Tear Down The Walls

A friend sent a link to me a few months back titled “Church Without Walls”. That title has echoed through my mind for weeks. Within that title alone there is a great deal of truth as to what the Church should really be versus what the Church is today within American culture.

Jesus never intended His Church to become a location, a business, or an organization as we know it. The Church is a body; to be more specific, the “Body of Christ”. The Church is a living organism that should grow and thrive and not be held back or held down with denomination, location, buildings, or politics. The Church should be a community that thrives on impacting the lives of others as it reaches out to others where they are instead of waiting for those we want to reach to come into the doors of a building.

Please don’t misunderstand me. A building serves a great purpose. God led and instructed the Hebrew people to build very elaborate and specific structures for His temple. The best of everything had to be used. No corners were cut, no expense was too much, and no sacrifice made was too great or too small. God’s Temple as built by the Jewish people was a true wonder to behold.

There is something to note about the temple. The temple itself was about God and God alone. The building was designed to place focus on God’s glory, not on the internal structure and political development of an organization. The only agenda in existence was to honor, worship, and glorify the One True God. This was the place God met with His people. However, one could say that God’s people were separated from God by a wall or a veil if you will.

The death of Jesus removed the walls, the veil that separated God from man. The death of Jesus shook apart the sin that tore apart the relationship of God and man. For the believer a temple is no longer needed to meet and communicate with God. The believer is God’s Temple. The Christian is God’s dwelling place. You are the Church.

As Christianity spread after the death of Christ groups of people met in homes and wherever they could that would provide safety for a meeting of encouragement, teaching, and fellowship. There was not a specific building, only a group of people that were known as followers of “The Way”. These people were not worried about themselves. They were willing to die for serving Jesus. They had no regard for their own life. Their life was about serving others and leading them to know and trust in Jesus as their Savior.

There is something we need to know and understand about being a Christian. To be a Christian means we are to be Christ-like. Jesus was not found in one place waiting for people to come to Him. Jesus was always found on the move, reaching those in need. Jesus ministered with people one on one. What Jesus did for those He personally interacted with is what drew the crowds. Jesus never relied on a building, never used a pulpit, didn’t have a choir or worship band, and there were no chairs, benches, or pews in a building with stained glass windows.

In American culture the mention of church brings about mental images of buildings, steeples, pulpits, and choir lofts. This isn’t the Church, it is only a church building designed around our personal culture. The Church is comprised of the people, with or without walls. I honestly believe that our buildings are getting in the way of our worship (Remember, the temple was designed to honor and glorify God). The Church building as we know it is getting in the way of what the Church’s intention should be; that is leading people to Jesus. Rather than going to those in need of Christ, we are waiting for them to come in. We are treating the Church building as a store front in many ways. We have the sad misconception that a lost world will walk through our doors to find Jesus.

We need to tear down the walls. Not the physical walls, but the walls within our minds and hearts. The physical walls serve a great purpose, and their purpose will grow as we bring the focus back to Jesus. We need to tear down our walls of politics, tear down the walls of programs, tear down the walls of manmade tradition, and remove our pride and desires to be in control. It’s time to stop allowing ourselves to be controlled by the opinions of others. It’s time to stop being led by fear. We need to understand that we come to church so that we can be the Church. We are there to be led, not to fight over policy and procedure. We are to serve, not to rule. We are to completely take the focus off of self, and place all focus on Jesus. This will ultimately lead towards a focus on others and their needs. When you begin meeting the needs of others the Church will grow beyond our imagination. To quote Rick Warren; “To not reach out to the world is to say to the people you can go to hell.”

Why did a persecuted early Church grow by the miraculous leaps and bounds it did in the book of Acts? It wasn’t because of a church government. The growth was not caused by slogans, programs, or a great pastor. Growth was not the result of a building. The people were serving and reaching beyond walls. They were selling their possessions and giving to the poor. Those that had to give gave until it hurt, and then they gave some more. People were communicating with one another on a very real level. The Church was relevant, real, and personal. To be a Christian in the early Church meant you could lose your life and yet people accepted Jesus by the thousands daily. Jesus was made real to those that had never met Him through the acts of Christians.

It's time to tear down the walls. It's time to go beyond the church building and fulfill the purpose of The Church.