22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
There are quite a few distinctives of the church, the body of Christ - we recognize that His church, His body, reflects His presence. We are called into fellowship with Him, and He desires to make Himself known to and through His people as we worship Him and surrender our lives to His service. We know that the church is not defined by its location, but by the people who call upon His name, and the church is called to the practice of our faith. As we remain connected to Christ, the Head of the body, He will work through the members of that body to bring honor to His name.
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We think of ourselves as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as His body, with Jesus at the head, empowering us and expressing Himself through us. Romans 12 contains this description:
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
In a suburb of Nashville, there are plans to convert an office building into an entity called United Fellowship Center. It's right next door to a Christian school in the suburb of Madison. UFC claims to be a "church," but is it? Really?
ReligionNews.com has the backstory on a controversy generated by the relocation of a swingers' club called The Social Club, which wanted to relocate to the new building, but ran into a city ordinance that, according to the People Magazine website, bars the opening of private clubs within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and residences.
Not to worry, the people in charge of the club said. They merely rebranded as a church, even though they have no intention to become a non-profit organization and therefore have to comply with a 14-point test that the IRS uses to determine if an entity is really a church, according to the group's attorney, quoted by RNS. He says that United Fellowship Center doesn’t align itself with any world religion, and its belief system is brief: “Do not steal, do not lie, do not cheat, do not take the life of another, do not commit adultery — without the knowledge and consent of your spouse.”
Craig Detwiler, a communication professor at Pepperdine University poses an excellent question, according to the RNS piece. He is quoted as saying, “The swingers club may be gathering to worship the body...But what does it mean to be the Body of Christ? Maybe we need to redefine why we gather. … Perhaps this is a post-Christendom moment that we’re in.”
4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
In a suburb of Nashville, there are plans to convert an office building into an entity called United Fellowship Center. It's right next door to a Christian school in the suburb of Madison. UFC claims to be a "church," but is it? Really?
ReligionNews.com has the backstory on a controversy generated by the relocation of a swingers' club called The Social Club, which wanted to relocate to the new building, but ran into a city ordinance that, according to the People Magazine website, bars the opening of private clubs within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and residences.
Not to worry, the people in charge of the club said. They merely rebranded as a church, even though they have no intention to become a non-profit organization and therefore have to comply with a 14-point test that the IRS uses to determine if an entity is really a church, according to the group's attorney, quoted by RNS. He says that United Fellowship Center doesn’t align itself with any world religion, and its belief system is brief: “Do not steal, do not lie, do not cheat, do not take the life of another, do not commit adultery — without the knowledge and consent of your spouse.”
Craig Detwiler, a communication professor at Pepperdine University poses an excellent question, according to the RNS piece. He is quoted as saying, “The swingers club may be gathering to worship the body...But what does it mean to be the Body of Christ? Maybe we need to redefine why we gather. … Perhaps this is a post-Christendom moment that we’re in.”
After all, he noted, the Apostle Paul advised the Corinthians on how their church should stand out from temples where patrons had sex with prostitutes to get closer to God.
The article says that the president of the school is vowing to fight, and quotes a legal expert who says that what makes a church could effectively come under court scrutiny.
Kathleen Flake, a University of Virginia religious studies professor who specializes in First Amendment issues says that all the courts would have to do in the swingers club case is look at the events leading up to the announcement that it was a church. She said, “The court is not barred from using common sense." The story said that, "Courts will look at United Fellowship’s leadership structure and whether those leaders have religious training, as well as their belief system and whether it deals with the transcendental rather than the material."
The example is given of the 1968 case of United States v. Kuch, a defendant indicted on charges of selling LSD offered the defense that her membership in the Neo-American Church required her to take psychedelic drugs. The court refused to dismiss the case against Judith Kuch under the finding that defendants can’t use religion as a shield for antisocial behavior. But Flake does point out that offense doesn't equal harm regarding whether a sexual enterprise can or should apply the label of church.
Does that club in Nashville have the right to call itself a church? I think there are some religious hurdles that it may be called upon to pass in the days to come. But, back to Professor Detweiler's question - what does it mean to be the Body of Christ?
Three words can help to answer that question:
The church, the body of Christ, is defined by the presence of God. Regarding the church of Jesus Christ, His body, He said that upon the rock - of truth consistent with His nature - He would build His church. There are many so-called "churches," and I would contend that the presence of a divine element would be a defining component. But, THE church is defined by the manifestation and worship of the one true God, who is above all.
There are also the people. The principle comes to mind that you just can't put a sign at a building and call it a church. And, the activities of the church don't make it the church. As Detweiler points out in this article, when buildings house coffee shops, bookstores or gyms, are those part of the church — or are they not another form of social club? I contend that it's not the building that makes the church, but the people make the church, and the building is merely a container or a gathering place. But, I don't think you can merely take any group of people that gathers and call it a church.
Finally, if God's presence is manifested through a group of people who can be identified with the body of Christ, we then move on to practice. The proof of the people experiencing the presence of God is the practice of our faith. The apostle Paul describes the activity of the body and the expression of the giftedness we have received from God to serve others. The church is more than just people assembling at a building, but acting in a way that builds people. We say we believe and confirm it by practice.
The church, Christ's church, is His body, a representation of His very nature and presence.
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