Confusing Church (Part 1)

Just before publishing this post, I asked Mother Google to show me any images she could find using the keyword “church”.  In under a quarter of a second, she got back to me to say that she could find about 2,510,000,000 images.  I skimmed through the first 13 pages (around 400 images).  Can you guess what I found?   I found three pictures that were not of (or about) buildings.

One showed people sitting in rows with a preacher in a pulpit:

The second was a photograph of a small group of people poring over a printed building plan or blue-print.  The third picture was this image – and my heart was encouraged:

One of the things that has concerned me for some time now – and occupied a lot of my thinking, study, research and writing time – is a serious confusion in much writing, teaching and preaching around the subject of ‘church’.

I read a lot of material – from web logs and other internet-based material, to monographs by reputable authors, to theology texts and theological articles, to writers coming from different angles on the subjects of ‘simple church’, ‘emerging church, ‘missional church’ and so forth.  I have been reading widely since the days when authors like John Stott, J I Packer, John White, David Watson and the like were in their prime.

Furthermore, I am sometimes asked if I can recommend books, journals or web-based material for someone wanting to find and read high quality material that is not simply a regurgitation or rehash of some earlier material.  I do in fact have what I consider to be a reasonable list of writers/publishers of quality material – especially on the subject of ‘church’

There are a couple of web-based publishers that I think stand out as beacons among the many thousands of these sites on-line.  Three of my top five would be [www.jesuslifetogether.com]; [www.unveiling.org]; [www.voiceofonecrying.com].

And in terms of current authors of monographs available in bookstores, my top five would be Frank Viola, Paul Vieira, Neil Cole, Floyd McClung and Greg Boyd – not necessarily in that order.

I consider this material the ‘cream of the cream’.  However, no matter how much I read or how much I wish it were otherwise, most – not all – carry this one pivotal confusion.  I could quote from any number of the sources I have mentioned to demonstrate my point.  I have chosen the following paragraph from DO I HAVE TO "GO TO CHURCH?".  Again I stress – similar words and ideas could be extracted from most of the material I have referred to.

“It’s essential that you see the connection between loving God and loving His Body. Don’t pompously think that you love God, but loving His Body is secondary in importance. “I can be a Christian, but I don’t need the church.” Wrong. Because God in His infinite wisdom said that Jesus Christ is the head of His Body, and IN His Body He has chosen to invest HIS SON as “the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” COULD there be someone who says they love Jesus, but wouldn’t want THAT?! Unless you are a daily part of a local body of true Heaven-Born Believers, a Lampstand (not simply an “attendance-based” clergy-laity organization), you are missing SO much, for yourself and your family. A REAL Church is to be a daily Christ-honoring, Christ-centered, Bible-believing people who are walking in obedience to God—not just talking about it.”

DO I HAVE TO "GO TO CHURCH"?

www.JesusLifeTogether.com

Copyright © 2003 realpeople@JesusLifeTogether.com
P.O. Box 68309, Indianapolis, IN 46268 USA.

Maybe you don’t need me to point it out.  That would be good as it would mean others are seeing the same thing I am seeing – and have been seeing for decades.  Follow my dot-list below and note that these are taken directly from the text:

• His Body
• the church
• Jesus Christ is the Head of His Body
• IN His Body He has chosen to invest HIS SON
• as “the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way”
• a local body of true Heaven-Born Believers
• a lampstand (not simply an “attendance-based” clergy-laity organization
• a daily Christ-honoring, Christ-centered, Bible-believing people who are walking in obedience to God – not just talking about it

All of these descriptions are conflated and compacted into one thing – and that one thing is the thing we have called ‘church’.  But it cannot be.  Either it IS His Body with Jesus Christ as its Head and described as “the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way”; a local body of true Heaven-Born Believers; not an “attendance-based” clergy-laity organization; a daily Christ-honoring, Christ-centred, Bible-believing people walking in obedience to God – OR IT IS NOT.

Now take a look at the following paragraph taken from this same work:

“…we all grew up not esteeming the thing we called “church”. But the thing we were not esteeming was an institution. It was an organization. It was a religious group with some “belief system” that drew them together. But, in the average “church”, more than half of the attendees were not even new creations!”

Here is the confusion: in our thinking, “The Church” is both the wonderful thing we see in the dot-points above AND an institution; an organisation; a religious group with some “belief system” that drew them together; in which “more than half of the attendees were not even new creations!”  It isn’t both!  It can’t be both – either logically or if we base our understanding on the words of Jesus its Founder and Paul, one of its chief founding Apostles.

What this ‘thing’ is that is being described here I am not sure, but it is NOT ‘the church’ that God is building.  That is not the description of ‘the church’ used by Jesus or the Apostles; and it is not the description of ‘the church of the firstborn’ in the pages of the New Testament.

It could be the church that man is building – out of wood, hay and stubble and on sandy ground – a building made with human hands, whose architect and builder is an organisation, an institution, a religious group in which many are “not even new creations”!  It could be, don’t you think.

But it is not the church that God is building – out of gold, silver and precious stones and built on solid ground – a building NOT made with hands, whose architect and builder is God.

We have to stop confusing the two!  As I suggested in an earlier post: they are even more different than a dog and a fish.  One has its origin of species in mortality, the other in immortality; one has its beginnings on earth in time and space, the other is ‘eternal in the heavenlies’ with its beginnings in the vision and passion of God.

It may seem too obvious to some, but I call one church and the other ecclesia.  One is a religious group with a belief system and the imprimatur of man, the other is God’s called-out company / assembly / congregation, with faith in Christ and the imprimatur of God.

Again – let all understand: I love the work of “Jesus Life Together” – and so many other writers and publishers of fine work.  My words here are not harsh criticism and must not be taken as such.  However, again, our very best is often lacking in that it continues to confuse by not making a separation in our understanding between ‘the church’ that God is building (the Body of Christ / Jesus’ Household / the House of God) and ‘the church’ that man is building (the organisations / the institutions / the religions systems).

We are NOT wrong to not esteem this thing; this religious group with some belief system; this institution; this organisation.  Indeed, we are wrong to esteem it – if for no other reason that that it forces upon us unacceptable definitions of things God has already previously defined for us in the life of Jesus and the historical record of ‘the church of the firstborn’.

The article I drew the above quotes from is titled: DO I HAVE TO "GO TO CHURCH"?

I have no hesitation saying, "NO - you don't". Church is something we "go to" - if we want to be part of the religious scene. Ecclesia is something we ARE.

But, do we need to stay in living touch with others around us in our Holy Spirit born family? Absolutely!  You don't need the church - but you do need the ecclesia.

Have another look at the images above. You don't need the usual church meetings and they are generally far from brilliant if the standard is Jesus and the New Testament. But do we need to gather in twos and threes (or more) around and unto the person of Jesus, who is, after all, the Head of the ecclesia and the reason we live and gather? Absolutely!

One final image: this one comes from the Question Mark series of booklets published by Scripture Union (UK) a few decades ago. The figure has no head drawn because the Head is Christ. The rest of the body is you and me and the other guy (or girl). And the body can do all that a body is made to do if and when we are joined to the Head and to each other as Christ orders it and we serve according to our gifts and our vocation in the body, with servant-heartedness and the love that Jesus talked about so often.

Cheers,

Kevin.