What Is Church? A People Group Series

I did a google search for why folks find church boring and I came across a forum in wikihow.com called, “How to Stay Entertained in Church.” The post begins with this statement, “Church is always boring, if you don’t think it is, then why are you reading this? This article is about how not to get bored to death while you’re there.” Here are the suggestions:

1. Try to actually listen. You might find out that sometimes it can actually be interesting.

2. Count. when every 10-minute period starts, count and then when you're done guessing when the period is over see how close you were. And if you really want a challenge then try to do the whole service.

3. If you're a girl, do your hair. Braid it, put it up, whatever. Just don't make a big show of it.

4. Sing or hum in your head. Think of your favorite song and sing the lyrics in your head.

5. Think. Just reflect on everything that's going on in your life. If you have a problem think about who to tell or how to solve it.

6. Bug your siblings, if they're not really little. Don't make a big scene of it. Just poke them or something.

7. Think about any problems in your life and how to solve them.

8. Text. Keep your phone silent or on vibrate. And make sure your parents are okay with it or do it really quietly. Sit far away from them.

9. If all else fails just go to the bathroom and hang there for a while. Make origami out of the paper towels or if no one's around, sing.

 Tips

 If there's a Sunday School during the service see if you can help out with it and kill about a half hour.

 Try to sit as far away from your parents as possible.

Warnings

 Don't go to the bathroom for too long or else your parents might get suspicious.

 You might be missing out on important stuff.

 Don't annoy really little siblings or else they might start crying really loud and/or you'll get in trouble with your parents.

 Make sure your siblings won't tell on you.

This post exposes a truth that I think is important for us to deal with. A lot of folks, not just kids, find church boring. I believe that people find church boring if the church isn't what it's supposed to be. For the next three weeks we’re going to answer a question. The question is “What is Church?” I believe there is a misunderstanding or even a perception problem when it comes to defining the church. For the next three Sundays we are going to have a frank discussion on what Church is. We’re going to let the Bible define it. Hopefully when we’re done you will not only have a better understanding of what Church is, you’ll discover how exciting and awesome it is to be a part of it. You will discover that church is anything but boring.

This week we're going to discuss the answer to the question, “What is Church?” The church is a people group. If you read with me this week in Acts you read about a guy named Stephen. Stephen was a deacon in the church in Jerusalem. He had been appointed along with 6 other guys to run a food program to aid Greek widows. The church primarily in Jerusalem was made up of Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews. They still practiced their Jewish faith, they lived as they had always lived, but, now they were Jesus followers. But they had a flawed understanding about their new faith. These Jews expected gentiles who became followers of Jesus to become Jews, too. Gentiles who wanted to follow the Jewish Messiah had to become Jews by religion and practice. So many gentile Jesus followers who refused to do this, or for whatever reasons couldn’t become Jews by religion or practice were discriminated against. The Jewish widows were receiving the full benefit of the food program administered by the Jerusalem church, but the gentile widows were not. And once they started complaining about it, the twelve apostles who were still in Jerusalem overseeing the church appointed 7 deacons to make sure that the gentile widows were treated fairly with this food program. Stephen was one of these guys.

I want you to imagine as best you can what it must have been like for this people group of Jesus followers during the months following Jesus death, burial and resurrection. There was tension in the culture of Jews between those who followed the law of Moses, and those who followed the law of Moses but also believed in Jesus as the Son of God. The authorities of the law like the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Priests, and Teachers saw those who believed in Jesus as a threat to their power. The Sadducees didn’t believe in a resurrection so to believe that Jesus raised from the dead was a teaching heretical to their understanding. Pharisees like Saul considered Jesus followers as a cult and was determined to destroy it. Even today Jewish teachers and Rabbi’s are angry with the notion that Jesus is revealed as both human and God. Jewish writer Tom Macabi in this book “Anti-Semitism and John’s Gospel says “In the book of John in the New Testament, Christ is portrayed as a divine man who fulfills prophecy and reveals God in his own flesh. This was and still remains, pure anathema to Jews. From a Jewish perspective the Johannine god-man vision of Christ is a repulsive paganism. By virtue of their innate inability to accept such a vision of the Messiah, Jews are automatically condemned by Johannine Christology.”