What Is The Purpose Of The Church
For many centuries, the church has played a significant role in our local communities. Any town in America or any city in Europe may be identified by the towering spirals of steeples and spires that indicate the presence of church structures below.
However, the environment is shifting. Nowadays, congregations gather in repurposed malls and retail centers, rented school facilities, residences, or conference rooms in hotels. Some churches even meet in secret, occasionally almost below ground, away from the onerous gaze of local authorities.
As diverse as the region in which the edifice is located, church architecture is imaginative. Additionally, each church has a different structure and programming, which is likely influenced by the culture in which it is located. As God’s missionary efforts to preach the gospel moved from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond, the New Testament also records a huge variety of local churches.
It’s intriguing and significant to realize that God never intended “cookie-cutter” churches. Other New Testament churches did not share the characteristics or practices of the early church in Jerusalem. Even the church in Antioch, which is the second church in Acts to be mentioned chronologically, operated in a very different way from the first local …