Laying foundations

In his book Fit Bodies, Fat Minds, Os Guinness describes the postmodern thinking that is more and more infecting our western world, as follows:

There is no grand reason, only reasons. There is no privileged civilization, only a multiple of cultures, beliefs, periods, and styles. There is no grand narrative of human progress, only countless stories of where people and their cultures are now. There is no simple reality or any grand objectivity of universal, detached knowledge, only a ceaseless representation of everything in terms of everything else.

We live in a pluralistic world where, amongst the smorgasbord of lifestyles and opinions, it seems that everything goes, and the greatest sin is that of intolerance of someone else's belief or behaviour.

In the midst of all this diversity, there are people who call themselves Christians, who, to the outsider, appear to be just as divided as the rest of society. They organise themselves into groups that are as different as chalk from cheese. Some prefer to meet in traditional buildings, some in halls and some in homes. Some have hierarchical structures, organised from the top down. Some are organised from the bottom up. Some are totally independent. Some like traditional organised worship, knowing just what to expect. Some prefer exuberant, more expressive styles. Even in the matter of either doctrinal or moral beliefs it must appear to many today that the church is just as divided as the rest of society.

So the question arises: What is the Church meant to be? The purpose of this booklet is to seek to answer this question. When a stranger walks into a church gathering, whether in a home, a cathedral or a grass hut, in Auckland or in Timbuktu, are there any things they might find that are common to all?

Are there any things that should be common to all? I will be seeking to answer it from the perspective of the New Testament. After all, Christian Churches everywhere claim the New Testament as their foundational document. It contains the teaching of Jesus, the founder of the Christian Church, and the teaching of those he personally taught. Church denominations, at least in their official documents, have consistently given greater authority to the Bible than they have to church traditions. The old Tridentine doctrine in the Roman Catholic church tended to give the Bible and tradition equal weight, but this was rejected at Vatican II. It is to the New Testament we must first look to see what the Church should be, and our differing traditions are only legitimate if they don't conflict with the emphasis that is found there.

What is a Christian?

Before looking at what the Church should be, it will be helpful to first ask the question: What is a Christian? The most definitive definition of a Christian, from God's perspective, is someone to whom he has given his Holy Spirit. On the Feast of Pentecost, Peter declared to the inquiring crowds, "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show that you belong to God" (Ephesians 1:13).

When someone acknowledges their sinfulness and need of forgiveness, turns in repentance to God, puts their trust in the Saviour who died for their sins, and surrenders to him as the Lord of their life, then God commits himself to that person by coming to live within him or her in the person of the Holy Spirit. This experience of being reconciled to God is variously described as being "born again" (John 3:3), "born of the Spirit" (John 3:5), crossing over "from death to life" (John 5:24), receiving the gift of "eternal life" (Romans 6:23), receiving "Christ Jesus as Lord" (Colossians 2:6) or being "raised with Christ" (Colossians 3:1). It means that, in some intangible though very real way, God himself has come to dwell in me, his Spirit united with my spirit. My body becomes his temple (1 Corinthians 6:19).

It is the Holy Spirit, the third person in the divine Trinity, who imparts to me the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection, incorporating me into God's family. Paul calls him "the Spirit of sonship" (or "Spirit of adoption" - Romans 8:15). "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father'"(Galatians 4:6). "Abba" is the Aramaic word that any Jewish child would use to address his or her father. Jesus used it to express his own relationship with God the Father (Mark 14:36). In other words, having received his Spirit, I now have the right to call God my Father, depending on him for protection, guidance and the provision of my daily needs. The unique relationship that Jesus had with God the Father, he now shares with me. Jesus becomes my elder brother - "the firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29 - see also Hebrews 2:10-18). It means also that I have a lot of new brothers and sisters, others who are also members of God's family. That brings us to the next question: What is the Church?

What is the Church?

The Greek word that is translated "church" over 100 times in the New Testament is ekklesia. In the Greek secular world this word was used of any public assembly of free citizens who gather in order to determine their own and their children's communal, political and spiritual wellbeing. Its use in the Bible, however, is very different. It was used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (the Septuagint) to translate the Hebrew word qahal, the "congregation" of those whom God had called into a covenant relationship with himself. In the New Testament it refers to those whom God has called out of humanity (the word literally means "called out of") into a personal relationship with himself, to be his own people. "He gave himself to rescue us from everything that is evil and to make our heart pure. He wanted us to be his own people and to be eager to do right" (Titus 2:14). Having given us the Holy Spirit he now calls us to live for him, not just as individuals, but as a community, a family.

The word "church" in the New Testament is usually used of all the Christians in a certain place. Thus Paul can write to "the church of God in Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2) or to "the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:1) or even "the church that meets at their house" (Romans 16:5). It can be used in the plural: "The churches in the province of Asia" (1 Corinthians 16:19). It can be used of all Christians everywhere. Thus Paul speaks of Christ as "head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18). Generally speaking it could be said that where you find Christians gathered together, those who "call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:2), there you have the church.

How many people does it take to make a church? A relevant saying of Jesus is his statement that "where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20). If Jesus is present with his people, though only two or three be gathered, surely there is the church. Ignatius, the first century bishop of Antioch, declared, "Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the universal church." The African Church Father, Tertullian, declared a century later, "Where three are, the church is." The fourteenth century Bohemian Reformer, John Huss, also declared, in relation this saying of Jesus: "From this it follows that two righteous persons congregated together in Christ's name constitute, with Christ as the head, a particular holy church." Pope Paul VI referred to Matthew 18:20 in a speech before the Delegation of Ecumenical Patriarchs (1972) , speaking of the ecclesia [church] as a "gathering in which we are joined with you...gathered together in the name of Christ, and as a result of having him, Christ, our Lord himself, in our midst." If Jesus declares himself present with his people, wherever they meet, or however small the numbers, I don't see that you can deny that there is the church as it is defined in the New Testament.