Start with the definition

Posted by Alan Knox on Jan 6, 2008 in blog links, definition | 3 comments

One of the things I determined a few years ago is that in order to understand the church scripturally, you must begin by defining the church scripturally. I’ve talked to many people who are interested in changing the church, or determining how the church should operation, or explaining how the church should carry out its mission, but they never consider how to define the church.

Eric, a friend of mine who blogs at “Hammer and Nail“, has started a blog series on “Church Reform“. I was excited to see that he began his series by studying the “Definition of Church“. As I said before, any consideration of changing or reforming the church should begin with the definition of the church.

Some people are satisfied with equating the church with the organizations and structures that we have set up. If these organizations and structures are the church, then the way to reform the church is to streamline the organizations and structures so that they operate at peak efficiency.

However, if the church is not the same as our organizations and structures, then changing the organizations and structures may have positive or negative (or neutral) ramifications on the church.

I’m excited that Eric has started this series. Perhaps you’ll be interested in following his series as well.