The Duomo of Florence is one of the most beautiful churches in the world.jpg Photo by Waldemar L – Wikimedia Commons

Not a Church person? Here are the Top 10 Church Questions Answered


 

Church according to the Christian doctrine is a building where Christian believers gather to worship God. It is also known as an organization or a body of Christian Believers. If a person belongs to a church, they are believers who together with others believe in one faith. For example, the catholic church is a church of believers of the Roman Catholic faith. 

Traditionally according to theology, the Church has three branches. The first branch is the Church Militant which comprises Soldiers of Christ who rustle against sin, the rulers of darkness, wickedness, darkness,  witchcraft, and the devil. The second branch is the Church Penitent or the Church Expectant which samples the Catholic Church where there are those Christians currently in Purgatory while the third is the Church Triumphant which consists of Christians who have the beatific vision and are in Heaven. The three are particularly known by the Catholic Church with its ecclesiology to be precise the Catechism whereby the three are known as states within the church and stand for the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on the earth; others have died and are being purified. However, the third state believes that others are in glory, contemplating actually in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is and this is what the Catholic believers are tuned to.

To read more about how to be a Church person, click here.

1. Do churches pay taxes?

Hallstatt evangelische Kirche 20180206.jpg Photo by Uoaei1 – Wikimedia Commons

Churches in Kenya are exempted from paying taxes. This is according to the income tax Act CAP 470 Laws of Kenya under paragraph 10 of the first schedule that exempts institutions established for the advancement of religion. Churches got their income from tithes, offerings and donations are not taxable. However, the neighboring country Uganda, taxes institutions of worship according to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). In addition, the Uganda Revenue Authority taxes all the surplus income which has not been put to the common use of the congregations and that has not impacted society as expected by the state.

In Canada, Ontario’s Assessment Act has a provision that provides exemptions from property tax for some philanthropic and charitable organizations which are owned by the church or religious organizations. This applies to not only Ontario but also Alberta where paying property taxes is exempted for churches, charities, and all nonprofit organizations.

It is different in the United States where religious organizations are tax exempted including no taxes on the investments gained from such organizations.

2. Is the separation of church and state in the constitution?

The 3rd President of the United StatesThomas Jefferson and a spokesperson of democracy established the freedom of religion through a letter he wrote to Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut and published in a Massachusetts newspaper on January 1, 1802, about the amendment of freedom of religion. He was supporting that the state cannot separate from the church. His statement was that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God. However, a study conducted in May 2022 indicated that Republicans support the declaration of the United States as a Christian Nation with 78% of the population in favor of the motion versus 48% of Republicans overall. Age was also taken into consideration in this where the Baby Boomer and Silent Generation were in support of the United States being a Christian nation hence, it is difficult to separate the church from the state is a debate that is still being considered in the United States.

3. What is a Pentecostal Church?

DSC00357 – Behind the Atar of Christ Church Cathedral (48152253167).jpg Photo by Dennis Jarvis – Wikimedia Commons

Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes the direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31). Pentecost is also associated with speaking with tongues by believers that those filled by the Holy Spirit and the authority to cast our demons. Further, believers see prayer as the way to communicate with God and the way in which they are healed of their diseases. Whatsmore, Pentecostals see their movement as reflecting the same kind of spiritual power and teachings that were found in the Apostolic Age of the Early Church. For this reason, some Pentecostals also use the term “Apostolic” or “Full Gospel” to describe their movement.

In addition, holiness Pentecostalism emerged during the early 20th century among radical adherents of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. They were energized by Christian revivalism and expectation for the imminent Second Coming of Christ. The Pentecostals believe that they were living in the end times. However, they expected God to spiritually renew the Christian Church, and further bring to pass the restoration of spiritual gifts and the evangelization of the world. Charles Parham an American evangelist and faith healer began teaching that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism. This was in the year 1900. However, he was not alone. He was joined by William J. Seymour(a student of Charles Parham) and a Wesleyan-Holiness preacher, who preached about the third work of grace. The three-year-long Azusa Street Revival, founded and led by Seymour in Los Angeles, California, resulted in the growth of Pentecostalism throughout the United States and the rest of the world. In addition, visitors carried the Pentecostal experience back to their home churches or felt called to the mission field. While virtually all Pentecostal denominations trace their origins to Azusa Street in 1906.

The revival first broke out on Monday, April 9, 1906, at 214 Bonnie Brae Street and then moved to 312 Azusa Street on Friday, April 14, 1906. Worship at the racially integrated Azusa Mission featured an absence of any order of service. People preached and testified as moved by the Spirit, spoke and sang in tongues, and fell in the Spirit. Some of the disputes centered on challenges to the doctrine of entire sanctification, as well as that of the Trinity. As a result, the Pentecostal movement is divided between Holiness Pentecostals who affirm the second work of grace and Finished Work Pentecostals who are partitioned into trinitarian and non-trinitarian branches, the latter giving rise to Oneness Pentecostalism.

The pentecostal church has over 700 denominations and many of which are independent churches or belong to some individual pastors. Pentecostalism is highly decentralized. There is no central authority exists, but many denominations are affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship. It has over 279 million classical Pentecostals worldwide. The movement is growing in many parts of the world, especially the Global South and Third World countries. Since the 1960s, Pentecostalism has increasingly gained acceptance from other Christian traditions, and Pentecostal beliefs concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts have been embraced by non-Pentecostal Christians in Protestant and Catholic churches through their adherence to the Charismatic movement. Together, worldwide Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity number over 644 million followers.

While the movement originally attracted mostly lower classes in the global South, there is a new appeal to the middle classes. According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world. This growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.

There is more about the famous Pentecostal Pastors here.

4. What is confirmation in the catholic church?

For a person to be a fully faithful member of the Catholic Church, one has to be confirmed which is the beginning of one being part of the sacrament of confirmation which is the sign of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Confirmation is a sign that God the Father has marked a person with his sign and that Christ the Lord has confirmed a person by putting his pledge to the Spirit in the hearts of those confirmed.

Read more about the Catholic Church here.

5. What is the episcopal church?

The United States of America is the base of the Episcopal Church. However, there are branches globally called the Anglican Communion. It is the mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine princes. However, their overall leader is the presiding bishop known as Michael Bruce Curry who is the first African-American bishop to serve in that capacity.

As of 2020, the Episcopal Church had 1,736,282 baptized members, of whom 1,576,702 were in the United States. In addition to baptized members, the church reported 138,822 other persons who are active in congregations. In 2011, it was the nation’s 14th-largest denomination. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.2 percent of the adult population in the United States, or 3 million people, self-identify as mainline Episcopalians.

The church was organized after the American Revolution when it became separate from the Church of England, whose clergy are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Episcopal Church describes itself as “Protestant, yet Catholic” and claims apostolic succession, tracing its bishops back to the apostles via holy orders. The Book of Common Prayer, a collection of rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers used throughout the Anglican Communion, is central to Episcopal worship. A broad spectrum of theological views is represented within the Episcopal Church, including evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, and broad church views.

Historically, the members of the Episcopal Church have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life, including politics, business, science, the arts, and education. About three-quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and over a quarter of all Presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians. Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families, such as Boston Brahmin, Tidewater,  and Lowcountry Gentry or old money, are Episcopalians. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Episcopalians were active in the Social Gospel movement. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the church has pursued a more liberal course, though there remains a wide spectrum of liberals and conservatives within the church. It has opposed the death penalty and supported the civil rights movement. The church calls for the full legal equality of LGBT people. In 2015, the church’s 78th triennial General Convention passed resolutions allowing the blessing of same-sex marriages and approved two official liturgies to bless such unions

6. What is a non-denominational church?

There was no nondenominational Christianity until the 18th century when churches were not aligned to any particular confessionalism of other Christian Communities like the Catholic Church or Anglican Church and formed a movement called the Campbell Restoration Movement made up of Christians and Disciples of Christ. Most of these non-denominational churches ha a congregationalist polity which means that they are self-governing.

These churches have little or no affiliation with historic denominations. However, most nondenominational Christians in the United States, for instance,  fall under Protestantism. The followers of nondenominational Christianity refer to themselves as Churches of Christ. Almost every village in Kenya, in particular the populated areas, they have many of these nondenominational churches with individual pastors who are not affiliated with any other churches. However, These churches have continued to be on the increase with Singapore and Malaysia leading in increased numbers of churches in Asia and West and East Africa leading in Africa. Churches like Deliverance Churches of Kenya have an affiliation with the founders, Bishop J. B. Masinde being the Founder and Senior Pastor of Deliverance Church International, Umoja, General Secretary of Deliverance Church International, and a member of the Apostolic Council and Deliverance Church Council.

7. Who founded the catholic church?

The catholic church was founded and begun by Jesus Christ who was succeeded by his disciples with Peter being the first Catholic Pope to take over the work of Jesus Christ. Peter is remembered by the Catholic faithful as St. Peter. This is well recorded in the New Testament of the Bible.

Read more about who founded the catholic church by clicking here.

8. How to start a church

A beautiful site on the hill – St. Peter’s.jpg Photo by Bestbudbrian – Wikimedia Commons

There are various ways one can start a church in particular if you are an individual. First one has to gain experience as a preacher. This is very important as one has to attract the congregation and grow it by people believing in your preaching. Secondly, one has to start a nonprofit and structure it according to the national requirements so this depends on the citizenship of the person beginning the church. Thirdly, one has to come up with a strong mission and vision statement. For instance, Christ is the Answer Ministries (CITAM) Churches with their head office in Nairobi, Kenya, and other branches spread in the other parts of the country have their vision statement as A Community of Believers Impacting the World with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ through the transforming Power of the Holy Spirit. The Mission statement is To Know God and to make Him known through evangelism and discipleship. The fourth step is to form a board of directors and of course, hire an advocate of the high court to guide one on matters of law and what is needed for one to be compliant. with the laws of the country, they intend to begin the church. Another very important step, which should be the sixth one is to build a congregation aligned to the faith that one is preaching about lastly, the seventh step is to develop a strong fundraising strategy which should be implemented at the very first stages of starting the church.

9. What is a Lutheran church?

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer tower (10805522973).jpg Photo by Jorge Láscar – Wikimedia Commons

Lutheran is a name that originated as a derogatory term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. However, Lutheranism is a branch of Protestantism that is aligned with Martin Luther’s theology in the 16th century. The Lutheran Church was formed after the split between the Catholic Church and Protestantism through the efforts of a German monk and reformer who birthed the Protestant Reformation hence, Lutheranism became the state religion of a number of states in northern Europe in particular Northern Germany, Scandinavia, and the then Livonian Order. The result was that the Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran Churches became part of the state. 

The followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also used the name Lutheran. However, two groups emerged.  One was called Evangelical Lutheran and the other Evangelical Reformed. With time, the name Evangelical was dropped and so the name Lutheran was used by both groups to differentiate them from other emerging Protestants churches. For instance, theologians in Wittenberg in 1597 referred to the name Lutheran as referring to the true church.

In 1580, a book called Concord was published which contains 10 documents. The belief of some Lutherans is that the book carries a faithful and authoritative explanation of the Holy scripture.  The Book of Concord, published in 1580, contains 10 documents that some Lutherans believe are faithful and authoritative explanations of the Holy Scripture. Besides the three Ecumenical Creeds, which date to Roman times, the Book of Concord contains seven credal documents articulating Lutheran theology in the Reformation era. However, the doctrinal positions of Lutheran churches are not uniform because the Book of Concord does not hold the same position in all Lutheran churches. For instance, the state churches in Scandinavia consider only the Augsburg Confession as a summary of the faith in addition to the three ecumenical creeds. Lutheran pastors, congregations, and church bodies in Germany and the Americas usually agree to teach in harmony with the entire Lutheran confessions. Some Lutheran church bodies require this pledge to be unconditional because they believe the confessions correctly state what the Bible teaches. Others allow their congregations to do so as long as the confessions are in agreement with the Bible. In addition, Lutherans accept the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the Christian Church.

The Lutheran Church traditionally sees itself as the “main trunk of the historical Christian Tree” founded by Christ and the Apostles, holding that during the Reformation, the Church of Rome fell away. As such, the Augsburg Confession teaches that “the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church”.When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. They explained that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils.

They strongly believe that God sent his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver people from the power of the devil. To bring the world to himself, Jesus came to govern us as a King of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience according to the explanation in Luther’s Large Catechism. Because of this, Lutherans teach that salvation is possible only because of the grace of God made manifest in the birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and continuing presence by the power of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus Christ. They believe that with God’s grace, made known and effective in the person and work of Jesus Christ, a person is forgiven, adopted as a child and heir of God, and given eternal salvation. Christ, because he was entirely obedient to the law with respect to both his human and divine natures. This is a perfect satisfaction and reconciliation of the human race, as the Formula of Concord asserts, and proceeds to summarize. Therefore, Lutherans believe that people on an individual level receive the gift of salvation through faith only.

10. How many churches in America 

 

The United States of America is home to many churches which amount to more than 200. However, there are major famous churches like Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Apostolic, and Methodist as recorded by the Study of Global Christianity. In general, Christianity can be divided into six main groups which include Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Eastern Orthodoxy. The fascinating fact is that Protestantism includes many groups who do not share any ecclesiastical governance and have diverging beliefs and practices.

Read more about the churches in America and their pastors here.

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