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"...I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."— Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18)
Jesus Christ established His Church and gave it a mission. The Scriptures indicate He intended it to be a warm and loving fellowship of His faithful disciples, a source of strength and purpose for them.
Yet most people see the Church as playing little or no role in their everyday lives. To many even the concept seems antiquated. The very word church carries, for some, a distasteful connotation.
For others church conjures up images of quaint country buildings with steeples and crosses, or maybe massive medieval cathedrals in the heart of Europe. When they think church, they think of a place for worship services.
An excellent example is the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. It represents, for many, the essence of the meaning of church. Begun in 1163, its construction continued through several lifetimes until 1345. Its 115-foot soaring interior, flying buttresses and great rose windows obviously were all designed for otherworldly purposes.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the cathedral "is situated on a spot that Parisians have always reserved to the practice of religious rites" and "was built on the ruins of two earlier churches, which were themselves predated by a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter" (Internet edition, "Paris," "Notre-Dame de Paris").
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