For me, Sunday mornings mean attending church. The past couple of Sunday have felt quite odd, as I wasn’t at ‘my’ church with ‘my’ church family. It didn’t mean that where I attended was bad, just different. As I think about community, what is it that makes a church a church? Is there something distinct about this group of people, meeting week by week, that makes it different to any other group that meets week by week?
As part of my reading, I’ve read Alan Stibbs’ excellent book ‘God’s Church’. Despite being first published in 1959, it is still suprisingly contemporary in what it says.
A Distinctive People
Stibbs begins his book by outining how God is looking to call a people of his own His first paragraph sets that out:
God made man for Himself. The chief end of God in the creation of man was to have a people of whom He could say: I am theirs, and they are Mine. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. p7
Then, despite the failings of Adam and Eve and all that follows, God still calls a people to be his own. Whether seen in Abraham or in the people of Israel, God chooses a people to be his own. These people form a distinct and recognisable community: they worship one God, live by strict laws, and are circumcised. They stand out as different to everyone around them.
However, these visible differences were not enough to determine who was actually God’s people. That has always been by faith. There has always been a group who are receive the promise by faith, and so are the true Israel or the true Church, rather than the visible Israel or the visible Church.
All that is to say that the true distinctive is not in outward signs, but those whose hearts have been changed:
Thus, in our study of God’s people in the Old Testament, we may begin to discern the emergence of the idea of a spiritual fellowship or faithful remnant, a company of heart-believers eager to obey God’s word, a true Church whose membership is visible only to God, existing within the containing nation or visible Church here on earth, that is, within the larger company immediately distinguishable by men, who by their common activities and characteristics bear all the proper outward marks and sacramental signs of Church membership p21
That doesn’t change in the New Testament, where the mark of being part of the true church, is now explicitly one of changed hearts, and a relationship with one person: Jesus Christ. The true church is made up of people who are ‘in Christ’. Jesus himself says that he is the vine, and his people are the branches (John 14:4,5), and that they are to remain in him. Stibbs continues:
It is notable that Christ did not say, ‘I am the root; the church is the vine; [you] are the branches. Abide in the Church; then you will be vitally related to Me, and share My life.’ p39
God’s distinctive people are those who are ‘in Christ’: they make up the true church.
A Distinctive Mission
The church has a very particular mission in the world, which makes it stand out from other organisations. Archbishop Willam Temple is often quoted:
The church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of non-members. William Temple
The primary goal and purpose of the church is evangelism:
World-wide evangelism … was from the first, and still is, the chief task of the Chrish militant here on earth, in order that the elect community. which Christ died to redeem, may continually be added to, and ultimately made complete. p70
This is the most important distinctive: a church should be involved in the work of bring individuals to a living faith in Christ, and so be brought into the membership of the true church.
Stibbs wants the reader to be clear that this is different to being a member of the visible church. It is possible to be a member of the visible church—attending church, participating in the Lord’s supper, being baptised—yet not be part of the true church (p86). The Articles of Religion put it quite strongly:
ALTHOUGH in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments
Some of those to be brought into a living faith are already within the walls of the building, part of the visible church, but not yet part of the true church. Some are outside, still to hear and believe. The church’s distinctive mission, that only she can carry out, is to evangelise.
But what about board games?
Does that mean that all the church should do is to evangelise? Should every event, every conversation, every publication be about evangelism and nothing else? Stibbs asks is this way:
Should the church run whist drives, or dramatics, and allow dancing? Or should it concentrate on Bible study, prayer meetings, doctrinal and ethical teaching and discussion, active evangelism and practical ministry to those in need? p100
Should the church hold events simply to grow and create community? Is it OK to have an event that isn’t explicitly evangelistic? I think the answer is yes, and I see a few reasons for it.
The heathen were wont to exclaim with astonishment: ‘Behold how these Christians love one another, and how they are ready to die for one another.’ Turtullian
First, the church is a community of people that is intended to be attractive—those outside the church should see something that they like. Part of that is the creation and development of a church community that know each other and care for each other.
Second, inviting people to meet Christians, or to cross the threshold of the building is an evangelistic step. Christians are those ‘in Christ’, but are also a group of people who are part of a community together. When someone becomes a Christian, they also become part of that community. Is the community one that they want to be part of?
That feels like a bigger question.