The previous entry covers the meaning of “church.” If you have not read that entry or heard that sermon it is foundation to this entry!
The New Testament is not particularly detailed about the specifics or mechanics of the gathering if believers. But are some minimum aspects or marks of a local church.
First your must have a specific group of people. That should ould seem obvious, but I have met many who feel watching Charles Stanley is same as being part of church – not true. If the meaning of church in the New Testament is a gathering of called out people, then there has to be some people!
Saying a specific group is NOT the same as the way we use the term membership. There are people who are part of our specific group who are not formal members and there are sometimes people on the formal membership rolls that are not really part of our group because they do not fellowship with us regularly or at all!
One way to understand this is the New Testament metaphor “Body.” The parts of a body are CONNECTED – if I remove your arm it is not part of your body anymore! We see this in how modern churches have lost a lot of community – we will talk more about this in few weeks when we talk about fellowship, but you cannot have real fellowship without a specific group of people committed to one another, joined as in a body!
Hebrews 10:24-25 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The word the writer of Hebrews here uses for “assembling” is the verb form of ecclesia, the word for church! This passage could read “not forsaking our own churching together…”
Another reason we must have a specific group of people is how the New Testament has many “One another’s.” We cannot do these unless we are with a group of people. It is like the difference between watching and playing golf!
For these people to meet and interact and serve one another it then only makes sense that they have a Specific location.
Local churches in the New Testament are often identified by location (Church in house, Smyrna, etc).
Again we cannot experience New Testament community and fellowship and service and “one anothers” over the internet, or on TV. We have to be able to get face to face.
For example, 1 Pet 4:9 says to “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” Pretty tough to do if you are in San Diego and I am in Cedar Falls! The New Testament location limited by how far could walk – thus lots of “house churches.” I would argue that now we are limited by driving distance, but group of people have to get together someplace to execute the functions of a church! We cannot worship, serve, etc. over the internet.
Now our meeting together cannot be sporadic, or one time! A Local Church is people who meet regularly.
The early church always met on the “First day of week” which for them was Sunday (in practice for us Monday is, but Sunday was the day after Sabbath for Jews, and thus 1st day).
Only 2 places in Scripture actually reference this:
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.
This tradition likely developed because Jesus rose on the 1st day of week, but it does not seem to be a clear command of Scripture (I used to think it was). In Revelation 1 John talks about receiving his prophecy on the Lord’s Day, which the Church Fathers tell us became the designation by the late 1st century for Sunday when the believers met for corporate worship and Communion, and it was clearly settled by the 2ndCE (Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, 1. 67). Whatever day, clearly to obey Heb 10:24-25 we need to get together regularly!
The next thing all local churches must have is Leadership. According to Ephesians 2:20 Christ is ultimate head of Church (Univ. & local), but from day 1 that leadership was delegated through people. I will speak much more in depth about Christ as the head of the church next sermon!
Right away in Acts we see Peter take charge, and in Acts 15 when questions arise the apostles in Jerusalem call a council to make a decision.
In Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appoint elders in all the churches they founded. In Titus 1:5 he instructs Titus to do the same in Crete.
1 Tim 3 / Titus 1 give some guidelines for elders and deacons, but their function really is born out of 1 Peter 5:
1 Peter 5:1-4 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
The function of elders is shepherding and oversight of the flock, as under-shepherds to the Chief Shepherd who is Jesus of course. Unfortunately in most churches elders more like trustees of the building with the spiritual shepherding a sideline. Most shepherding is left to the pastor, who is really just an elder who specializes in teaching. And some churches have deacons who function really as elders, even though in the New Testament they are different.
In fact in the whole New Testament “pastor” only occurs once, in Ephesians 4:11. It is the word poimen which in every other place it occurs in the New Testament is translated shepherd!
Beyond that the Bible says almost nothing about how a church should be run as far as practical matters. Does that surprise you? I believe it gives cultural flexibility to the local church. Some will choose elders by voting, some by other means. Some local churches will have many elders, some only a few. Some will pay a specific pastor, some will just rotate the elders through the teaching ministry.
For a church to truly be a church, its people must be Joined together by true gospel.
What is center of the specific group in specific place under leadership? The gospel of Jesus Christ! If Spirit baptizes us into the church (1 Cor 12:13) then only way for that to happen is through someone becoming saved in first place which means gospel is the message of any true church.
If a group of people do not believe the gospel message as presented in the New Testament they are simply not a church (thus Mormons for example are NOT another denomination of Christian despite their PR campaign)
The baseline for all churches is that all people are sinners and Jesus Christ is God who came and took on flesh to live among us and die on the cross as our payment for sins. On the 3rd day after being buried He rose from the dead. Everyone who puts their faith in His death and resurrection as the only payment for their sin is given eternal life.
If a church believes something else, it is not a church.
Once the baseline of the gospel of JC is established a true church must be Built on foundation of apostles and prophets (God’s Word).
The same passage Ephesians 2:20 that talks about Christ as the Head of the Church talks about the church also be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets – the record of that foundation is the Bible.
The Bible is our only objective basis for faith and practice and next week we will develop this thought more fully.
One thing every church does in some way is Performs the Ordinances. Every church, whether they call them sacraments or ordinances has as a minimum baptism and communion (some have many others) as the regular acts that Jesus instructed us to perform.
Baptism is a visible act to publicly proclaim ones faith. It needs to be public! That is why we normally baptize under authority of church. Now someone could be baptized while on vacation by their uncle, but since no one had vetted their confession of faith and there was no public aspect to the baptism it is unlikely any church would accept that (and every church requires baptism for full membership). Now that is not to say their baptism was not valid! I am simply saying that I know of no churches that would accept that persons baptism because it was not publically witnessed under the authority of a church.
For the New Testament church, the center of the worship service was the Lord’s Table. Little is said about this in the New Testament (only 1 Cor 11. Acts 2:42 and Acts 20:7 even mention it besides when Jesus institutes it in gospels, but from those passages we can gather they took part when they came together on the 1st day of week). Now there is nothing in the New Testament that RESTRICTS the Lord’s Supper to only the local church, but since the book of Acts it is something that every church does regularly!
Finally a local church must have some Specific Doctrinal boundaries. Doctrine is like a fence. We have to define our foundational beliefs about spiritual things. At some point each local church has to decide what are the absolute essential s of fellowship and what things are so divisive or against our interpretation of the Bible that they are tests of who we will agree to have as part of ourfellowship.
It was likely easier for the early New Testament church because they had Paul, Peter, James and rest right there! In fact many of the letters are written in order to explain certain foundational things, and while they are hard sometimes for us to understand were probably a good deal clearer to the original readers!
But that was 2000 years and a couple different languages and cultures ago! So first the church developed creeds (confessional statements of belief, like Apostle’s Creed, etc.), then Confessions and Catechisms. Typically today we have Doctrinal Statements. These are the fences.
For example, our Doctrinal Statement makes it clear that we believe Jesus will return someday. However, we do not consider the timing of that return a test of fellowship. You can believe He comes before Tribulation, after the Tribulation, that there is no Tribulation, or whatever, as long as you believe Jesus will return someday!
Now next time we will talk about Christ as the Head of the Church and its foundations upon the Apostles and Prophets. But until then, consider that at minimum a local church must be a specific group of people meeting at a specific location who meet regularly under Biblical leadership joined together by the gospel of Jesus Christ, built on the Word of God, and performing the ordinances together, defined by a minimum set of foundational beliefs.
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