THE CHURCH - A call to the churches of the new millennium

EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY - THE CHURCH

THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

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.

"What is a Christian? ... from God's perspective, is someone to whom he has given his Holy Spirit"

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.

"[God] 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.

This view implies that the authenticity of the church has nothing to do with its particular structure or organisation. Some in the episcopal tradition have declared that you can't have a true church unless you have bishops. Some in the Free Church tradition said that you can't have a true church if you do have bishops. Such exclusive views are no longer credible today and can't be proved from the New Testament.

Another common view is that you can't have a true Church without the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Now I certainly believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are important ceremonies for Christians. Jesus commanded them. From the very outset Christian congregations performed baptisms and celebrated Holy Communion and there does not seem to have been any initial period in church history without them. I believe that those who don't practise them are missing something. However, I have a problem with denying the word "Church" to them on those grounds alone. Are we to say that the Salvation Army is not part of God's true church because for over 100 years they have tended to spiritualise the meaning of the sacraments? Lesslie Newbigin, in The Household of God, says:

If we would answer the question 'Where is the Church?' we must ask 'Where is the Holy Spirit recognisably present with power?'

Who can deny the presence of the Spirit in the Salvation Army who, with their devotion to the needy and underprivileged in society, have put many of us to shame.

The importance of truth

One other matter is important when considering the question: What is the Church? That is, for people to be true members of the church they have got to believe something. So far I have described a Christian in terms of what God does in giving a person his Spirit. However, God does this in response to a person's faith. Faith involves trust; and trust always involves certain beliefs about the person in whom one puts one's trust. What is the minimum one has to believe about God in order to be a true Christian?

The New Testament evidence on this point focuses mainly on the Person of Jesus Christ. Every person who has indeed received the Holy Spirit can be expected to say that "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3). To really believe that he is Lord involves accepting him as Lord of one's own personal life. This involves personal commitment to him. Christians call upon the name of Jesus in faith (Romans 10:13). They are baptised in his name (Acts 2:38). They are washed, made holy and acceptable to God through his name (1 Corinthians 6:11). They preach and teach in his name (Acts 5:28). John says in his first letter, "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we rely on the love God has for us" (1 John 4:13-16). Faith in Jesus as the Saviour who died for us, acknowledging who he is in his divine being, and some understanding of the Triune God of Father, Son and Spirit are all basic to being a Christian in the New Testament. The Orthodox theologian Dumitru Staniloae speaks for the whole Christian tradition when he highlights the "two truths beside which there is no other truth - the holy Trinity as model of supreme love and interpersonal communion, and the Son of God who comes, becomes a man, and goes to sacrifice."

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer... made the plea that in theology we give priority to the question of who over how"

Of course, there are many other beliefs related to the Christian faith, particularly about how we should live. It is significant that every book of the New Testament (there are 27), apart from Paul's letter to Philemon, warns against false teaching or false teachers. Truth matters. The influential theologian Karl Barth recognised this in his definition of the church. He said:

The Real Church is the assembly which is called, united, held together and governed by the Word of her Lord, or she is not the Real Church.

However, in this booklet I will not be focusing primarily on what we are to believe. A multitude of people have been writing on the truth of the gospel for two thousand years. I have added my contribution in the booklet What is Truth and Does It Matter? That booklet is very much a companion to this one, as are my booklets Understanding the Trinity and Does It Matter How We Live? A Christian View of Morality. In this booklet I will be focusing on what the church is meant to be as a community, particularly as this relates to the nature of the triune God, who called the church into being. How should Christians relate to one another within this community? How should the church relate to those outside its membership? What is its mission in the world? How should it relate to God's material creation? I believe these are vital questions as we face a new millennium with the world in the state that it is.

Where to start?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis at the end of World War II, in his lectures Christology, made the plea that in theology we give priority to the question of who over how, and that we always seek answers to the question of how in terms of who. Our starting point should not be the problems of the world, of church and society, but: "Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? Who is the Holy Spirit?" How we think about God will colour all else. This is particularly true of our thinking about the church. For instance, if we have a hierarchical view of the Trinity, as the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have tended to do, then we are likely to have a hierarchical view of the church. Jesus made it plain that relationships in the church should mirror the relationships that exist within the triune God (John 17:21). So it is the nature of God that I examine first.