Ask Your Preacher - Archives
“No Luck Potluck Pt. 2”
Categories: THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH(This post is in reference to “No Luck Potluck”)
Y'all have disappointed me this morning... I have been reading your Q/A for the last 4-5 months, every morning, and try to incorporate those into my daily Bible study. But the latest one has faltered. "No potluck"? It almost sounds like you are putting emphasis on the BUILDING being a part of worship. What makes a building holy? You can NOT eat in a building when worship services have concluded? Can you NOT drink water from the fountain? Have lights? Computers? Restrooms? If you follow this line, when does one stop? The first christians were meeting in each others’ homes. Where today, all these things would be available, just NOT during worship services. They were meeting in synagogues where the Jews were still worshiping. OUR bodies make up THE body of the church.
Sincerely,
Fork In Hand
Dear Fork In Hand,
You raise a very valid question. You asked: "What makes a building holy?" After all, the building isn't the church – the people are. Whether the church meets in a house (Acts 20:8), a school building (Acts 19:9), or the temple porch (Acts 5:12), it is still the church. The people are God's church – certainly not a building. So should we be concerned at all with what goes on in the church building. The answer is ‘yes’, but not because the building is the church... because the building was bought with the church's money.
A church building is part of a church's finances (the same as your house is part of your finances), and it is important that whatever we use the church's finances for be authorized by the Bible. 1 Tim 3:15 says that there is a certain way that the church must behave when we work together collectively. 1 Tim 5:16 takes it one step farther and says that there are certain financial things the church shouldn't be burdened with. Once our money goes into the church collection on Sunday (1 Cor 16:1-2), it becomes the Lord's money – not ours. The church can spend its money on the church's work. The church's work is simple: teach the saved, preach to the lost, and care for needy christians (read "Purpose Driven Church" for book, chapter, and verse for those commands).
The issue isn't with any food or drink in the building... it is when the church collectively decides to use the building for a primarily social gathering. As Paul said, "Don't you have houses to eat and drink in?" (1 Cor 11:22). Paul lambasted the church in Corinth for making the church's work a social event. As we mentioned in the previous post, if the church needed a potluck for the purpose of continuing their services, that would be one thing... but once we start spending the church's finances (and the building is part of the church's finances) on social things, there is no principle difference between that and church movie night or having a Boy Scout troop use the building on Thursdays. Hope that provides some clarification. It is about the use of the Lord's finances, not a building being sacred.
