I am not sure if you will be able to understand these things. The present structure of Christianity is casting so much darkness that it makes it difficult to understand the true pattern. In the first century Paul would teach in the synagogue, which was a hall. And in Ephesus Paul rented a hall to teach. Those were not ecclesia, it is more like what we call church today, it is a preaching/teaching station. All they do there is preach. But ecclesia is held in the homes, and it involves mutual fellowship; iron is sharpening iron, intimacy is taking place, and they are helping to shape each other into the image of Christ.
Notice that the hall where Paul taught was not called the house of God. In Ephesus it was a secular place, an ordinary lecture hall. Yes, ministry are done in ordinary places, it is very unchristian to call a building the "house of God". This is not a joking matter, it was a taboo during the first and second century. Stephen died defending this truths. Even down to the second century, they were mocked and criticized for not having a church (a building dedicated to their God) and yet they refused to do such. Yes, church literary means "that which is dedicated to a god", and it is usually used to refer to a building, a temple.
The first complete English translation of the Bible (Tyndale Bible) only used the word church twice in the New Testament. And in both instances it was referring to a pagan temple. The idea of having a church was vehemently fought against in early Christianity. I will show you evidence. Just as we have the letters of the New Testament, the early Christians continued the tradition of writing letters. The letters of the NT gives us a window into the first century Christianity. The second century Christians also wrote letters, and these letters gives us a window into the second century Christianity
"The Word, prohibiting all sacrifices and the
building of temples, indicates that the Almighty is not contained in anything." Clement of Alexandria (c 195, E).
"We refuse to build lifeless temples to the
Giver of all life.... Our bodies are the temple of God... When they reproach us for not deeming it necessary to worship the divine Being by raising lifeless temples, we set before them our temples." Origen (c. 248, E).
You can see that they were even criticizing them for not building a church, yet they vehemently refused to do so. That last quote was from the mid third century, but as at this time Christians have gradually began to move from worshipping at their houses to worshipping in catacombs. They claimed that the grave of the apostles were holy grounds. Then in the fourth century they began building churches on those graves. St. Peter Basilica was built on what was assumed to be Peter's grave. In fact, they became so perverse that they moved from the apostles' to the grave of any famous Christian saint.
If they can't build on those saints grave they would transfer the remains of the dead saints and bury them under the church altar. That church altar was actually a grave of dead saints. They developed this ideology that the grave of saints are one of the most holy places on earth. This was how we started calling the church altar a holy ground. Some churches today don't even allow the Choirs to climb the church altar because they feel it is too holy for such kind of people. All these are perverse pagan mentality
In fact, that period of the Church history was a very terrible period. They were so obsessed with the remains of the apostles and holy saints. They would search for them like gold, then they will break the bones into small pieces and put a rope into it. That was how rosery started, it was a rope of relics (bones and remains) of the apostles and holy saints. Christianity started turning into a pagan thing, they were literally worshipping dead bodies. Anyway, our topic is on the pastoral system, I only said all that to show you the level of degradation and perversion of the Christian community as at that period.
Before going back to the pastoral system, I will quickly state this. The idea of doing church (worshipping in a physical building designated as the house of God) is not Christian, it is pagan. It is a paganize Christianity. The only way that churches can redeem themselves back into true Christianity is if they recant such ideology and teaching. And if they begin to see themselves as just ministries, and the buildings are just halls for ministry like the hall that Paul rented in Ephesus or like the Jewish civic hall called synagogue.
But as long as they continue to call that thing the house of God and treat it as a place of worship, then what they are doing is paganism. It is an impure thing, a perversion of God's original intention for the New Covenant people. Anyway, I will employ you to do your own research, we are in the age of information. We have Google, you can go research on everything I have written here. Research about the early Christian practice, confirm the quotes I made here if they are authentic. Don't sit in ignorance and be practicing paganism, find out the truth and make the necessary adjustments.
This post is part of a series. Below are links to the other posts in the series.
The Pastoral Office (1); Organic Process
The Pastoral Office (2); Elder, Bishop, Pastor
The Pastoral Office (4); Comparing The Practices In Different Centuries
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