What is the church? It seems like a simple question, but there is some serious confusion about it’s answer, even among church-members. So, in order to try and establish a clear and unified understanding that we can all share, I’d like for us to consider one universal source: God’s Word. There’s no better place for us to find the answer to questions about the church God has built than the book where God has revealed His intentions for all that He has created: the Bible.
The first time we see the term “church” ever used in the Bible, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, specifically Peter, which is recorded in Matthew 16:18.
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Jesus tells Peter and His disciples that He is building His church and that it will withstand any opposition that may work against it even Hell itself. Now, that’s pretty cool, knowing that it’s Jesus’ church and not even the powers of hell can ever prevail against it. From this it would seem like the church is more than a building, since there’s a lot of things less powerful than the forces of Hell that can take down a building, but we still need some more references to understand what the church is at its most foundational level. Let’s look at another church-related scripture.
In Acts 8:1 which is subtitled in some Bibles as “Saul Ravages the Church” it says:
“…And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles.”
So, the Apostles at that point in church history were the “governing authority” of the Christian faith on earth. They were the ones who authoritatively acted as overseers of this new faith after Jesus ascended into heaven, which we can read about in Acts chapter one. Notice though, that when it says the church faced great persecution, “they were all scattered”. The Church is a “they”, but not “they” meaning the Apostles, because those guys stayed put. The Church is a people, which leads me to this conclusion: the Church IS the people. There is no separation between the Christian congregation and the Church. We don’t go to Church as Christians, we are the church.
Now, if the church is the congregation of Christ followers, than there’s two implications that must be made about the church. These are not the only two, but the ones that right now are closest to my heart and stand out in my mind.
- A church’s identity should be as a people.
We live in a church culture today, at least in America, where the identity of the “local church” often has little to do with its people. The focal point of a local church is typically the building, programs, the style of preaching or music and so on. We invest the vast majority of our time, resources and talents in order to create and maintain various ministries, and to keep our buildings, websites and social media pages looking up to date. As a result, those outside the church commonly buy into the idea that a church is really just a building with a system of programs similar to a YMCA; it’s essentially a spiritual social club. And perhaps even among church attenders, we have bought into the notion that the church is really all about the programs, and facilities while the people are in the background or simply the ones that make “the church” run.
Now, understand that I’m not against those things. Ministries are effective ways of serving the people and cultivating growth in the people. As someone who leads several ministries within my local church, I know that quite well. Buildings serve as a place for the people to gather and websites or social media pages are helpful by serving as the means for people to communicate important information. However we must remember that these things are NOT the church. With that in mind, we need to regularly evaluate our focus, priorities and the identity we are holding to as the church, because it is so easy to drift into a skewed understanding of who we are as the church.
Just as food for thought, when we invite someone to church, do they think we’re inviting them to a building, a club, or to be part of a people? The answer to that may reveal a subconscious perspective we have about the church, which comes out in the way we explain and represent the church.
- The health of the church is the health of its people.
A lot of times when we see or experience signs of unhealthiness in our churches we have all kinds of perspectives about what the problem is and how to fix it. But, here’s the reality: any illness in the church is a result of the spiritual unhealthiness of its people as a whole.
But what does spiritual health and spiritual illness look like? Consider this, Christ is the ultimate example of spiritual health, so the more the people of the church conform to the image of Christ in terms of our thinking and living, the healthier it is. So if we teach according to the scriptures, which Christ and His disciples affirmed, we shape our thinking to be like Christ and therefore we think healthy. Then if we apply that healthy thinking to our lives, we live Christ-like, spiritually healthy lives. The more like Jesus we are as a people, the healthier the church is. On the other hand if the church’s thinking and living are not in line with the example of Christ, that’s the essence of spiritual illness. There’s a lot of depth to that concept and areas of greater specificity we could go into, but at least for now I just want to present the basic principle.
So, we need to understand that the true signs of a healthy church aren’t the size of its congregation, how updated its facilities and website are etc. If those things stem from a healthy, Christ-like people, great, but those things and other assets aren’t the solution to spiritual illness and a lack of those things doesn’t mean the church is unhealthy. Our ideas of what makes a church healthy or unhealthy reveal what we really think about the church, what’s most important about it, and that changes our expectations and vision for the church for better or worse.
So, what does a healthy church look like in terms of its policies and practices? What should the church be on a specific and practical level? That’s what we will talk about next time. In preparation, I’d encourage you to look up the Bible passage of Acts 2:42-47, where you see a word-snapshot of the church at the very beginning of its founding. We’ll take a close look at that written picture of the original church and seek to glean from its example next week.
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