Church – the Place – is a meaningful designation, and therefore it also deserves a meaningful description. The word “church” actually refers not only to one place where people go to worship but to a system of interacting with God. A more accurate expression would be “the assembly of God”. Church is also a generic term referring to a Protestant ecclesiastical community consisting of all Christians.
A church is always considered a visible presence on earth until it ceases to function as such. This is evident in the fact that all the churches which exist in the world today are the manifestations of the faith practiced by their founder(s). All these churches have one thing in common: they keep the commandments of God as recorded in the biblical scriptures. A church therefore consists of men and women who are guided by the Holy Spirit to walk in obedience to His commandments.
The Bible is God’s final word. All other parts of the Bible are inspired by God and therefore binding on all Christian. In the Christian church a member or a believer is considered a member of the body of Christ after being washed in water by a minister of the church. A church which is present in America includes almost half of the American population. Churches therefore form the very heart and soul of America.
The basic purpose of the Christian church is to witness to its congregation and to the world the Saviour Jesus Christ. Church nowadays has evolved so that it can more efficiently perform this work of preaching and teaching the Word of God to the people. In the beginning there were two bodies: the local church and the universal church. The former was made up of believers, while the latter were persons outside the church who were accepted by it as members.
The function of the local church is to teach its people and make them aware of God through the Word of God and the ministry of the gospel. It also makes the people conscious of their sin and how they should walk in the grace of God. On the other hand the universal church consists of believers from every part of the earth. It consists of believers of all Christian sects and beliefs. The universal church exists to build the kingdom of God on earth. All Christian should be unified and work together for the welfare of the Christian community.
Every Christian should have a sense of loyalty and obligation towards his church. He should be willing to make tributes to it and give all he has to it. A Christian should protect the Holy Bible and keep it safe by abiding by its teachings. The sacred books of the bible should never be tampered with and neither should the ministers of the church. In addition a Christian should take care of the Holy Land. It is believed by many Christians that the Holy land has remained untouched by the Germanic people when they came to preach the gospel to the people of Israel.