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10:00pm
Well I have some free time right now... the kids are headed to bed and my dear husband has gone to bed. So I thought I would take this time to write about the topic of institutional church.
Once upon a time I attended what I called "church". It was a building in town where those who considered themselves Lutherans gathered weekly to participate in a traditional liturgy. To me that was church. I was often questioned why I attended there because my guests could never get anything out of it... no teaching to take home nor an uplifting word. I always told them it was because this type of service was more of a worship service not a pep rally like some churches held.
Anyway, fast forward to today... I am no longer meeting with this congregation. I am part of instead of a fellowship of believers who meet weekly in homes for prayer, study, fellowship, food and support (Acts 2:42). I call this church now. Church meaning... an assembly of people who are followers of Jesus Christ.
In the past few weeks we have had another family who has been joining us regularly. They are members of mainline denomination church but choose to meet with us on Sunday afternoons for fellowship and the studying that we do. Sometimes in conversation I refer to my previous experience with church (meeting in a building for a worship service) as "institutional church". My friend has issues with the term intuitional church, because to her it sounds like people sitting in straight jackets. She has brought it up a few times so I know it is a bothersome term for her. The last time we were together, she mentioned it again, so I asked if there was another term I could refer to it by because the way she meets with fellow believers and the way I meet with fellow believers are different and I need a way to differentiate them from each other. She didn't give me word to use that day, and ever since then I have been pondering my use of the word 'institutional' church. So I hit the books and the web to help me of this quest of what I mean when I say "institutional church" and discover for myself whether it is the right word to use or not.
Here are some of my notes:
- from the Wikipedia website --- institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior (actions) of a set of individuals within a given human collectivity. (rules governing cooperative human behavior/ customs/ behavior patterns/ deliberately & intentionally created by people/ self organization/ culture/ habits/ customs/ make and enforce rules & laws on marriage and family) (reflect social constructions for a particular time, culture, society produced by collective human choice.)
- from a conversation with a friend who pastors a congregation --- institutional means an organized and government recognized body-- a legal entity. Institutional church would be bricks and mortar, everything laid out how things are done. He figures a problem is that we Christians try to use a secular word to describe a spiritual entity.
- my first thoughts I wrote down --- institutional church is an organizational structure with degrees of control and formality
- denominations, memberships, rules, positions, authority, government, salaries, staff, financial and time obligations, building, doctrinal statements, membership covenants, type of worship music acceptable, pews, who teaches???, who is allowed to teach???, who is allowed to baptize, marry, etc, dictates when to meet, formally organized, national headquarters....
- man made denominational congregations -> the same as institutional church
- from a website (don't remember which one) --- Institutional Church = a groups of believers who meet in a building, identify themselves with a name, have leadership structure, offer programs and services and support to its members (and hopefully their community).
- man made religious church different from God's universal spiritual church
- 1577(Strong's Concordance) - Greek - ekklesia -- a calling out, a meeting, congregation, assembly, Christian community
- congregation = coming together into an assembly
- Acts 2 --- my Bible references them as a fellowship of believers
- fellowship = companionship, friendliness, a taking part with others, sharing, brotherhood --- a relationship
- communion = the act of sharing, having in common; an exchange of thoughts, feelings, intimate talk, fellowship; a close spiritual relationship
- religion = a system of belief and worship
Conclusion from my research:
So from the research I have done I can see that "institutional" is a correct word when I am speaking of the church on the street corner -- the one with the building and the denominational label and name. I am not sure how to reference it any differently for my friend, out of respect for her struggle with this concept. This type of assembly and the type of assembly I participate in a remarkably different. I questioned and struggled with the idea of what to call what I participate in. Some call it house church, or simple church or organic church. I have never really been comfortable with any of those names. I don't like having to label what I do. When we become Christians, we become brothers and sisters in Christ.... we are family. So when we meet, it is simply a family gathering. No rules or formalities. The only commonality among us is Christ -- not that we are Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans or ____________. Our common bond is Christ only. No memberships to join or sign. No obligations or rules. Not a legal entity registered with government with tax deductible receipts.
Just Christ... just family.
I think an interesting study would be to look into the reason why we are to meet together as the family of Christ. What does God's word tell us? I wrote a blog entry about this back in April -- http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Pamela/677053/. We should also look into what the word worship means. Many say they go to church to be in God's house, to worship him. What does it mean to worship? Where is God's house... where does He say he dwells?
An article I read in my travels talked about how we should not be concerned the WHERE and HOW Christians choose to meet but we should concentrate on the WHY and WHO we meet for.
Here is a list of websites I was reading the week I was looking into this... there might be something good to read in amongst them. (It has been a week so I can't remember each link.)
institutional church/elders/deacons
we meet b/c He is risen
church involvement
why we need the institutional church
art and thoughts of a person's experience with the church
the assembled church in Corinth
"I've stepped away from the institutional church!Can you help me find a group nearby?"
what is the universal church?
Good night.  12:03am
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Oct. 15, 2009 - Untitled Comment
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