In this episode Joe and I delve into his new theme of ‘nature churching’. In particular, we talk about what exactly constitutes a church.
I admit to being a little doctrinaire on this one. I think, historically and theologically there are some characteristic activities which define a church, as opposed, say, to a Bible study group, or even just a group of people meeting together.
Looking at the model of church in Acts, and accounts from the early years of the Christian church, it seems to me that the characteristic activities of a church are:
- Baptism
- Eucharist, mass, communion - whatever you term it
- Bible - some kind of reflection or teaching drawing on scripture
- Prayer
- Worship
- Community - care for one another, which includes alms-giving
Not all of these are necessary every time, obviously. There are many churches where baptisms are few and far in between, but the other five elements should be present in some way. Obviously the form these activities take vary greatly. It’s quite wrong to equate teaching with the ‘sermon’ for example. Or worship with hymn singing. The goal of church is not uniformity of expression, but transformation into Christlikeness. Which is also the goal of life, I suppose.