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What is a church? What does the word mean? It started with Christ then a bunch of disciples meating at the temple. Any enlightenment on this one? 2:42 And they kept their attention fixed on the Apostles' teaching and were united together in the taking of broken bread and in prayer. 2:43 But fear came on every soul: and all sorts of wonders and signs were done by the Apostles. 2:44 And all those who were of the faith kept together, and had all things in common; 2:45 And exchanging their goods and property for money, they made division of it among them all, as they had need. 2:46 And day by day, going in agreement together regularly to the Temple and, taking broken bread together in their houses, they took their food with joy and with true hearts, 2:47 Giving praise to God, and having the approval of all the people; and every day the number of those who had salvation was increased by the Lord.
16:18 And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock will my church be based, and the doors of hell will not overcome it. 16:19 I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever is fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you make free on earth will be made free in heaven.
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Well, I googled " What does church mean?" anf this is what I found:
 The Churchby George Clark and John Clark Sr."And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." - (Matt.16:18)What is the Meaning of the Word, "Church"?The word, "church", comes from ekklesia, a Greek word which means "called-out ones"; and that is exactly what the church is: people called out of the darkness of sin into the light of holiness. Many in our time call the building in which they worship "the church"; but the word "church" refers only to God's earthly family, and it should never be used in reference to a building built by men. The church is the earthly dwelling place of God's Spirit, as Paul stated, "your body is the temple of the holy Ghost" (1Cor.6:19). Peter described the church as "living stones", forming "a spiritual house", a place "to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1Pet.2:5). The church, then, is the people of God, not a mere building. As the man of God said, "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:48). In the Old Covenant, God's earthly dwelling place was not called "the church"; rather, it was frequently called "Zion". Isaiah prophesied concerning Zion, "Thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name" (62:2). This prophecy remained unfulfilled until the Lord Jesus came and spoke the words of our text, "I will build my church". This was the time and place that Zion received directly from "the mouth of the Lord" its new name: CHURCH. |
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| Thanks Shannon. I'm as you may have guessed a bad Googler. |
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| I actually just started playing with it. You'd be surprised what you can find by asking the computer! LOL. There is no such thing as a bad googler! |
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| You have never seen me type! |
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Acts 2:45 'And exchanging their goods and property for money, they made division of it among them all, as they had need. 2:46 And day by day, going in agreement together regularly to the Temple and, taking broken bread together in their houses, they took their food with joy and with true hearts,'
Funny, if you do this today, they label you a cult. lol! |
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| hmmm... of course over the years there have been a few cults. Of course there's always someone demanding obedience. It sounds like to begin with they were just wanting to obey Christ. |
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Jen |
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August 28, 2007 at 8:58pm |
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In the section of Acts 2 that is referenced above by Birdie, the first Christian church - which came about after a monumentous outpouring of the Holy Spirit - consisted of the following: teaching, fellowship, eating together, praying & worshiping together, meeting @ the temple for prayer & worship and sharing their possessions, this last one just being a way of caring for one another's needs. They met in homes, but also continued going to the temple for prayer and worship. They had been transformed, and out of that a new type of community - the beginning N.T. church - emerged. These Scriptures, Acts 2:42-47, give us a good picture of what a church can (and should) look like, but not in the sense of a program or formula to follow exactly as it was done then. In them we see what can develop when the Spirit truly moves, when believers spend time in prayer and worship, when their hearts are in the right place and they place others above themselves. The most exciting part is the results: And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:47b |
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Jen |
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August 28, 2007 at 9:04pm |
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| Our congregation, Mt. Helena Community Church, has just moved into our new building, which is called The Gateway Center. We took a 28,000 s.f. building in the center of town and did some serious remodeling and now it is basically a community center for the city. We own it and have our services there, but we didn't want it to be known as just "our church." As mentioned in Shannon's comment above, we are the church, wherever we are at; the building is just a building. Our pastor is adamant about not calling our building "our church", and rightly so, I think. |
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| Thanks so much for your input Jen and Shannon. |
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