Old And New Churches

I HEAR people refer to some churches as old and others as new. Often these people commend the old churches and despise the new churches.

What do people mean when they refer to a church as an old or a new church? Do they mean to say that there are new and old Christian churches in terms of their names, traditions, practices, organisations, systems, cultures or beliefs?

If their understanding is based on these things, then, they are ignorant and uneducated about the church the Lord Jesus Christ declared to build prior to His death and resurrections.

Of course, there are old and new Christian denominational names, traditions, cultures, practices, creeds, beliefs or dogmas.

The hard truth, however, is that there are no old or new Christian churches in the world today in terms of their object of faith and purpose unless the meaning of the word “church” is not properly understood.

Now, there are members of the Church who are mature or spiritual and others who are immature, children and infants in Christ.

The word “church” is derived from “ecclesia: which means “the elect of God”, “the assembly of called out ones”, “the governmental assembly of God”, “the congregation of God” or “the community of believers.”

You can see that the Christian Church refers to believers who are people. This means an old church refers to old believers most of whom are dead and gone. And a new church refers to present or current congregation or assembly of believers.

Thus, Christian churches we see around and hear of in the world today are made up of believers who are mostly new.

New Christian churches may refer to a congregation of believers who have experienced recreation in Christ Jesus and are alive presently. They may include those who are mature and immature.

Peter, the apostle, makes us to understand that Christians who feed on the milk of the Word are infants, immature or babies in Christ (1 Peter 2:2).

It is important to emphasise that Jesus Christ is not building new churches with new foundation, object of faith, doctrines and ordinances.

He is always building the same Church He began building through His 12 Apostles over 2000 years ago.

However, we know that there are false ministers, agents of the devil, who are sent into the world to counterfeit the work of true ministers. These false ministers are also being used to build churches.

But these are not new churches of Christ; they are actually false churches of the devil established by his false ministers to dent the image of the church of God.

By James Quansah
Pastor, End-Time Christ’s Commissioners
Executive Director,  Christ-Conscious Leadership Centre