of the professing church. But what He builds and what we do in submission to Him will stand the test of time, the onslaught of the enemy, and the world.