function of the local church

For generations our fellowship has railed against denominations and denominationalism while, in my opinion, morphing into the very thing it was railing against... most of this debate/arguing/condemning has been about worship styles and church organization...

reminds me of a momma in the movie "Mr. Mom" when Michael Keaton's character was dropping off his kiddos at school during his first day as a stay at home dad... he went through the car line the wrong way, and she rolled down her window and said "You're Doing It Wrong!!!" for decades, we have played the role of that mom...

I believe God's design for His Church includes a non-denominational model... for all the right, good, healthy reasons... but our 'stance' has cause many churches to not only turn into what they were preaching against, but to move further toward outright sectarianism* in their approach and flavor... and the exclusivism and bigotry that results is in some ways far worse than the baggage a group carries as they move toward denominationalism... OK, OK, enough!

(*Sectarianism is bigotry, discrimination, intolerance or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion or the factions of a political movement.)

...the purpose of this post is not to trash my heritage... I love my heritage and tradition! ...but I love the Body more, and I want to explore God's design for His church. More specifically, I wish to discover God's definition of the role of the local church.

I have been brought up to believe that the local church IS THE Church.... and, further, if YOU didn't attend MY local church, YOU must not be a member of the right church. (does that sound exclusive or denominational or sectarian to you?)

As the years have gone by, I began to question the veracity of that belief... and to seek God's wisdom on the matter (wow, what a novel idea :-)). Anyhow, I came to understand that the church spoken about so many times in our New Testament is the church universal... the body, the saved, the saints, the redeemed from all walks of life and all cultures and, yes, all different religious stripe.

Which, of course, opened up the possibility (new to ignorant me) that there might just be 'saved ones' and 'saints' who did NOT attend the 'church' which I attended... and (horror of horrors) some of these saved folks may not even attend a church that has the same name over the door!

So, for the moment, allow me to leave the subject of 'which church is the right church' (the older I get, the less fruitful that discussion seems to be), and just talk about the role of the local church...

so first... IS there a role which is filled by a local church?

The Bible is rife with examples of local churches and what functions they served... words like uplift, encourage, exhort, help are words that come to mind... (as I have noted before, while there is scant little example or command about the 'how' of the worship assembly, there are tons of examples of local churches - in action - throughout our new testament! So I have resolved to think and argue less about the former and study and imitate the latter)

Let me encourage us all to pray and study and meditate on what the 'church' is and what she is to be about...

I would love to hear from you with regard to what the Spirit reveals to you as you study...

I certainly don't have all the answers... but I believe I am asking better questions than I did a decade ago!

God Bless us as we endeavor to be His Body!