The Role of "Church"

Something that's been on my mind for a while is the purpose of our worship gatherings as Christians. There seem to be two mindsets out there among Christians: 1) Our worship gatherings are for the growth and fellowship of believers and to encourage and train believers to spread the Gospel to others. If non-believers come to know Christ during the actual gathering time, that's great!, but that's not the primary reason that we meet. Once people do come to know Him, they will be welcomed as brothers and trained to reach others. The primary way we expect to reach non-believers is through the witness of the Christians in our church while they are living out their faith in the world. 2) Our worship gatherings are for the growth of believers and to reach those who don't know him. We want to help everyone, believer or not, to take the next step on their spiritual journey. That may mean helping someone start their search for God, placing their faith in Christ for salvation, or learning how to trust God as master in another area of their life. We want to not only train believers to reach others for Christ but to reach non-believers for Christ in the process. We understand that not every Christian is capable of a complete apology of their faith, but if they can tell their friends what Christ has done in their life through their local church, then perhaps their friends will come and be changed by God's grace as well.


Without getting into all the Scripture references at the moment, I know that the Bible commands us as Christians to reach others with the Gospel of Christ, to grow them in Christ (discipleship), to support other Christians, and to train them to reach others for Christ. Most protestant churches that are passionate about the Gospel wouldn't argue with these things. These goals can be reached in many different ways. I don't believe that these different ways should be viewed as right or wrong but instead as good, better, or best.


As I wrote in my Constantine blog, in the first and second century, Christian's worship gatherings were not primarily evangelical in nature and centered around communion. I'm not necessarily placing more credence on early-Christian's practises over our own (that's a whole different topic), but I am saying that option #1 does have historical precedence. However, is there Scripture that indicates that worship gatherings should be only for believers?

I've seen both types of churches in action. Both churches were Gospel-centered and led by the Holy Spirit. Option #1 church was better at giving believers a lot of in depth knowledge. However, knowledge is good only so far as it leads to obedience. One friend told me that we learn orthodoxy (right knowledge) so that we can do orthopraxy (right action). However, in my experience in my own life and the life of other Christ followers, I know way more than I actually obey. Option #2 church is better at reaching people for Christ and being an impact in the community. My sample size is small, therefore I can't make valid inferences about all churches that fit into #1 and #2.

What do we think? Two questions: 1) What does scripture say to support #1 or #2? 2) If scripture doesn't say much in support of or to detract from either, what can we say from our experiences? Note: if you respond, please state what you think the role of church is, so I know what your premise is.