The church

I have been thinking about church for a number of years now. Part of my thinking has been a concern for where the church is today; a lack of connection with the wider society. Also from a dissatisfaction with my own church life or involvement. The church, as in local expressions, seems to have become a very complicated entity and lost it's impetus as a revolutionary movement, instead evolving into an institution. The church often seems to side with conservatism and the middle classes. It is very 'worship' oriented, internal focused. I should say this is from a New Zealand perspective only.

If you belong to the evangelical wing, then more than likely you will be middle class, white Anglo-Saxon. Your friends will be mostly from within Christian circles. You will work hard and aspire to the usual consumerist objects. Those from Pentecostals churches might be more 'cross-cultural', working class to middle class but still mix amongst Christian friends. Church life in both groups will focus on 'worship' times and how to live a more victorious life for God. Mainstream churches will be a mixture but mostly middle class to wealthy people; some will be 'liberal', some evangelical and some 'socially active' believers.

In most of these churches there is a strong emphasis on 'building one up in the faith'. Outreach on the whole seems to be getting people into church on a Sunday or to a special church programme. So programmes and buildings seem to take on a special priority. Most churches will have paid professionals leading them and naturally they are aware that their performance is based on 'bums on seats', so they will ultimately gear things around their local gathering to the exclusion of the "kingdom of God' approach. As mentioned in a previous post ' Sharing your faith. Living your life' is the norm.

Shape of church
That's my unscientific look at the church today. What do I think the church should be today?
I think the NT talks about different types of 'churches': the local body of believers meeting in a home (Rom 16:5), a number of local churches referred to as a city or region church (Acts 9:31) and the 'world' wide or universal church (Acts 20:28) (Col 1:18). What I'm thinking about is the local expression of church. What did it look like?

The Greek word for "church" is ekklesia, which means an assembly. In Acts 19:39, 41, it is used for a large group of townspeople. But among Christians, the word ekklesia came to have a special meaning: all who believe in Jesus Christ.

If we view the church as a group of believers meeting together then we can say, that one first must belong to Christ (born again, saved, redeemed by the blood etc). Does that mean that only 'saved' people can belong to the church? Yes to the universal church because it is the 'body of our Lord'. But the local church is not so proscribed.

The church is described in several ways: the people of God, the family of God, the bride of Christ. We are a building, a temple and a body. Jesus described us as sheep, a field of grain and a vineyard. Each analogy describes a different aspect of the church.

Many of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom describe the church, too. Like a mustard seed, the church started small and yet has grown quite large (Matthew 13:31-32). The church is like a field in which weeds are scattered among the wheat (vv. 24-30). It is like a fishnet that catches bad fish as well as good (vv. 47-50). The church is like a vineyard in which some people work a long time and others only a short time (Matthew 20:1-16). The church is like servants who were given money to invest for the master, and some produce more fruit than others (Matthew 25:14-30).

Jesus described himself as a shepherd, and his disciples as sheep (Matthew 26:31); his mission was to seek lost sheep (Matthew 18:11-14). He described his people as sheep that must be fed and cared for (John 21:15-17). Paul and Peter used the same analogy, saying that church leaders should be shepherds of the flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2).

"You are…God’s building," Paul says (1 Corinthians 3:9). The foundation is Jesus Christ (v. 11), and people are the building built on it. Peter said that we are all "living stones...being built into a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). As we are built together, we "become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). We are the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:17; 6:19). Although God may be worshiped in any place, the church has worship as one of its purposes.

We are "the people of God," 1 Peter 2:10 tells us. We are what the people of Israel were supposed to be: "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God" (v. 9; see Exodus 19:6). We belong to God, because Christ purchased us with his blood (Revelation 5:9). We are his children, and his family (Ephesians 3:15). As his people, we are given a great inheritance, and in response we are to try to please him and bring praise to his name.

Scripture also calls us the bride of Christ—a phrase that suggests his love for us, and a tremendous change within ourselves, that we might have such a close relationship with the Son of God. In some of his parables, people are invited to attend the wedding banquet, but in this analogy, we are invited to be the bride.

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). How do we become ready for this? It is a gift: "Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear" (v. 8). Christ cleanses us "by the washing with water through the word" (Ephesians 5:26). He presents the church to himself, having made her radiant, spotless, holy and righteous (v. 27). He is working in us.

What should be the main purpose of the church? Again I see different functions of the church; traditionally the church has seen it's role as a gathering for "worship" and teaching. When we look at the NT we can see certain practices that the local churches seem to do and we also can gain an idea from the overall focus of scripture.

Love
A central theme that pervades scripture and seems to be foundational to any church is "love"! The church is a place where we can love one another: "Love one another," Jesus tells his disciples (John 13:34). When Jesus says "one another," he is not referring to our duty to love all human beings. Rather, he is referring specifically to the need for disciples to love other disciples — it must be a mutual love. And this love is an identifying characteristic of Jesus' disciples (v. 35).

Mutual love does not express itself in accidental meetings at the grocery store and sporting events. Jesus' command presupposes that his disciples are meeting with one another on a regular basis. Christians should have regular fellowship with other Christians. "Do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers," Paul wrote (Galatians 6:10). To obey this command, it is essential that we know who the family of believers is. We need to see them, and we need to see their needs.

But also this love will have an outward look too. We are to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Our neighbour is not just within the church but in the world. "God so loved the world..."

Mission
Mission is the next most important foundational function of the church. The church in essence is missionary at it's very core; its reason for existence (The Christian faith is intrinsically missionary. It regards the “reign of God” which has come in Jesus Christ as intended for all humanity. This dimension of the Christian faith is not an optional extra: Christianity is missionary by its very nature, or it denies its very raison d’etre).. It starts with God's concern for the nations in the OT and for the poor, marginalised and alien peoples. The commission given to Abraham to be a 'blessing to the nations' and Jesus command to 'go into all the world..' (Luke 1:7) At the beginning of the book of Acts we see this command and at the end of the gospels; it is central.

In the letters of the NT again we see living and sharing our faith as pivotal to what the church was about. When the church wasn't moving out to the 'world' then persecution drove them out and the gospel spread through out the region.

Now lets look at the form of church,what do we do in church. Acts 2 has a wonderful description for guidance in doing church.

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer are things that the early believers were engaged in when they met together. Where did they do these; in homes and at the temple courts, which means they didn't have a purpose built complex. They had an effect on their own members and the wider community because these activities were based on love and mission. There was leadership within the local and area churches, the apostles seemed to have leadership, elders and deacons are mentioned but we are not told much about any other form within the church.

There was certainly little emphasis on buildings, structure or form. When you read the NT there is emphasis on correct thinking and correct living (orthodoxy and orthopraxis), both within the community and in the wider community. Even the act of sharing in the Lords Supper was to have a witness to unbelievers.

The other point worth noting is that from the early beginnings there was conflict within the church, which in a sad way brings some comfort to us in the age of church splits! Which reminds me not to look at the church with 'rose tinted glasses'!
This reminds me about ‘the honeymoon’ stage after a wedding... Many of us have exhibited this same naïveté regarding the events of Acts 2. We are tempted to think of the first church in Acts 2 in the same way we think of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2. We are tempted to think of the church as perfect, pristine, and untouched by sin and later corruption. The difference between Genesis 2 and Acts 2 is that Genesis 2 comes before the fall of man; Acts 2 comes after the fall. The church in Acts is not perfect; it is simply pursuing the right things.

The right thing is not the size of the church but the health of the church. If a church is healthy, it will naturally grow. But if it is not healthy, no matter how many people come, it will be in danger until they are able to get healthy. Here’s the principle: focus on health and growth will come.
So how does a church stay healthy? It stays healthy by operating on Biblical priorities. Those priorities are set out in Acts 2 as seen above.