I have not blogged on the topic of Christian community for a long time. That doesn’t mean I’ve left the topic behind. In the last couple of years just about everything in my life has been in major transition. It has not been possible to keep every project rolling forward.
I have a long-term book project on Christian community. Specifically I’m looking at movements of the past that have approached Christian community in creative ways. They shaped their life on the Gospel and that catalyzed an outsized impact on the world around them.
But recently I’ve continued to ponder a more essential question: the core identity of the Church. What does it mean to be the authentic Church?
In our time, at least in my Protestant world, people look for innovative ways to “do church.”
I think before we innovate too hard we should make sure we know we “are Church.”
Failing to think hard about what is and isn’t authentically the Church sometimes has ludicrous consequences.
Such as when, decades ago, Evangelical pop singer Keith Green argued that the Catholic Church (the largest single portion of Christianity) was a “cult.”
(He eventually thought better of it. As a result you can still find Evangelicals blogging about how he sold out, endangering his salvation.)
Similarly this year Evangelical radio’s “Bible Answer Man” Hank Hanegraaff joined the Orthodox Church. That inspired a fire-storm of Evangelicals claiming that the Orthodox Church (the second-largest, and the most ancient and continuous form of Christianity) was a “cult.”
(I’ll let you Google the nasty blog posts for yourself.)
This kind of thing is rather silly.
Rather than jumping into the fray, either to pass judgment on Christian groups or to re-invent the Church all over again out of my own imagination, I think it is worth spending some time on what makes the Church the Church.
Why the Church?
I suppose in our era one has to start by asking why one should actually care about the Church. In our culture, and especially in our generation, participation in the life of a congregation is seen as completely optional. We have given in to individualism as an ideal, and made the church, in the term of the sociologists, a “voluntary society.”
We favor Christianity as a “personal relationship with Jesus.” And if it is solely personal, there is no need for the Church.
But in Scripture, that personal relationship happens within a corporate relationship — the Church.
The Church is not a late-breaking post-apostolic addition to the Christian agenda, a power-grab of the Christianized Roman Empire.
You find Jesus stating that he intends to build his Church when Peter declares his faith (Matt. 16:18). The Church comes up a lot in Matthew’s Gospel, in Luke’s book of Acts, throughout the epistles of Paul, James, Peter and John, and throughout the book of Revelation.
The Church is a given. I’m not going to exegete it. But nobody should deny it.
What makes for “Authentic Church”?
So what makes our particular gathering of Christians authentically “Church?” A useful question as my denomination, slowly but steadily declining in membership through attrition and schism, is in the midst of a long push to create “1001 New Worshipping Communities.”
Do we simply re-invent the Church in ways we find more relevant or interesting? Should we? Can we?
A while back I worked through four classic markers of vital Christian community from the second chapter of Acts: that first enormous flourishing of the followers of the Way of the risen Christ was marked by its constant attention to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.
Fast forward three centuries, to the era when Christian leaders from across the Roman Empire were gathering in Councils to solve vexing and divisive questions and you find another list of four.
In the Nicene Creed, Christians East and West strongly and regularly affirm that the Church in which they believe is
one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
So I’m going to take those descriptors one by one in coming weeks. I hope you’ll join me in the journey.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. If someone asked you “What makes your church authentically the Church?” what would be the first thing to come to mind?
This should be a very interesting series.
As an Orthodox Christian, I, obviously, have particular views on the definition of “one, holy, and catholic” that I know are not shared by some of my other Christian brothers and sisters.
I look forward to seeing more posts!
Thanks Fr. Dustin — I look forward to hearing your thoughts as the posts roll out.
After moving to NYC, it took many months to find a church home. We came across a lot of social clubs with stained glass windows and organs. Some even had a spiritual theme going on. And nice choirs. But not lot of grappling with what it means to follow Christ. The church we did join had many new Christians, and the growth was exciting.
Thanks Lisa! Great to hear from you. Have you moved to NYC???
That sense of “grappling with what it means to follow Christ” is a great marker of vitality, isn’t it?
I will be interested in future blog posts.
For some people, the “authentic” church is measured by what appears to be a very subjective standard: Whether it “feels” as if the Holy Spirit is present and active.
This standard is easily criticized (maybe too easily) as potentially self-deceiving. It certainly is not adequate to distinguish “the true church” from “the false church.” But comments like this indicate that at least some people are starved for a deeper affective experience.
Also those who want to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit have the biblical backing of John 4:23 behind them. (A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth.)
Thanks Gary & Steven. The need for participation in a congregation to move us at a deep level seems crucial — many will not hang in there for the long run if that is not there at the beginning. I wonder if and how it can be there consistently over the long haul.
At some point one has to distinguish between “feeling” the Spirit and the promise of the Spirit being present whether we feel anything or not.
And whether the John 4:23 text is referring to the Holy Spirit, or about a combination of factors within the worshipper — that is, whether Jesus might mean that true worshippers worship in ways that are true, connected to theology that is true to what God has revealed, AND true worshippers will worship with their spirit fully engaged, not superficial or merely formally present.
Like some of the others who have already posted, I am looking forward to your future posts. This first one has made me realize I have defaulted to Calvin’s view that the church is where the Word is purely preached and received and the sacraments are rightly administered without fully unpacking what that all means. I am looking forward to your insights on this topic and expect God will use your posts to stretch my thoughts.
Thanks Steven. I’m grateful for your interest, and hope you’ll share your thoughts as the posts come out.
Very thought provoking post and question. For me, what makes my church “authentically” Christian is the common desire among members to come together as Christ’s body to try to follow His calling of loving and caring for each other and worshipping together to fuel us and fill us to be able to take that energy out into the world as His hands and feet.
I appreciate your informed comments on “the Church,” Gary. …especially regarding the Church as a collective organization, or institution–related to but an extension of our individual “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ. One direction or ministry that I hope and pray for the Church to focus on more is that of justice for victims of crime AND for the criminal offenders who are serving time in prisons. I THANK YOU for encouraging me to develop a weblog to explore my concerns. You and your readers can now join me at
https://criminologytheologyconnection.com