In Jewish social cognition, the holy temple was the worshipping center. Later in history, people were displaced and found themselves far away from the holy temple due to the destruction of the country by wars. Therefore, the synagogue system was introduced to restore the traditional way of worshipping God. The synagogue system was the continuation of the temple-centered worship and management mode. The narrow nationalism of Jews was formed by the temple-centered worship system.
The arrival of Jesus was to break the temple-centered practice. He said: “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Mathew 18:20).
This statement has been regarded as a classic exposition of the essence of the church. However, Jesus was not announcing the establishment of a kind of church. Rather, he was talking about the coming of a new way of worship.
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). Therefore, his claim to worship God in spirit and in truth was meant to break the temple-centered worship system.
Nowadays, the traditional Christian church, with its worship mode and group identity, still continues the temple centralism, only replacing the temple with a church building. Therefore, the traditional Christian church is place-centered. After all, a church must be materialized or gathered in a certain place. As the church is centered on gathering, more than half of it will be shrunken once the gathering is gone. Gathering needs a physical place, so place-centeredness is acknowledged.
The on-site gathering takes a certain building as its center and carrier, which means that the Christian church will manifest itself to the society in a public way. It is the main way to show the existence of Christianity. However, once the social space is squeezed, this kind of place-centered gathering will encounter challenges. When believers are used to defining their self-belief and identity by a church collective, the compression of social space means that the Christian church cannot show itself and the existing space is squeezed. As a result, it is inevitable to try every means to strive for the existence and expansion of physical space, which will inevitably conflict with the current secular world.
In fact, many ideas of the traditional church today come not from Jesus, but from the tradition opposed by Jesus and even abandoned by Jews. This is one of the main reasons for the plight of the Christian church today.
Today's traditional church in China, like the disciples who followed Jesus in the past, has a huge gap and difference from Jesus’ teaching. This gap and dislocation may be due to intention or misunderstanding. However, returning to Jesus’ teaching, Jesus did not limit the connection between Christians to a church. The way of church gathering can be specific to a particular period of time. Different ways of gathering should be adopted depending on the prevailing conditions of an era. It is time to think about Jesus’ teaching.
The model initiated by Jesus is the model of the free union of Christians, which is unlimited in number and gender. It can be two or three people or more than a dozen. In this more meaningful way, several people learn to grow together, change themselves, change their families and make the world a better place. “This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:17). This is not against church gatherings but against temple-centralism.
In this very period, when the space for activities is limited, it is time for Christians to accept changes. It is time that Christians accept shaping themselves and growing. It is also the best way for the Christian faith to testify itself in the present.
- Translated by Charlie Li
在犹太人的社会认知里，是以圣殿为敬拜中心，后来由于国破家亡，人们流离失所，远离圣殿，因此为了向神敬拜，才有了会堂制。会堂制依然是圣殿为中心敬拜，管理模式的延续。圣殿为中心造成了犹太人狭隘的民族主义。
而耶稣的到来就是打破这种圣殿中心论。他在福音书里说：“因为无论在哪里，有两三个人奉我的名聚会，那里就有我在他们中间。(太18:20)”
这句话被作为对教会本质的经典论述。但是，耶稣在这里不是宣布一种教会的成立，而是宣布一种新的敬拜方式来临。
他又说“妇人，你当信我。时候将到，你们拜父也不在这山上，也不在耶路撒冷。时候将到，如今就是了，那真正拜父的，要用心灵和诚实拜他，因为父要这样的人拜他。神是灵，所以拜他的，必须用心灵和诚实拜他。”因此，他宣称用心灵和诚实敬拜，来打破那种敬拜上帝以神圣的地方为中心的敬拜。
而今基督传统教会，其敬拜模式和群体认同，同样延续了圣殿中心主义，只不过把圣殿替换成了教堂。因此传统基督教会是教堂中心主义。而教堂最终必然落实到某一个地方，或集中在某个地方。因为教堂是以聚会为中心，一旦没有教堂聚会，教会也就散了一大半了。聚会是需要实体空间，因此教堂为中心的认同模式。
实体聚会，是以某一建筑物为中心和载体，意味着基督教会必然以公共的方式来显明与社会。这种以聚集的方式表达基督教存在的主要方式。然而，一旦社会空间被挤压，那么这种以建筑物为中心的聚会，就会遇到挑战。当信徒习惯了用教堂集体来定义自我信仰和身份的时候，社会空间的压缩也就意味着基督教会就无法自我展现，存在空间被挤压了。结果，必然是想尽一切办法争取实体空间的存在和扩张；必然会与现实世俗国度产生冲突。
实际上今天传统教会的很多观念，不是来自耶稣，而是来自耶稣所反对的、甚至早已经被犹太人放弃的传统。这是造成今天基督教会困境的一个主要原因之一。
今天的基督教传统教会，依然如同当年跟随耶稣的门徒一样，与耶稣的教导之间有着巨大的鸿沟和落差，这一落差和错位也许是出于故意，也许出于错误认知，然而回到耶稣的教导，耶稣并没有限定基督徒的连接方式必须是教堂。教会聚会的方式，可以在特定时期，应该采取不同聚会和生存方式，历史时空转换，是该思考耶稣教导的时候了。
耶稣所开创的模式即是基督徒自由结合的模式，这种结合不限人数，不限性别。他可以两三个人，也可以十几个人。这种方式，以一种更加有意义的方式，几人在一起学习成长，改变自己，改变家庭，让世界变的更美好，“我这样吩咐你们，是要叫你们彼此相爱。(约15:17)”这不是反对教会聚会，而是反对圣殿主义。
在这个非常时期，活动空间受限的时期，
是基督徒接受应万变的时刻，
是基督徒接受塑造成长的时刻，
也是基督信仰在当下见证自己的最好方式。
当下的思考
In Jewish social cognition, the holy temple was the worshipping center. Later in history, people were displaced and found themselves far away from the holy temple due to the destruction of the country by wars. Therefore, the synagogue system was introduced to restore the traditional way of worshipping God. The synagogue system was the continuation of the temple-centered worship and management mode. The narrow nationalism of Jews was formed by the temple-centered worship system.
The arrival of Jesus was to break the temple-centered practice. He said: “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Mathew 18:20).
This statement has been regarded as a classic exposition of the essence of the church. However, Jesus was not announcing the establishment of a kind of church. Rather, he was talking about the coming of a new way of worship.
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). Therefore, his claim to worship God in spirit and in truth was meant to break the temple-centered worship system.
Nowadays, the traditional Christian church, with its worship mode and group identity, still continues the temple centralism, only replacing the temple with a church building. Therefore, the traditional Christian church is place-centered. After all, a church must be materialized or gathered in a certain place. As the church is centered on gathering, more than half of it will be shrunken once the gathering is gone. Gathering needs a physical place, so place-centeredness is acknowledged.
The on-site gathering takes a certain building as its center and carrier, which means that the Christian church will manifest itself to the society in a public way. It is the main way to show the existence of Christianity. However, once the social space is squeezed, this kind of place-centered gathering will encounter challenges. When believers are used to defining their self-belief and identity by a church collective, the compression of social space means that the Christian church cannot show itself and the existing space is squeezed. As a result, it is inevitable to try every means to strive for the existence and expansion of physical space, which will inevitably conflict with the current secular world.
In fact, many ideas of the traditional church today come not from Jesus, but from the tradition opposed by Jesus and even abandoned by Jews. This is one of the main reasons for the plight of the Christian church today.
Today's traditional church in China, like the disciples who followed Jesus in the past, has a huge gap and difference from Jesus’ teaching. This gap and dislocation may be due to intention or misunderstanding. However, returning to Jesus’ teaching, Jesus did not limit the connection between Christians to a church. The way of church gathering can be specific to a particular period of time. Different ways of gathering should be adopted depending on the prevailing conditions of an era. It is time to think about Jesus’ teaching.
The model initiated by Jesus is the model of the free union of Christians, which is unlimited in number and gender. It can be two or three people or more than a dozen. In this more meaningful way, several people learn to grow together, change themselves, change their families and make the world a better place. “This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:17). This is not against church gatherings but against temple-centralism.
In this very period, when the space for activities is limited, it is time for Christians to accept changes. It is time that Christians accept shaping themselves and growing. It is also the best way for the Christian faith to testify itself in the present.
- Translated by Charlie Li
[Opinion] It's Time to Change Our Concept of Church Gathering, Seeks Changes Against Temple-Centralism
