In Defense of a Congregation
If you were to take a casual stroll around the digital neighborhoods of churches you would probably walk away thinking two things. 1) Churches are primarily brands who put out content. 2) Pastors are primarily brand managers and spokesmen who deliver their content to their congregations who are mostly seen as an audience to “engage.” And if you were even more observant (maybe a little cynical) you would think churches spend most of their time competing for the attention of a dwindling evangelical market share. Doesn’t that just sound funny?
The problem with this view of church is that it’s too abstract. It’s too fuzzy. Church as digital brand is actually an anti church. It’s an anti church because it obscures the heart and soul of what makes church...well...church. At least if we are going to make some sort of attempt to seek out a biblical understanding of church we have to deal with it as the New Testament defines it. And the New Testament picture of church is way more beautiful and particular. The picture is of a local congregation of real and ordinary people who belong to Christ and to one another, knit together in the bond of love.
There are many places in scripture we could explore to fill out an understanding of the local church. But I want to jump into some of my favorite spots in scripture. These are my favorite because they illustrate the incarnational nitty gritty of what makes church so darn special.
As a pastor I can appreciate Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. This letter is dripping with pastoral affection. You can tell Paul is not going to settle for treating this congregation in Thessalonica as a passive audience to information dump on. We know this because he actually says he not only wanted to share the gospel with them but he also wanted to share his life with them because they were dear to him (1 Thess 2:8). Elsewhere in the letter he uses very emotive heart language. He writes to them with a Fatherly type of knowing. This church was not just a group to engage with his content. These people were individual souls that he knew and loved by name.
Another place that informs my understanding of the local church is John 13. The way Jesus treats his disciples always floors me. I’m sure that Jesus knew that these guys had the same tendency we modern people do to abstract the way of Jesus. I’m sure he knew these men were sometimes more eager to talk about Jesus than they were to talk to Jesus. I’m sure he knew that if left to their own devices they would have run off with the resurrection news and turned it into a movement or a cult of self improvement motivation. So instead of letting his precious teaching devolve into that, he gives them a very concrete example of how they are to live the kingdom of God. He washes their feet. This particular act was done by the incarnate Word in order to demonstrate that this gospel is not just a message to peddle but a life to live. They were to live the way of love. But not love on their own terms. They were to love as Jesus defined and demonstrated.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are to love one another. By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). What Jesus is doing here is he is making love tangible for the community. It’s not just a fluffy message. It’s a way. Jesus will eventually go and demonstrate his infinitely more wonderful love for them by dying on the cross. But as he said to Peter, “where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward” (v. 36). Jesus alone had to go to the cross to atone for sins. This act of love belongs to God alone. But afterward the Spirit of Christ would animate the community to live a life together that would be shaped by this cruciform love. Jesus washing the disciples feet was a lesson in ways and means. He was demonstrating how to live out their identity as a community knit together by the love of Jesus.
This is very important. Jesus tells us why we need the ordinary, sometimes lacklustre, group of people we call a congregation. In order to really live into the life of love Jesus created for us we have to really love people. We can’t love the idea of people. We have to love faces, names, stories, flesh and blood people. Ad as Jesus said, by this one another love people will know you are my disciples.
This is why I believe the Bible advocates for church membership. To really live into the one another love Jesus died for, we must belong to one another in a meaningful sense. Life in the Spirit is life together knit together in the bond of love. This is what 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 teaches. God gives spiritual gifts to the church “for the common good.” How is that actually lived out? It must be lived out in the life of the congregation. The local congregation is the only context in which the way of Jesus has any chance to really manifest itself to the world.
There's more to be said about this issue for sure. But my intention in writing this is that whoever reads this would give their lives more fully to Christ, and in doing so would see that to live the way of Christ to the fullest means belonging deeply to a local congregation. Our world is steadily retreating into the digital ghettos. Christins must fight that movement and advocate for something fuller, more robust—the congregation.