A Church of One?

“In the fullest sense, we are individual members of a universal association. All of the saved are a part of this association, but none are saved by it. We are all saved because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.” E.G. Sewell

The lone ranger riding off into the sunset is a romantic image that our individualistic culture has always loved. Just me, myself and I duking it out with life and coming out on top.

If you think that I am an advocate of some sort of vigilante church movement where everyone goes off on their own to live a stronger, unsupported and unfettered Christian life, then I am glad you are reading this.

There is no such thing as a church of one. Everything about Christianity is based on community. 

“We cannot truly exist as individuals; we must rid ourselves of that deeply rooted cultural weed, the idea of the autonomous man, and accept community once more: community in the deep and multifarious complexity of tribal associations” (KM). 

In the article “Why People Are Leaving Church” I discussed what church has become: the modern church social club of the Western world. And I showed what church should be comprised of according to Hebrews 10 and Romans 12. I focused on what church isn’t supposed to be. Now let’s take a look at what real church is.

In The Beginning…

The English word “Church” comes from the Greek word “ekklesia” which we are often told means “assembly” or “congregation.” The truth is that the word ekklesia does not literally mean either assembly or congregation. It means “an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly” or literally “a called out.”

It was derived from the word “ekkaleo” (around 400 BC) which was the call for an army to prepare for battle. Historically the word ekklesia meant the popular assembly, the meeting of every citizen, in Athens which met 30-40 times a year to discuss policy and appointments and to sit judgement in cases of treason. The ekklesia was the basis of the original democracies of Greece.

From this word, we get our English words “assembly” and “congregation.”

The actual definition of “assembly” is a voluntary association of equals. This first definition is not related to a gathering together, but rather a common identity that a group of individuals has willingly accepted. The word assembly of course also refers to the putting together of a number of separate parts to form a whole. The number is unspecific, but there are definitely multiple pieces involved.

The definition of “congregation” is also more complex than it appears at first glance. It means a society of persons who follow a common rule of life. Then it also more simply denotes a group of people, objects, etc., collected together.

So literally…

The Church: a group of people “called out” from their old lives, the “entire citizenry” of a Kingdom not of this world, “collected together” in “a voluntary association of equals” which when assembled their “separate parts form a whole” army ready for inspection and deployment. 

The Gathering Together of Believers

When members of an association come together or meet up then they identify themselves by their commonality. We are the blacksmiths guild. We are the knitting club. We are the pirates who don’t do anything. Even if only a few of the pirates, knitters or blacksmiths are present, they identify as belonging to that larger whole. Likewise, we are the ekklesia of Christ. And in translation, we are the church.

So when any members of the association are together, they are "church."

Matthew 18:19-20 says, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

This is in line with the description in Hebrews 10:23-26 of a meeting of believers for the purpose of stirring one another up to do good works and strengthening one another’s faith in a challenging way. This kind of personal confrontation and serious encouragement is best done in a private meeting. Confrontation with our fellow believers is supposed to be done one-on-one (Matthew 18:15) and followed up in a larger group of no more than four (Matthew 18:16). Valuable personal correction does not happen in a large meeting, but rather in an intimate assembly. Only when a brother refuses to listen to the gathered witnesses or if there is a disagreement, then the matter is brought to the Christian community at large (Matthew 18:17).

Church refers to these small gatherings just as fully as it can refer to all the Christians on earth coming together at once, if such a thing was possible. It can be good to gather as larger bodies of believers as a visual reminder of God’s vast work and for the sharing of stories and ideas. It is definitely good to reach out between believers and touch the lives of people you do not know. Building a bigger tribe, a greater society, in terms of real, in-depth relationships can be a beneficial to all people. There is a proper place for the gathering of larger groups of Christians as we saw in Matthew 18:17. Jesus once preached to a crowd greatly exceeding 5,000 people (Mark 6:33-44). With that said, Jesus had an intimate tribe of only 12. It is true that he had a network of friends that extended past that. Mary, Martha and Lazarus were friends of his and not numbered among the apostles. He goes to visit them on multiple recorded occasions, yet they do not travel the road with him as we might say our churches do with us. It is worth noting that when Jesus went to seek the Father in his most spiritually trying moments, he gathered with fewer people, not with more. 

He retreated with only Peter, James and John – his closest disciples – when he was struggling with his greatest trials and fears (Matthew 26:37), and when he was communing most closely with God (Matthew 17:1, Mark 9:2). This is the same number as the gathering in which we are instructed to rebuke a brother outlined in Matthew 18:16. With no more than four people, the most difficult problems and challenges of the Christian life can be confronted and overcome.

But with all of these little groups of Christians meeting, won’t they lose their way? We need leaders in the Church, without them aren’t we all just a bunch of lost sheep?

Myth: Church hierarchy as found in institutionalized religious orders is needed to dispel false teachings and provide leadership to Christians

If we trust that God has protected his message of Salvation and Redemption through oral transmission, through translations, through some guys voting what should go into the Bible or not, through horrific atrocities done in His name, through reformations and through thousands of years, then do we really doubt His power to grow real, strong Christians organically, without the regulations and ordinations that we have created ourselves?

The New Testament gives us examples of where to look for leadership, yes. We are given examples of how to choose our elders and where to turn for guidance. But the point of the New Testament is that those original letters hold the answers to all the difficult questions. 

With a Bible in one hand and your neighbour’s in your other, any man or woman called by God has the resources to live a Kingdom life.

Yes, Church hierarchy can help in dispelling false teaching and in giving sound leadership. It can also spread false teaching and give rotten leadership. Church hierarchy and institutionalized Christianity is just a bunch of sinful people doing what they can in the name of Christ.

 

As are we all. 

Some of it is good and some of it is bad. Can they be helpful? Sure. Are they essential? Not at all. Can they be harmful? Absolutely. 

Faith requires that we trust God is bigger than us. Bigger than the church hierarchy. Bigger than the world. Bigger than whatever false teachings and scared sheep we risk having without a chain of command.

But that’s the thing. There is a chain of command. The Godhead, then everyone else. One Holy Shepherd, then many, many sheep. God in Heaven, then a holy priesthood of reclaimed sinners. That’s the system. It can be messy. But those are the blueprints Jesus left us with. 

We’re not architects. We are just builders who decided to blindly add to the project.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the house looks ridiculous and has begun to fall over.

But… but…

(I hear you). …But church leadership is biblical. What about elders?

What About Elders?

In the New Testament, “Elders” (also referred to as “bishops” and “deacons” interchangeably) are mature and well-aged, learned men and women (Titus 2:3-5) living a godly example (Titus 1:5-9). For this reason they are appointed as leaders from among a local collection of believers, always marked out geographically by town or city in. These leaders are not superimposed on the local believers, they are from among their number and they are always found in the plural form – never a single elder, always elders. The original elders in a place are appointed by the person (or people) who brought the gospel message to that place – our equivalent of a church planter, missionary or evangelist. Elders are given the responsibility to serve as an example to the less mature Christians in that area and to correct them when their ideas are straying from the gospel message (1 Peter 5:1-4). Since it is their role to serve as an example, when they are found to have done something wrong, they are to be exposed in public (1Timothy 5:19-20), unlike younger or less mature believers who are to be rebuked in private (Matthew 18:15). 

There is nothing in this account that contradicts the idea of a non-hierarchical local personal church. 

Someone is the first believer to come to any given town. The person who first brings the gospel to that place has a responsibility to establish the new believers before departing or they would be quickly confused and easily led astray. This is not organized religion we witness in the New Testament. 

This is grassroots stuff. 

Elders are a good and biblical idea. They are people living godly lives and who are mature in their knowledge of the Kingdom. I have several elders who I look up to as an example in my Christian life. None of them are appointed elders by any institution. Not that I know of anyway. Are they living by the biblical instructions for elders anyway? Yes. Why? As mature Christians (of which there aren’t very many in the New Testament beyond the writers – most people described are brand new converts) they know that fellow believers are looking up to them and being shepherded by the example of their lives and faith. 

It is the responsibility of all Christians to grow into elders within their communities of faith. 

It takes time. It takes practice and discipline and learning and admission of failures and defeats and repentance every step of the way. But that is what it means to be a growing Christian. 

So what is this homegrown local church of yours? Are you starting a new denomination?

Absolutely not. This world has no need of yet another denomination of Christians. I am of no denomination and all of them. I am the daughter of a catholic and a baptist: an evangelical missionary associated gospel non-denominational presbyterian mennonite mutt of a Christian. I just am, in my own messy way, and that’s ok. 

The point of my problem with churches in the traditional sense is in people assuming they are the Christian ekklesia. They are alright. But they are not the church. I will visit. I will befriend the people as I can. But I cannot join up and drink the Kool-Aid. The ekklesia is so much bigger than that. 

Acts 2:42-45 “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

The ekklesia is where we all belong every day of the week. The ekklesia can meet at its strongest in groups of 2 to 4 believers on their knees, broken and wrestling with life’s most daunting challenges and God’s most difficult commands. Then rise up spurred on to actions and strengthened in faith – the two cornerstones of a Kingdom life.


Further Reading:

A Letter To the North American Church