教会：隐喻与定义 Church Definitions and Metaphors

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Introduction 引言

It is of fundamental importance that as church planters and church planting catalysts, we have an understanding of what we mean by “the church”. Many believers and church planters subconsciously, and often erroneously, define the church by an image they have in their mind through participation in a church or through a vague knowledge of references to the church in scripture.

身为教会植立者和教会植立催化者，了解“教会”是什么，至关重要。许多信徒和教会植立者都在潜意识里 (通常错误地)，以通过参加教会或对圣经中提到教会的含糊认识之印象来定义教会。

Wayne Grudem defines the church as “the community of all true believers for all time.”[1] A comprehensive study of the church is well outside the scope of this training, but let’s at least have a cursory look in order to have a common understanding of what we are talking about.

古德恩 (Wayne Grudem) 将教会定义为“历代以来所有真信徒的社群”¹。对于教会全面的研究已远超本文范围，也不是本培训的目的，但至少我们会简略快速地看一下以让我们对教会有一个共同的认识和理解。

In the next two sessions, we will discuss “the church”, and our discussion will be organized as follows:

在接下来的两个课程中，我们将讨论“教会”，内容包括如下：

The Identity of the Church (this session)
教会的身份 (本课)

The Functions of a Healthy Church (the next session)
健康教会的功能 (下一课)

Biblical Basics of Church 教会的圣经基础

Metaphors of the Church 教会的隐喻

The biblical authors frequently use various metaphors to provide a picture of what the church is like. Divide the trainees into groups of 3-4 and have them read the following passages. After reading the following scriptures, have the trainees discuss the following questions in their small groups.

圣经的作者经常使用各种隐喻来描绘教会的图像。将受训者分成3-4人的小组，让他们阅读以下经文，然后在小组讨论以下问题：

What metaphor is being used for the Church?
圣经使用了什么来隐喻教会？

How does that metaphor affect our understanding of the church, its identity, and how it should function?
这些隐喻如何影响我们对教会身份的理解，以及教会应该如何运作？

Scriptures

Ephesians 1:22-23, Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (Body)
弗1:22-23; 罗12:3-8; 林前12:12-31 (身体)

Revelation 19:7; 21:2,9; 22:17 (Bride)
启19:7; 21:2,9; 22:17 (妻子)

1 Timothy 3:14-15; 1 Timothy 5:1-2 (Family)
提前3:14-15; 5:1-2? (家庭)

1 Corinthians 3:9-17, 1 Peter 2:4-10 (God’s temple and priests)
林前3:9-17; 彼前2:4-10 (神的圣殿和祭司)

After allowing some time for discussion of the above passages, debrief as a large group their answers to the questions.

经过一些时间讨论以上段落后，让各组将他们的答案向大家汇报。

The Church: Who and Where? 教会：何人？在哪？

Divide the trainees into groups of 3-4 again and have them look at the below passages and answer the following question. These verses are intended to be representative not exhaustive.

再次将受训者分成3-4人的小组，让他们查考以下经文并回答以下问题。这些经文只作为代表性而不是全面性的内容。

How is the word “church” being used in the passage?
经文中的“教会”一词有何含义？

What people does it include?
她包括了哪些人？

Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19b (House)
罗16:5; 哥前16:19b (家)
1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1 (City)
林前1:2; 帖前1:1 (城市)
Acts 9:31 (Region)
徒9:31 (区域)
Ephesians 5:25 (Universal)
弗5:25 (普世)

After the trainees have had time to review the above scriptures, discuss together how the concept of “church” is being used in each passage.

受训者查考完以上经文后，让他们在小组讨论经文中“教会”的概念，然后向大家汇报。

The idea of “church” as used in Scripture can be divided into two basic understandings, universal and local. The universal church is the Church in a broad sense – global and for all time. The local church is the local expression of the universal church in a particular locale, the word “church” being derived from the word ekklesia, meaning “gathering”.

圣经中的“教会”概念可以分为两种基本的意义，普世性和地方性的。普世教会是广义上的众教会——历世历代全球性的。地方教会是普世教会在各地区的地方性表达。“教会”一词源自希腊文ekklesia一词，意思是“被召出来聚在一起的人”。

Conclusion 结论

Possessing an understanding of the ideas of universal church, local church, and the various Biblical metaphors allows us to have a common terminology and to know what our objective is – to lead people to faith in Christ and to plant healthy local churches that can multiply. In the next session, we will provide a very simple tool to evaluate the health of a newly planted, growing church.

对普世教会、地方教会和各种圣经隐喻的理解，使我们能够拥有共同的术语，并了解我们的目标——带领人们信耶稣，并植立健康可繁殖的地方教会。在下一课中，我们将探讨一个简单的工具来评估新植立成长中教会的健康状况。

[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994), 853.