Time For A Standard Church

ISN'T IT TIME YOU HAD A STANDARD CHURCH FOR YOUR BIBLE?

 

      “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”  1 Cor 12:13 (NKJV)  And in the Book of Acts the Holy Spirit fills the ONE BODY.

 

      “Don’t you want to be sure you belong to the true church?”  Two JWs stood at my door.  “I was baptized into Christ,” I answered, “and the Lord added me to His church.  I am sure He did not add me to the wrong one.”

 

      Campbell objected to the word “church” because he said it had too much baggage.  He preferred to use “congregation” in his Living Oracles Version.  Use “congregation” in your favorite quotations and see whether this makes a difference in how you understand them.  Or use the word “kingdom.”  Someone said: “How I Learned to Stop Being Religious So I Could Follow Jesus.”  Jesus Himself said: “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”  The Bible defines “church” as: family, flock, body, fellowship.  Note Paul in Eph. 2:19-22.  The Congregation of the faithful is a holy spiritual temple where God Himself dwells.

 

      An English writer of the 19th century wrote: "The whole world is a temple and man is everywhere a worshiper."  This accords with the "living sacrifice" which Paul speaks about in Romans 12.  We worship God with purity and holiness and good works and especially love.  This extends throughout our entire life.

 

      Could there be a “standard church” just like McDee has a standard format for their fast food restaurants?  Daniel Sommer at Sand Creek attempted to standardize the church of Christ as he knew it.  He published a Rough Draft which he expected all to rally around.  But things were not as he hoped.  He is reported to have said in frustration: “The New Testament is the Book we divide over.”

 

      The question really is: “Can I find a church like the one I remember from my childhood?”  This writer remembers a small church in Columbus, Ohio, that has not been there for many years.  It was replaced by a Disciples Church.  The small church was rural in nature, even though in the city.  The Disciples Church was city-oriented.  The small church had a series of preachers who kept things Just Like They Were.  Then a new preacher came who Thought Big.  There was some difference in doctrine, yet basically the emphasis was on Jesus and the gospel.  But they Did Things and as population grew in the Columbus area, so did they!  To several hundreds!  [If preaching the truth means we will continue to be small - what about the Jerusalem Church?  They baptized thousands!]

 

      To ask this question about a "standard church" is to set the parameters of the answer.  The Roman Catholic Church to some extent grew out of a wish to produce a standard church which would be exactly the same everywhere.    Centralized authority ensured that each (local) Church would reproduce the matrix-pattern: Latin language; Latin Vulgate Bible; fixed liturgy of worship; priests trained and certified by Authority.  But even this eventually has had to change.  The charismatic movement has changed even the Catholic Church.

 

      The Old Testament does not describe just how worship was done under The Law (even though mention is made of certain things done).   The New Testament does not describe in detail a worship-service under the Gospel.  Certainly we may infer - and conjecture - what things were done, but not all the minutiae of the manner in which these were carried out.  And certainly Jew and Gentile did the same things "differently."  Note the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15.

 

      But Christians are commanded to meet together as a worship-community. "Don't give up the habit of meeting for worship."  And even during times of severe persecution Christians met in secret as a group to worship their Lord and Savior.  Some disparage the "institutional church," yet we see the great churches at Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, etc.  Both blessings for the individual Christian and a pooling of energies and abilities exist only in the Institutional Church.  Note Paul in 1 Corinthians 12.

 

      But all this omits the one factor common to each local church - The Holy Spirit.  "...that He may abide with you forever."  "...but to wait for the Promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you have heard from Me.'" "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"  “But you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’”  “Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses.”

 

      Jesus said in John 4:14, "But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  Note the inspired explanation of what Jesus is saying, in John 7:37-39.  It surely cannot be right to denigrate grace, depersonalize The Holy Spirit, and fail to elevate JESUS in our lives and worship.

 

      A good case can be made for the fact that it is the presence of The Holy Spirit who "standardizes" the church   The Book of Acts could be spoken of as the "Acts of The Holy Spirit."  God indwells the church (The Congregation of the Saved) by The Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22).  God indwells each Christian by The Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 3:6,18).  It isn't necessary that we become "Pentecostal" in what we do.  But to "DENY" The Holy Spirit places us on dangerous ground.  [Few would admit to denying The Spirit.  But what are we doing?  We should look carefully.]

 

      Someone has written about Christian believers and worship:

"Without The Holy Spirit, God is far away,

Christ stays in the past,

The Gospel is a dead letter,

The Church is simply an organization,

Authority is a matter of domination,

Evangelism is a matter of propaganda,

Worship is no more than an evocation of an absent deity,

Christian living is only a slave morality."

 

      WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT PRESENT, ALL THIS CHANGES!!!

The Cosmos is resurrected and groans with the birth-pangs of the Kingdom (Romans 8:18-23).

The Risen Christ is there.

The Gospel is the power of life.

The Church shows forth the life of the Trinity.

Authority is a liberating service (cf. Luke 22:25-26).

Propagation of the Faith is a "Pentecost."

Worship-service is both memorial and anticipation.

Human action becomes "in the image of God."

 

      Consider the following which I have adapted from a letter.

      "I had been a member of the church of Christ for 48 years and was about as strict a Bible-Christian as anyone could be.  I never missed Worship and was there every time the "church" met.  Then I discovered through the Holy Spirit that what I had been trying to do for 48 years by works and service to the church of Christ had already been done 2,000 years ago at Calvary. At that moment I knew the only way to heaven was through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  As I tried to share this truth with others, I got a severe lecture from the preacher.  He said I could not get to heaven by grace but had to work out my salvation through the Church of Christ.  Sadly and reluctantly I was forced to leave.  It was so strange being both in the 'Lord's Church' and on the verge of being kicked out because of my belief in salvation through grace as Paul taught."

 

      “It is the supreme discovery of life that we need not punish ourselves in a hopeless effort to earn God’s forgiveness.  It is freely offered to all. We must gladly accept His gift of love on the terms offered.  A grateful heart will make the best effort to please Him.  No longer do we as criminals seek by our own strength to escape our chains, rather as faithful children we do our best to please our loving Father.”  JHW in “Saved by grace through faith.”

 

      What Jesus taught is not the normal human way of looking at things. God The Father deals with us as we deal with our children.  Not punishment in the sense of revenge.  But chastisement to protect and mature.  God's response to the prodigal who brings himself back is to receive him home! Note what Paul said in Philippians 3:8-11.  The righteousness that is given through faith in Christ!  "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  We sing: “Trust and obey, For there’s no other way.”

 

      The average person is "soft" on forgiveness.  They cannot believe that God forgives sins.  Note this from one of our brothers in Romania. "In general Romanians do not trust each other, prompted by their communist experience. Associated with this is the difficulty of believing in God's grace.  To them, the older brother in Luke 15 is a hero and the father was inexcusably unfair in receiving the prodigal back."

 

      The "older brother" was loved and accepted by the father.  Yet the older brother had problems with the "grace" extended to the prodigal.  Perhaps he felt no need of grace for himself.  He had works and faithfulness!  Yet his acceptance by the father also involved his own acceptance of the returned prodigal.  Note 1 John 4:20.  "...for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"  Our own love of God is circumscribed by our love for our "brother."

 

      This from some Sci-Fi things I borrowed and rewrote.  Note this is a parody but also a parable. 

 

      What might a standard church be like?  Would there be a three-ring manual giving exact details of all the services down to the smallest detail?  Would all the churches (buildings) be clones of the pattern?  Sci-Fi writers ask what if a brotherhood of churches were set up as a franchise, much like the Fast Food Industry does.

 

      The entrance room of First Church is, of course, just like all the others in the franchise.  A picture of Evangelist Brother Billy-Bob is placed so you will see it as you enter.  A stylized picture of Jesus receives the emphasis.  A counter sits to one side, done up in fake wood so it looks like something from an old church. Behind the counter, an elderly lady sits, a flimsy sort of choir robe thrown over her shoulders.

 

There's a little rack along the front of the counter bearing gospel tracts, free for the taking, donation requested. The lady types some stuff into the computer. The worshiper snaps her Visa © card down on the fake wood counter top; it sounds like a rifle shot. The lady pries the card up, then she swipes the card through its electromagnetic slot with a carefully modulated sweep of the arm, as though tearing back a veil, hands over the slip, mumbling that she needs a signature and daytime phone number.  Since cash and checks are no longer used, the collection must be taken up before the service.  (We are to “lay by in store.”).

 

Then it just remains for the “Word from On High.” But computers and communications are awfully good these days, and it usually doesn't take longer than a couple of seconds to perform a charge-card verification. The little machine beeps out its approval code. "Thank you for your donation," the lady says, slurring the words together into a single syllable.

 

The worshipper hurried toward the double doors. The song leader had already walked to his place to convene the service. The interior of the church is weirdly colored.  Fluorescent fixtures are wedged into the ceiling.  Large colored light boxes simulate stained-glass windows. The largest of these, shaped like a fattened Gothic arch, is bolted to the back wall, above the pulpit, and features a waterfall pouring into a river basin.  The baptistery is placed beneath this.  The song leader announces the first number and the singing begins.

 

       Again, this is both a parody and a parable.  It is the worshipper who is being served and involved.  We NEED fellowship (koinonia), sharing and intimacy, in whatever form we choose.  “Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise. 24 Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. 25 Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.”  Heb 10:23-25 (TEV)

      But what is the church?  Campbell disliked the word church, because, he said, there were too many unreal ideas attached to it.  In his “Living Oracles Version” he used the word congregation.  The church is people.

 

      “As Jesus was going to the district of Cesarea Philippa, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is? They answered, Some say, John the Immerser; others, Elijah; others, Jeremiah, or one of the Prophets. But who, returned he, do you say that I am? Simon Peter answering, said, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus replying, said to him, Happy are you, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I tell you, likewise, you are named Stone [Peter]; and on this rock I will build my congregation, over which the gates of Hades shall not prevail. Moreover, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you shall bind on the earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you shall loose on the earth, shall be loosed in heaven.”  Matt. 16:13-19 Living Oracles Version – A. Campbell

 

      Jesus preached: “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  If you will substitute the word kingdom for church, you will find you cannot say some things.  And Paul the Apostle wrote: “who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his beloved Son: by whom we have redemption, even the remission of sins.”  Col. 1:13 Living Oracles Version – A. Campbell

 

      The Lord will judge us all.  I will continue to preach as Peter did in Acts 2:38, and I will sing with the Spirit and sing with the understanding.  I will continue to baptize as Peter did, and tell "seekers" just what he told them.  And I will continue to pray for every one of my brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere.  "The Lord knows those who are His."