If there is one thing we need -as Christians still in this side of eternity-, and most especially in these days when the enemy is sowing division at an ever-increasing pace, that is to recover the sense of body-ness that many seem to have lost regarding our position in the church-body which in turn shows our position in the Kingdom.
It was this sense of being a body, and the functional aspects of being a body that made the church so highly effective in the book of Acts. Their effectiveness was not determined by any individual who had some special anointing to make things work at an individual level, without any connection with the body, as expressed in the local bodies of believers, which in turn were interconnected: It was the connection nurtured in the gathering.
In the last number of years, a dichotomy -and a false one at that- has arisen, which seems to paint two different pictures from what Jesus Himself taught. Although the Kingdom and the Church are not exactly the same thing, they are not two mutually excluding entities.
However, leaving aside for now the definition of the term ‘Kingdom of God’,
let’s focus on Church and the effectual meaning of it here on earth.
We can say that yes, the Church is the universal Body of Christ, and it comprises those who came before and those who will come after we are gone, the eternal gathering of the saints together -as the book of Hebrews makes it clear-, but the fact remains that in the book of Acts and in the whole New Testament, as well in the history of the church in the first centuries after Acts, there was always the centrality of the Body of Christ gathering together. Even when individual members were at times on their own preaching somewhere, or two by two, as it was the custom following Jesus instructions, they established churches or brought those saved into local churches. There was also, always some kind of report brought to the local churches regarding the actions and results of individual members when on a mission.
Now, the point I aim to raise here, is that the centrality was not institutional but functional, and of necessity any body to be functional requires that the members are connected, not in some sort of ethereal, surrealistic way, but rather in a tangible, every day, hands on, visible way. Also, with emphasis on ‘visible’, I would say that the church moving together, functioning as a body, becomes visible and makes heaven visible to the community around.
Unfortunately, this new trend about ‘being the church’ with no need to gather together, which is deemed to be a ‘spiritual connection’ with Christ the head, but not with any local ‘institution’, is neither spiritual nor a connection of any kind, because it is more a surrealistic, ethereal, floating idea that runs afoul of the reality of the Body of Christ and the real, intentional presence of the Church in this world. After all, Jesus said, separate from me you can do nothing, which cannot mean to be united with Christ but not connected with the Church in any way. Connected with the head without a body makes me thing of some kind of spiritual octopus, which I don’t think is what Jesus had in mind when He said “I will build My Church”.
Now, a bit more down to the practical expression of being the Church, and the effectiveness of gathering together, I would point to an example of non-effective life or actions. Over the years we have seen situations where a person comes to a Church gathering only when they are facing some struggle and want the body to pray for them. Or in other cases we receive a phone call, or an anonymous email asking the local church to pray -yes, that same local church gathering that they say is not necessary.
My question about the above paragraph is, they believe that there is no need to gather, and that we can be effective in prayer and facing situations just on our own because we are connected to the head, but when the actual struggle sets in, suddenly they need the body of Christ that gathers together at a certain place, to pray for them. To be blunt, the answer to the question arising from those stories could be no other than they do believe in the effectiveness of the Church gathering together in one place, but they do not want any kind of commitment to make it work.
As a final point, a rather interesting issue in the New Testament, is that the writers, especially in the Epistles to the churches or to individuals who were leaders of local churches, address the things that happen -bad things and good things- in the environment of the local church gathered.
A good professor we had in Bible College used to say: “In the New Testament the gifts of the Spirit were always in operation in the “gathered church”.
We can discuss about details of how things were meant to be, or how things worked in the book of Acts and beyond, and agree or disagree about aspects of the functionality of the Church. We can discuss whether they met in the Temple or in houses or in open air. But at the end of the day, one thing is clear: THEY MET!
“… they were TOGETHER in ONE place in ONE accord and the HOLY SPIRIT CAME …”
JC
