Essence of the Local Church

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Essay #1: You have gathered a launch team and are teaching them about what the local church is. Write an essay on how you would define the local church, what is its essence and what does the Bible teach about the local church. The local church is formed of a group of Christians who live in the same area and come to worship and honor God together. Some people think that you need a building or a worship service to have a church, but that is not true. According to Ott and Wilson a local church is, “a fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ committed to gathering regularly for biblical purposes under a recognized spiritual leadership.” This means that all you need to have a local church is group of people, who love Jesus, are willing to come together on a regularly basis, and who have someone to help guide their spiritual growth. In the Bible we see the local church consisted of Christians gathering together to share a meal and worship with one another. This gathering of Christians was to occur often and promoted community among the followers of Christ (1 Cor. 11:17-34). After Jesus’ ascension most Christians either worshipped in their local synagogue or in the temple, but after the Jews expelled the Christians from their synagogues and the temple most Christians meet in their homes. This shows that the important part of the local church was not where the meet but that they gathered together in community. The local church was also known for its love. Christians loved both their fellow believers and the communities they lived in. Jesus said that His followers would be identified by their loving for one another (John 13:35 NIV). Loving others was an important part of the early Church. They took great steps to make sure that everyone ... ... middle of paper ... ...uld understand an African or Asian culture before trying to plant a church. These church planters believe that to adapt to the post-modern age a new church movement is going to have to emerge to meet the needs and understand this new culture. This has given rise to the Emerging Church Movement. The churches in this new movement seek to be proactive in this post modern culture. They believe that they will have reach out to people if they want them to become part of the Church. They believe that they are going to have to understand the postmodern mind set if they want to be able to relate to this new generation. They will have to know how to live out their faith through their worship and they will have to know how to keep their worship centered on God. The Emerging Church Movement wants to be able to reach out to the post-modern society and show them the love of God.

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