TotD: What is Church?

Some of my blogs, some I am working on as I work through my own thoughts, others will be posted while in the process of thinking things through. This is going to be one of those. This might seem teaching but it's not meant to be that way. I've been learning things in IBI and through reading from IBI and I don't think these are things a lot of people have thought about, but maybe we, as the Church, need to think about these things, so I will try my best to present what I'm hearing from God through this study for people to ponder on. (Shur isn't it great that IBI has me thinking about church anyway)


There is a lot of talk and questioning going on these days across the Western world about what is Church. Since the year Constantine made Christianity an official religion, an idea of Church has developed across Europe and into North America and down to Australia that understands Church a certain way.

Personally I think this way of looking at church is wrong for the present age we are in. It seems to me, and a lot of others, I am discovering, that the Church, since Constantine (c300AD), has been wrapped in power and has been the dominant voice in society.
Some of us, in some of our churches (maybe most in most) want a return to this, or think it is still the same. However, Christianity is living in a new period. This period has been called 'post-Christian' by Christians that study these things.

Up until very recently Ireland would not have fallen into the category of post-Christian. However, things have changed and Ireland is becoming rapidly post-Christian. I don't know who remembers the Lisbon Treaty referendum of 2009(?) the one we voted no to and part of our voting no, maybe a small part but still a part, was because voting yes would allow for abortion to be introduced in Ireland, I remember seeing that on campaign posters. The EU then gave guarantees for Lisbon 2 and it seems one of them was that pro-life laws would be protected in Ireland. A short few years later we have a situation where abortion is in this country... Ireland is changing fast.

Living in a post-Christian world means that the Church cannot have power as it once had anymore. This is actually a good thing. Jesus never spoke as if he intended governments to be run by Christians. Now we can get back to our roots.

I never want to suggest the idea that we become like the first millennium (first century) church. I think we can learn about what a third millennium church would look like from it though.


What does this mean practically?
In the first, and most obvious instance, we need to look at we think of Church. The twentieth century led to a growth in the idea of a consumer Christian, someone who goes to a Church. This is one of the first ideas we need to combat. In 'TotD: What is Church 2" I want to look at the biblical definition of a church and the doctrinal and religious trappings we have added to that over the years and hopefully it will help me, and some of you, to see what it might mean to have a church in post-Christian Ireland.

The second thing about living in a post-Christian Ireland we have to realise is that there is a difference in how we tell others of Christianity, "TotD: Evangelism in Post-Christian Ireland" will look more at this.

What we need to take from watching our culture changing around us is that the church either needs to reform or it will die... Across the globe churches are seeing drops in youth membership and this is worrying a lot of pastors.

Being perfectly honest I don't really like going to church, this isn't because I'm rebellious or trying to cause trouble or anything like that... There is a disconnect between me, and I think my generation, and the church (unless you were brought up in church, some people brought up in church cannot see this disconnect unless they have people around them who point it out). There are things I love about every church I have been a part of, and there are things, important things, that annoy me immensely about some of them. Part of this is because of the consumer Christian mentality twentieth century Christianity has propagated among the generations that have preceded me, other parts are due to the fact that years of ideas about church and Christianity have amassed and now we, as the Church, cannot shift through the weeds to find the good crop that the Church should be anymore.

The future of the Church, and reaching people of our day (in a Post-Christian Ireland/rapidly changing Ireland), depends on how we, as the Church, think on and respond to these issues.