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What is Church? Part 1

This post is published by permission from the author Steve Gregg. This is from a teaching outline used at the Great Commission School
I. According to Scripture, all Christians belong to the universal church (I Cor 12:13 Eph 4:4-6), which is an organism (not an organization) left on earth to communicate Christ’s message and to continue his work in his absence (John 14:12-14/ Acts 1:1, by implication). I believe that this Church is a spiritually created and defined “body,” comprised of a diversity of members who are gifted and placed in spiritual relationship to one another by the sovereign Spirit of God (I Cor 12:11-12 /Phil 2:1).

II. There is a local “sampling” of the universal body of Christ in every locality wherein “two or more” persons have come to faith in Christ and gather together for mutual edification and cooperative ministry (Matt 18:20).

A. All the believers in a given locality are the united local expression of Christ to their sector of the world.

B. No divisions are to be tolerated among them (see point 6 in part 2).

C. In the New Testament, the ‘locality’ of the church was defined in terms of city boundaries (I Cor 1:2/I Thess 1:1/Titus 1:5.). In our own day of clustered cities and suburbs and of improved transportation, the definition of ‘locality’ might conceivably be extended beyond the borders of a single city or town.

III. In some localities, the local sample may consist of such a large number of believers that they cannot all meet in the same building. The result is the clustering of smaller groups into various congregations or ‘house churches’ (Rom 16:5, 10, 11 /Col 4:15 w/Philemon 2).

A. Since Paul addressed his letters to all the Christians in a given city (Rom 1:7/Phil 1:1/Col 1:2), it is a fair inference that the various smaller clusters in the city enjoyed a certain amount of unity and shared life and resources with each other (at least they shared Paul’s letters among themselves);

B. Biblically, it is unclear whether each ‘congregation’ of this type is to function as a fully-orbed microcosm of the universal Church, or whether that microcosmic expression is found in the combined congregations within a locality. For example, what Paul says about the life of the church in Corinth (e.g. I Cor 12) seems not to reflect that of every individual gathering, but of the “whole church” in the city (I Cor 14:23).

C. Without further biblical information on this point, it would be folly for anyone to speak dogmatically. It seems, though, given the small number of persons that an individual house church might legitimately encompass (a synagogue could be as small as ten families; a “church,” where Christ is expressed, smaller still - Matthew 18:20), one could hardly expect every individual congregation to have all the gifts (apostles, prophets, evangelists, a plurality of elders, miracle workers, etc.) functioning among its members and to be a fully-orbed expression of the body of Christ. Therefore, I incline to the view that the fuller expression of Christ is found in the sum total of active confessing Christians in all the congregations of a given locality.

IV. This suggests a built-in interdependence-not only between individual believers, but also between congregations within a locality.

A. Individual congregations that define their identities, commitments and ministries in isolation from the other congregations in the same locality are falling into the sectarian mentality, decried by Paul, of saying “I am of…” and “I am of…” (I Cor 1:12-13). They have forsaken the spiritual definition of the Body for what I have called (because it is a good label) an ‘institutional model’ of the church, in which ‘membership’ has little to do with being a limb spiritually attached by the Spirit to the rest of the Body, but is defined in terms of “membership’ or ‘covenanted commitment’ (neither concept can be found in scripture).

B. Commitment to a group of Christians in one congregation in a way that preempts commitment to the entire church outside that congregation is wrongheaded and is described by Paul as infantile and carnal (I Cor 3:2-4).

C. Relationships among Christians locally or trans-locally are spiritual in nature. They are not defined in terms of ‘belonging’ to one or another small group, as in a club or organization. They are defined in terms of ‘organic,’ God-ordained, real-life interaction that takes place (mostly) outside the ‘scheduled “meetings” (Deduced from the fact that several of the ‘gifts,’ like giving, helps, administration, mercy, marriage, singleness, etc. Rom 12:6-8/I Cor 7:7 /I Cor 12:28 can hardly be thought to find their primary expression in the ‘church meeting,’ but rather in day-to-day interaction of believers among themselves). In fact, the congregational “meeting” has little to do with relationships per se, since people may gather there who have no real-life interaction or fellowship (historic and modern experience abundantly demonstrates this).

End part 1  - View Part 2

© 2000 The Great Commision School. Published by permission.