Last time we unpacked how the American church has become a place where religious goods and services are sold (click here to read). To cease being a vendor-model church, we must define the church. If we are to change what we are doing, we must start with understanding who we really are.
Of course, defining the church will not automatically change the landscape of any church. Defining the church is a cognitive activity. There also must be affectional change. The church must continually orient its loves around the true story to become more faithful followers of Jesus. However, a proper working definition of who the church is could awaken us to realize what we should be doing. To that end, I offer the following definition.
The Definition of “Church”
The church is the people of God in the overlap of the ages whom the Spirit empowers to be witnesses to Jesus' resurrection.
There are four parts to this definition that I will unpack.
Who: the church is the people of God
When: who exist in the overlap of the ages
How: the Spirit empowers
What: To be witnesses of Jesus' resurrection
1. The Church is the People of God Together.
“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” —Ephesians 3.6
Paul understands the mystery of the church to be the equal footing of Jews and Gentiles in Christ concerning the covenants of promise. There are no second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God. Jews and Gentiles together comprise the church. He says in Ephesians 2 that Jesus' "purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility" (Eph 2.15-16). This new humanity of Jew and Gentile becoming one in Christ is the church. They together demonstrate the wisdom and brilliance of God to all those in the heavenly realms (cf. Eph 3.10).
This means the church is not a time, place, or event. Common vernacular among Christians are questions like the following:
What time is your church?
Where is your church?
What is your church like?
All of these questions betray the fundamental meaning of the church. It implies that we are only the church when we gather together or that an event defines it. We have theological amnesia. The church has forgotten we are the church. Undoubtedly, the church gathers at a place at a specific time and does particular activities. However, that is part of what the church does; it does not define who the church is. Jesus defines the church, and he brings people of all nations and backgrounds together in himself.
Being the Church Shapes Our Identity
All of this is not simply semantics. Words have meaning. They shape the way we view ourselves and the world. In my theological smugness and sarcastic self, when people ask me, 'what time is your church?', I often want to answer with the following: "It is every day!" Or if they ask, "where is your church?', I want to respond with 'it is everywhere I go!' When these questions go unchecked, they reveal a lot about what we think about the church. However, when we ask questions like, 'what time does your church gather on Sunday?', it causes a reorientation around the nature of the church. It causes us to believe that we are the church.
One of the primary implications of how we employ the word 'church,' concerns our identity. When we primarily consider church an event we go to on Sunday, it becomes one of the many activities I undergo on any given week. It does not define my life; it is one of the many aspects of my life. As Americans, we are wicked busy and struggle to find time for all the things we want to accomplish. Church becomes of the elements for which we endeavor to find the time. However, church is not one of the many aspects of your life. Church is the organizing center around which all of life revolves. At the center of your life is you being part of the church. This then impacts how you engage all the other parts of your life. We do not labor to find time for church because we are the church in everything we do, and everywhere we go. You are the church when you go to work, come home to be with your kids, and when you are playing soccer. Church is not one of the various elements of your life; it is the organizing center of your life.
One of the ways to determine which way you perceive church is to ask yourself the following questions:
What is the starting place for your identity? Is it the church? or is it yourself? Do you view yourself as someone who has their own personal walk with Jesus? Or do you consider yourself someone who belongs to the community of God first and does individual activities through the lens of being the church? Paul and the New Testament writers never view Christians in isolation but always as part of the community.
Our identity starts with the community of God. We are a people communally, not individually. I do not deny that we have individual aspects of our Christianity. We all will be individually accountable to God on the last day. We possess unique, individual giftings and roles within the body of Christ. But our Christianity is communal first. We are and belong to the body of Christ.
Paul three times in Ephesians 3.6 highlights this starting place. We are heirs together; we are members together; we are sharers together. Together! We are the church together, not invididually.
To make this switch is difficult. When church is one of the parts of your life, you are still at the center of your life, making all the decisions. You possess the power over your life. You still reserve the right to do what you want to do. Yet, when the church becomes the organizing principle, we lose power over our lives. Our lives become controlled and determined by something outside of ourselves. Americans hate this. And yet the beauty is found in giving up our lives for the sake of Jesus and his mission. We find deep satisfaction and meaning in letting go of the control over our lives and handing it to Jesus and his people.
The Church is a People Gathered Around the New Temple
The Greek word for church is ekklesia, which means "gathering" or "assembly." The term was used in ancient times of local and political assemblies that gathered for a purpose. In the NT, it is used of local congregations of Christians in specific places; it is never used of a building. The church, then, is the people of God who gather, particularly in a specific place. Paul often uses phrases like, “To the church of God in Corinth.”
The question is, what do they gather around? Is the church only the 'church' when they gather together on Sunday?
In the Old Testament, God made a repeated promise to gather all the exiles back to Him. Notice two such passages:
"Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.'”—Ezekiel 11.17
“The Sovereign LORD declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel "I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered."—Isaiah 56:8
These Old Testament promises are now realized in Jesus. The place where Yahweh now gathers his people is in the messiah. The gathering is not back to a physical land or a temple but the messiah, the true temple. The church is the people gathered out of the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light. They gather around Jesus.
When the church gathers physically, it demonstrates what has been done to them in and by Jesus. The church is not just the church when it gathers together, nor does the church service define the church. The church is the people of God who have been gathered to a new temple, God's presence in the person of Jesus.
This was Israel’s mission. They were to draw people to God’s presence manifested in the temple. However, the powers of sin, Satan, and death proved to be too strong over them. Therefore, Jesus had to come as the true Israel and defeat these powers so people from every nation, tribe, and tongue could experience the life and love of God’s presence. He as the true Israel also becomes the new temple where all of God’s people gather.
Next time we will unpack the second aspect of our definition. We will look at the temporal aspect of when the church exists within the overall storyline of God’s missional drama.
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