That’s an excellent question and one that I’ve been dealing with a lot myself lately. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ll give it my best shot ☺

I think the best approach would be to look back at the New Testament and see what it tells us about the church. Granted, it doesn’t give us a straightforward template, but it does provide us with “snapshots” of early church life. It also gives us a starting place to understand the role of the church and what it’s supposed to be.

The biggest thing to remember is the fact that the church is God’s people…not a building, or a denomination, or an individual. The church is the community of Christ-followers, both in specific locations and the world at large. A lot of us say it and would agree with it, but do we actually live that way? How often to we live like Sunday is the only sacred day of the week? How often do we change our mood/personality/demeanor once we enter a church building? We have to remember that we are the church and it’s how we live and what we do that reflects Christ, not where we physically go or what tradition we belong to. The word for “church” in the New Testament is ekklesia, which means “gathering” or “assembly”. It’s when the people of God come together that the church is displayed.

The second thing I’ve discovered is that one of Paul’s favorite metaphors for the church is a body (1 Cor. 12:1-31). Unfortunately, the way most church gatherings function today is by having one mouth (a preacher) and a bunch of ears (the congregation). Not much of a body if you ask me. Instead of being a group of people who are actively ministering to each other through their different gifts, we’ve become a passive group of observers who leave the “real” ministry to the professionals. What we see in the New Testament is that everyone has a function, everyone plays a part, everyone contributes (1 Cor. 14:26). And although there are leaders present, it’s so important to remember that Christ is the head of the church and everything functions and operates under His headship (Col. 1:15-20). We all have different parts and play different roles, but it’s when we work together under the leadership of Christ that we more accurately reflect Him on this earth. To those outside of Christianity, we are the representatives of Christ (Eph. 3:7-13).

In Acts, we see the church meeting in each others homes, eating together, studying together, worshipping together, and ministering to each other– all under the headship of Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:42-47). They function more like a family than an institution. We have to stop and ask ourselves if our modern understanding of church is hindering these things. Do our current church gatherings create an atmosphere where this is even possible?

If you’d like to look into this more, I highly recommend a book called Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna. In the book, they show how a lot of our current church practices came from pagan origins and how the things we accept as “normal” actually hinder the church from meeting it’s full potential. Even if you don’t agree with everything they’re saying, they raise some excellent points and give lots of food for thought.

Hope this helps!