Please, I need to know the expediency implications or how the Bible views conducting a wedding ceremony in church building for two Christian brother and sister who want to get married. Is it wrong to conduct the wedding in the church meeting place? Thank you. Pls this is urgent as it is tearing the church here apart. ~ Bro. OMODARA O.S., Nigeria
Church buildings did not exist in the first century when and after the Lord’s church began. “Unlike congregations today, these people had no buildings that were set aside for worship and fellowship. Believers would meet in different homes, worshiping the Lord, listening to teaching, and seeking to win the lost (see Acts 2:46). Paul referred to a number of ‘house fellowships’ when he greeted the saints in Rome (Rom 16:5, 10-11, 14)” (Bible Exposition Commentary). The earliest ownership of church property dates to after A.D. 220 (McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia). Furthermore, “[t]he period of church building properly begins with Constantine the Great. After Christianity was acknowledged by the state, and empowered to hold property, it raised houses of worship in all parts of the Roman empire” (Schaff’s History of the Church). The Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 in the reign of Constantine extended religious tolerance throughout the Roman Empire.
Since church buildings did not exist when the New Testament was written or contemporary with the establishment of the church and the early history of the Lord’s church, the use of church buildings is not a doctrinal issue. One cannot turn to the New Testament for God-given instruction regarding the use of a meeting place for the God’s New Testament people. The early church met in homes or in public places.
That the Lord’s church is obligated to assemble for worship can be firmly established in the New Testament (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Hebrews 10:25). This obligation to assemble implies and Christians rightly infer that these assemblies must occur someplace. Through this divine implication and necessary inference, local congregations can choose the place of assembly. Subsequently, for centuries churches of Christ have opted frequently to provide a place of assembly through church ownership of property. A local congregation can decide through its leadership (elders in fully organized churches) on the best practices for preservation of the meetinghouse to ensure that it is available for the assembling of the church. However, no one can successfully appeal to Scripture for regulations of how to use or not use the meetinghouse.
The cause of Christ is too important, and souls are too precious, for brethren to divide over issues that are not doctrinal in nature. Brethren need to be gracious toward especially brethren (Romans 14:19; Galatians 5:14-15; James 3:14-18). Brethren need to suffer wrong if necessary to prevent harm from coming to the Lord’s church and its influence in the community (1 Corinthians 6:4-7).
It is not doctrinally wrong to have a wedding in a church building. Whether brethren permit weddings or other activities (that are not sinful) to occur in their church buildings is a matter of personal judgment by a local congregation. It is not a matter over which brethren ought to become divisive.
Works Cited
Bible Exposition Commentary. CD-ROM. Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1989.
McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
Schaff’s History of the Church. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
