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WHAT IS A CHURCH?
- by Robert Fitts
The original word in Greek, ecclesia, is composed of two words: ek, meaning, "out of" and kalleo, meaning, "I call." The meaning of church according to the original word is, "I call out from." When Jesus said, "I will build my church." He was saying, "I will call my people out of the world and they will assemble in my name, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them." This implies that his called out people will rally as an army to take the world for him and the enemy will not be able to stop the advance. This invincible army will be motivated by the love of God within their hearts and a message of love and forgiveness on their lips.
Actually ecclesia has two meanings: that of being called out and that of being assembled together. We cannot experience church until we come together. My wife and I are one even when we are separated from each other by many miles. But we do not experience the full benefits and blessings of our marriage union until we are together. Even so, you and every other believer in your city constitute the church in that city, even when you are not assembled. But we cannot receive the benefits and blessings of church until we assemble together. This, of course, does not mean that we all have to be in the same place at the same time. That will probably never happen in any city.
NOT A RELIGIOUS WORD
I was amazed and delighted recently to discover that the word "ecclesia" in the New Testament was not a religious word at all. I was reading through the nineteenth chapter of Acts where the apostle, Paul, was threatened by an angry mob who wanted to kill him. The writer uses several different words to describe this mob: "the whole city", "the people", "the crowd", and three times he uses the word, "assembly",
"The assembly was in confusion; Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there . . . The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: 'Men of Ephesus . . . if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls . . . If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly . . . After he said this he dismissed the assembly. (see Acts 19:28-41)
The remarkable thing about the above passage is that the word assembly in the original language is ecclesia, which is the word we always translate, "church." So Jesus used a common word when he said, "I will build my church." It was not a religious word. It simply meant a called out group, or crowd, or fellowship, or assembly. So we can use the word church when it communicates what we are saying, but we can also use the word fellowship, or gathering, or brethren, or saints, or disciples. It simply means a group of people.
"PEOPLE MOVING TOGETHER"
John Dawson, in his book, TAKING OUR CITIES FOR GOD, said,
"There is no absolute model for what a local church should be. I once spent an afternoon with over one hundred spiritual leaders from several denominations. We tried to come up with a universal definition of a biblical local church. You may think that it was an easy task, but if you consider all the cultures and circumstances of people on the earth and you examine the diversity of models in the Bible, you will begin to understand our frustration. After many hours of discussion, we had produced many good models, but no absolute definition other than `people moving together under the lordship of Jesus.'"
I like the definition, but I really believe the Lord has given us a very good definition of what a local church is as well as what the universal church is. It is found in Ephesians 1:22-23.
"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
Throughout the New Testament both the local church and the universal church is called "the church." The local body, no matter how small or how large is called "the church" and the whole worldwide Body of Christ is also called "the church." The church is Jesus' body whether it is gathered or scattered. This simply means that wherever there is a group of Christians gathered, there is the church.
I was born and raised in Texas. At Christmas time we would go out into the country and cut our own Christmas tree. It was a Christmas tree the minute we cut it and took it to the house. We would then put a stand on it and decorate it with a whole lot of little ornaments to make the tree look bright and festive, but if we had shaken all the ornaments off, it would still have been your basic Christmas tree.
If God were to shake everything loose until there was nothing left but a simple, basic New Testament church, what would we have left? In other words, if I take away all the "extras" and the non-essentials and cut away all the "frills" from what I understand to be church, what would remain? It is our purpose in this chapter to answer that question. But first let's examine the word "parachurch."
WHAT IS PARACHURCH?
Recently I read a book that sought to explain the nature of the church. Under the title, WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH TO OTHER PARACHURCH ORGANIZATIONS, the author made the following observation:
"The Bible is clear that it is through the vehicle, or instrument, of the church that God is going to accomplish His great purpose. However, because the Church has not always been what it was supposed to be, many have become discouraged with the Church's ability to meet certain obvious needs. For this reason, caring and concerned individuals have, over the years, established missionary societies, orphanages, Christian businessmen's organizations and other like institutions to meet these pressing needs. As God continues to restore and strengthen His Church, the need for these organizations will diminish and the church will be ministering to these needs"
It is obvious in the above quote that the writer felt strongly that "parachurch" is not church and that something less than church had come along to meet certain needs until the real church could be healed or awakened to do
the work it ought to be doing. This is an example of the error of thinking that if it doesn't look like church it isn't church. The fact is that when a "parachurch", organization is made up of born-again believers in Jesus who are come together to serve and worship him, it is not "parachurch," it is church!
CHURCH IS PEOPLE. It is not organization, institution or denomination. It would be difficult to find a true "parachurch" organization. For if it were composed of Christians, it would not be "parachurch"; It would be CHURCH, GOD'S CALLED OUT PEOPLE! Even if some members were not born again, it would still be church, for what church is there without some unsaved people in attendance?
A few years ago I had the same idea about parachurch. In my teaching ministry l would often say, "If the church was doing what it ought to be doing, we wouldn't need all these parachurch organizations." It never once occurred to me that these "parachurch" people were the people of God and that they were just as much the church, moving under the Lordship of Jesus, as we were, even though the building they met in was not shaped like ours.
Our oldest son has been a member of a well-known "parachurch" organization for many years. They are doing an outstanding job in missions and evangelism, and growing like crazy all over the world. A few years ago while we were discussing his future and his association with this particular organization, I shared that I had some serious misgivings about the organization because it was not a church, but a "parachurch" organization. He seemed apologetic and agreed with me fully that what he and others were doing in that organization, though it was being wonderfully blessed of God, was still not what God wanted because it was not happening through a church, but rather through a parachurch." (He was also confused about church and parachurch.)
A day or two later I was driving along thinking about our conversation when I felt the Lord gently asked me: "what is it that makes an organization a church?" As I tried to answer that question, I felt God gave me a revelation. I had never before seen so clearly as I did in that moment of time that an organization is not a church because it has a certain shaped building that people call a church; It is not a church because it has been duly certified by the federal government as a church; It is not a church because it has been recognized by a denominational headquarters as a church; It is not a church because it has regular Sunday morning services and practices baptism and the Lord's Supper; It is not a church because it meets on a regular basis or in a particular location. IT IS CHURCH SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS GOD'S CALLED OUT PEOPLE MOVING TOGETHER UNDER THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS.
Alfred Kuen, in his book I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH published by Moody Press in 1971, says on page 51, under the heading, WHEN IS A LOCAL CHURCH A CHURCH?
"It is easy to get bogged down with peripheral issues and questions. And there does not seem to be a clear-cut way to define a local church.
"For example, is it when you have a constitution and regular meetings? Is it when you have baptized believers who partake regularly of the Lord's Supper? Is it when you have church officers, such as elders and deacons? Should numerous norms be present in order to have a local church? It certainly does not include a certain level of maturity: for the Corinthians were yet carnal but Paul called them a church. Further, it does not seem necessary to have spiritual leaders before you call a body of believers a church, for it is clearly implied that groups of believers throughout Lystra, Iconium and Antioch were called churches even before elders were appointed (Acts14:21-22).
"When, then, can a body of believers be called a church? I personally tend toward a simple definition: a body of believers can be called a church whenever that group meets together regularly for mutual edification.
Jesus said, in the context of talking about church discipline, `For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' (Matt. 18.20 KJV). And it is clear what Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, felt Jesus meant, for he said: "Where there are two or three believers, even laymen, there is a church.'"
Jim Montgomery, in his book, DAWN 2000-SEVEN MILLION CHURCHES TO GO, says, concerning the question, What is a church?
"I'm impressed with how a group of Christians faced this most fundamental question in China: They said, `Concerning [this] question, many older Christians said that they could not predict the future form of Chinese churches. So they turned to the Bible for an answer. They found in the Bible that the house-church form was a legitimate church . . . we found a book by Wang Ming-Dao [perhaps the most highly respected believer in China who languished in jail for more than 20 years] on the institution of the church. He held that where there were Christians, there was a church.
We were happy about this. We assumed that, although our group consisted of only a few people, we actually were a church, and our head was Jesus.'"
Where there are Christians, there is a church,' is a profound definition, coming from a Church growing rapidly and laboring under the most difficult of circumstance."
A CONGREGATION OF BELIEVERS IS A CHURCH
A few months ago I was teaching a small group of believers in the village of La Rumurosa in Old Mexico. I was explaining Matthew 18:20. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.". A word in the Spanish language translation of that verse leaped out at me. I had not seen it before. It says, "Donde hay dos o tres congregados en mi nombre, alli estoy en medio de ellos." "Where two or three are CONGREGATED in my name, there am I in the midst of them." I asked the group, "According to this verse, how many does it take to make a congregation?" As I waited for them to answer, I was struck with the weight of the answer that was forming in my own mind. Two or three is all it takes to make a congregation and a congregation of believers with Jesus in the midst is church! Not just two or three people, but two or three who are called by his name, because they belong to him.
JESUS IN THE MIDST
"Jesus within" is the experience of the individual in his own private walk with the Lord. "Jesus in the midst" is the church mode. It is Jesus walking among us, touching us, speaking to us through the gifts of the Spirit flowing through the members of his Body, the church. "Jesus in the midst," is the corporate experience. "Jesus within" is the private experience."
When two or three born-again believers come together in His name, Jesus is IN THE MIDST. Jesus in the midst is CHURCH! It is a different experience than Jesus within. We cannot experience Jesus in the midst while we are alone. We can only experience Jesus in the midst when we are in company with others-- at least one or two others who are called by his name!
But is it a church in the fullest sense of the word? Yes, it is church in the fullest sense of the word. It is the basic church. You can have more than two or three and it is still church, church in the fullest sense, but it does not become more church because there are more than two or three. It only becomes a bigger church.
THE ROLE OF CHURCH LEADERS
But what about pastors, deacons, teachers, apostles, evangelists, and bishops? Is it church without these being present? Yes, it is church, even without all of the above. The fourth chapter of Ephesians says that the Lord gave to the church all these ministries, but He gave these gifts to "the church" which was already in existence.
When Paul went out on his first missionary journey, he established churches in four cities. On his way back to Antioch, he ordained elders for those churches. This indicates that the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the book of Acts, knew they were churches before leadership was appointed. He also wants us to know that. Consider the following:
" They returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed." (Acts 14:21-23)
The elders were added to the churches (disciples). Disciples were people called by God out of darkness into light are The Church! The writer uses the words "disciples" and "church" interchangeably.
Paul felt it safe to leave these newly formed churches in the hands of the Lord on whom the people had believed. This is a key statement. We who are placed into leadership have taken too much upon ourselves in assuming that the church cannot function without our constant "watch care" over the flock. A bishop is an overseer and a feeder and functions as a father or a nurse to his children, but there is a limit to our spiritual oversight which we have too often violated. The major violation by church leaders in our day is that we have almost completely taken the initiative away from the people and have invested it into a "professional" clergy.
THEN WHAT IS A CHURCH?
If we take away all the non-essentials, we would have Jesus and at least two people who have come together in His name; two people who have been born again meeting together anywhere, at anytime to acknowledge and honor his presence is church at its simplest, most basic, most informal level. This, of course, does not mean that this essential level is where the Lord wants us to operate all the time. Praise God for larger groups. But let us never lose sight of the basic church. If we do, we will tend to lapse into forms, rituals, ceremonies, religiosity, institutionalism, and legalism.
"WHAT IS THE CHURCH?"
Brother Andrew ("God's Smuggler"--that faithful servant of the persecuted, suffering body of Christ worldwide) tells the following story from his Bible-smuggling days prior to the break-up of the Soviet Union. He tells this story in response to the question, "What is the church?" The story went something like this:
"I was led by the spirit to pack 700 bibles in my Volkswagen in Holland and head 4,000 kilometers to the East to Moscow. Not having a regular 'contact' in mind for this particular delivery, I drove straight to the token 'church' the communists allowed in the heart of Moscow. As the evening progressed in this meeting peppered with KGB agents and communist informers, the Lord highlighted one man sitting by himself in the back of the meeting. He was looking down toward the floor with his head in his hands. Approaching him after the meeting, I introduced myself. I found that his name was Ivan
"'What brings you here tonight, Brother Ivan?' I asked my new-found brother in Christ.
"'Oh,' responded Ivan, in somewhat of a dejected-sounding manner, 'I thought I heard the Lord's voice some days ago, telling me to drive 4,000 kilometers from my home in Siberia. You see, Brother Andrew, I am a part of a church family of 600 members, and we have only one Bible in the entire congregation! I thought I heard the Lord tell me to come here to find Bibles for our church, but now I am beginning to wonder if I know how to hear God's voice at all!'
"I responded with: 'Brother Ivan, have I got a surprise for you!' Whereupon, I reached down and pulled a Russian translation of the Bible out of my left sock! As I dropped that Bible into Ivan's lap, I reached down again and pulled yet another Bible out of my right sock! Then, I drew two Bibles from my back pants pockets, two from my front, and two from my vest pockets! As the Bible's began to pile up on Ivan's lap, Ivan cried out in the shock of belief: 'Brother Andrew, I'm rich!!!' (One such Bible was worth a year's wage on the black market, but you can be assured that Ivan was referring here to spiritual wealth!)
Not as rich as you'll be when I take you to my car and deliver the rest of 700 Bibles to you!' I whispered. "So, what is the church? When the Holy Spirit sends one person from 4,000 kilometers to the west, and another person from 4,000 kilometers to the east, and the two meet by divine ordination at a time and place of the Spirit's coordination to conduct kingdom business, there you have the church! Whenever two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, there you have the church, with Jesus Christ right there in your midst!"
JESUS IS LORD!
Article by:
Robert Fitts
Outreach Fellowship International
26616 Mission St.
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Phone 949-489-9449
Cell 808-371-6338
Web site http://robertfitts.com/
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