The Four "Ships" of the Church

                                       

(Hint:  it’s not the Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, and Titanic).

Just what, or who, is the Body of Christ?

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.  For the body is not one member, but many.  If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.  And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?  But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired ...Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.  I Corinthians 12:12-27

The church, or more accurately, the Body of Christ, is made up of believers.  We call ourselves Christians, or followers of Christ.  The Body is not just all the Evangelical Christians in America, or all the Christ Followers in America, and not even all the Christ Followers in the world.  The Body of Christ is made up of every believer in Christ that is alive now, that has lived in the past, and that will live in the future.  God does not experience time like we do.  So, when we speak of the Body of Christ, we must remember that it is inclusive of more people than we typically consider. 

Is Church for Sinners or Saints?

How do you view the purpose of church?  Here I am using the word "church" as the time when the Body is gathered together in our church buildings.  Typically this is on Sunday morning.  I think many Christians see the church as a Hospital.  There are sick people out there (the unsaved) that need to be made well (saved).  They are brought to the hospital (church building) by ambulance drivers (church members) who are trained on how to bring them in.  The hospital hires medical specialists in different areas (pastors) to heal the sick people (minister and save them).  The sick people after being healed (saved) by the professionally trained medical specialists are then sent out to bring other sick people into the hospital.  Hospitals (church services) are designed for the sick (unsaved), not the well (saved).

A different approach