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The Community Church? By: Gary Colley
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The Community Church? By: Gary Colley
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We have recently received notice of another man-made church to be established in our city. It says it will be called the Cumberland Community Church. You can find some of these scattered over the country, but you cannot find this church in the Bible. Jesus did say, " . . upon this rock I will build my church (Matthew 16:18)." He did come to die on the cross for His church (Acts 20:28) and He has promised to come again to save His church eternally (Ephesians 5:23), but search as we may, we never find Him mentioning a "Community Church." He spoke of "the church" (Acts 2:47), "the church of God" (I Corinthians 1:2), and "the churches of Christ" (Romans 16:16), but He never mentioned any other, such as a "Community Church" in the Bible. The notice in the mail is from a California firm calling themselves Outreach Marketing, but not the Bible. It represents other churches in our city as scolding, judging, picking your pocket, and not being genuine people! Now I know some things that need to be changed in denominational churches, bu these are not thing of which I know. They also speak of giving people "guilt-ridden" trips, being "rule laden," and completely "hypocritical." The pictures on the advertising seem to attempt to conjure up representations of "your idea of church" as like a con artist selling watches from under his coat, a prisoner dragging a chain and ball, and look-down-her-nose-lady with books and a ruler in her hand. These are certainly not the kind of people you will find in the churches of Christ of which I have knowledge! They say they are "out to change the way you think out church." Well, it is certainly a change from what is found in our Bible. We can find in the Bible where each worshipper is to sing with the spirit and the understanding and make melody in their heart as they worship God (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16-17, I Corinthians 14:15), but no where in the Bible do we find "upbeat music" as advertised by this church. We find both the positive and negative message preached in the Lord's church in the New Testament (Acts 2), but not just "positive messages" as this church boasts. We could certainly support the church revealed in the New Testament being established, but we must be warned about one the Lord has not spoken of or promised to save being established.