The Biblical Minimum of Church
Throughout much of my life, I had a specific understanding of church. It was a view shaped mostly by my experience, both positive and negative. But experience can be deceiving. Experience is caught up in the moment and bound by the culture. Experience alone provides a shaky foundation at best. Still, I often find it difficult to detangle my past experience from the reality of Scripture. So I asked myself, “Does my understanding of church cross borders, stay true through time, and encompass every word the Scripture has to say about the Bride of Christ in a simple way?”
During my first few years pursuing multiplying disciples and churches, I felt I could write a book solely about the problems with the “Western church." How did we ever get to this point? How could people not see the gaping holes? It was quite easy to point out the flaws. During one of my rants, a friend asked a simple question that stopped me in my tracks: “What should the church look like?” I didn’t have an answer. How could I be so confident about the problems without knowing a positive alternative? That day began a new journey. It’s a pilgrimage of sorts, a pilgrimage to detangle culture and experience from a scriptural understanding of the church. Though the journey is in no way complete, I invite you to join me to discover God’s vision of His Church.
PART 1: EKKLESIA
The Greek word ekklesia literally means “called out.” In the Roman world, ekklesia was used to refer to an assembly with a common purpose of coming together. One of the most well-known ekklesias was the government assembly in ancient Athens. This was the principal assembly of the democracy of the city. This is the word that we read in Scripture as "church."
However, the word is also used in Scripture to refer to something other than “church.” In Acts 19:23-41, Demetrius the silversmith vigorously opposed Paul in Ephesus. Here, ekklesia refers to a rioting mob and a legal gathering of citizens. In Acts 7:38, we find Stephen giving his famous speech to the Sanhedrin. He uses ekklesia to refer to the Israelites whom God called out of Egypt. Without mentioning additional references to ekklesia in documents outside of Scripture, it’s clear that in the first century, ekklesia was a common term with a cultural definition outside of Christianity.
When Jesus uses the word (Matthew 16:17,18 & Matthew 18:15-17), He is building on a concept familiar to His audience. Over and over, Jesus uses something commonly understood by the masses to describe spiritual realities. When He introduces the notion of the church, He is doing nothing less. In the Roman context, an ekklesia was a group called out of the general population, but they were still citizens of Rome. They simply served a specific purpose for a set period of time. This is where Jesus begins to make a distinction between a physical and spiritual understanding of ekklesia.
Jesus not only calls His disciples out of this world (John 15:19) but, in doing so, He calls us into a new Kingdom – God’s Kingdom. Colossians 1:13 says, "He has rescued us from the Kingdom of Darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.” Once we become part of God's ekklesia, this world and its kingdoms are no longer ours (Matthew 16:24-25, 19:29; Hebrews 11:13).
So what is Jesus saying when He uses the word ekklesia? I propose that Jesus says church (ekklesia) is people called out of the worldly kingdom to be part of God’s Kingdom. Or, more simply, could we define the church this way:
CITIZENS OF GOD’S KINGDOM
Maybe, but that seems a bit too minimal. Does it cross borders? Yes. Does it stay true through time? I think so. Does it encompass all that Scripture has to say about the Bride of Christ? Not yet.
PART 2: CITIZENS
Do you ever find yourself drawn down a rabbit hole? You start doing one thing that leads to another and another and another. This is often the case for me when I go looking for an answer. Our ease of access to information easily sucks me into the tunnel of the internet with no light at its end. I know, I know … self-discipline. It’s a battle I’m fighting. But every now and then, the wandering proves fruitful. On one of my journeys down the rabbit hole, I became fascinated by a single word – demonym. A demonym is the name used for the people from a particular place. For instance, a person from the United States is an American. A person from Japan is Japanese. A person from Birmingham (England) is a Brummie. Here are a few more you might find interesting.
Liverpool (England) = Liverpudlian
Newcastle (England) = Geordie
Denmark = Dane
Monaco = Monegasque
New Zealand = Kiwi
(Watch out for the rabbit hole!)
Citizens of God’s Kingdom
On this particular journey, I started to wonder what the Scripture called citizens of God’s Kingdom. I knew that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11), but the term has been so entangled with Western culture that I wasn’t really sure what Scripture had to say.
While the ekklesia of Athens consisted of a select few Roman citizens, the ekklesia of God encompasses everyone in His Kingdom. If you are a citizen of God’s Kingdom, you are ekklesia. The term becomes synonymous with the people of God. We see this in Scripture many times. Stephen refers to God’s people in Egypt as ekklesia (Acts 7:38). In Matthew 18, when Jesus speaks of confronting sin, He says that a person who will not repent should “be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In other words, he might not be a citizen of God’s Kingdom - ekklesia.
So how do we know who is ekklesia? After Jesus’s disciples return from their journey through Galilee proclaiming God’s Kingdom, they are quite proud of their authority over evil spirits (Luke 10). Yet Jesus warns them of such pride and instructs them to "rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” In other places, Scripture mentions The Lamb’s Book of Life. God tells us that He has a record of His citizens. Still, how do we know who these citizens are now? After all, we are strangers and temporary residents. We are not of this world.
A person traveling in a foreign country must carry a mark of citizenship: a passport. It identifies his citizenship, and, therefore, his rights and benefits. For the citizens of God’s Kingdom, “He has also sealed us and given us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:22). God has marked every citizen of His Kingdom with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is our passport (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30).
Identifying Ekklesia
Still, we can’t see the Holy Spirit. I would love to be able to look into God’s book to find someone’s citizenship or even ask to see a passport, but it doesn’t work that way. Much like the wind, we know the presence of the Spirit only by its effects. Galatians 5:16-26 gives examples of the Spirit’s effects within us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus even says, “They will know that you are my disciples because of your love for one another” (John 13:35). At the same time, we are all constantly growing up in God’s Kingdom and will not always clearly exhibit Kingdom character.
We can also observe the mark of the Spirit through Kingdom characteristics. James 2:14-22 emphasizes the significance of action. There are certain characteristics that God expects of His citizens, and He communicates these in Scripture. Citizens of God’s Kingdom desire to obey His instruction (John 14:15). Again, we are all maturing as citizens, but an explicit unwillingness to obey, especially when confronted by Scripture and others, is a clear sign that a person might not be a citizen of God’s Kingdom.
Finally, we can see the mark of the Spirit on a person by the impact on other people. This result of the Spirit’s work through God’s people is most often referred to as spiritual gifts. Those moments when a person obeys God and the Spirit does something powerful in someone else’s life can reveal their citizenship. When Jesus instructs His disciples to rejoice in their citizenship (Luke 10:20), He recognizes that they are part of God’s Kingdom because of the Spirit’s work through them and encourages them to do the same.
Be Together
If I can only recognize that someone is a citizen of God’s Kingdom by the mark of the Holy Spirit, and this mark can only be seen in Kingdom character, characteristics, and results of the Spirit, then I can only know who is ekklesia by spending time together. In reality, none of these signs, in isolation, can give me assurance that a person is part of God’s Kingdom. Jesus even says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’”
A person who truly has the Spirit will exhibit Kingdom character and characteristics. Others will see the results of the Spirit at some point. If I am never with someone when he obeys the Spirit, then I can’t see the effects on another person’s life. If I don’t spend time with a person, I can’t know how he responds to difficult circumstances. If I am not regularly present with a person, I can’t know that he is obeying God’s instruction in Scripture.
In God’s ekklesia, time together is paramount. We cannot know who is ekklesia if we are not together. We cannot show others that we have love for one another if we are not together. We cannot follow God’s instruction for church discipline if we are not together. All instruction in Scripture to the church hinges on physical communities: people in relationship with people. So, our understanding of church (ekklesia) cannot be solely “citizens of God’s Kingdom." We must expand our definition.
THE CHURCH IS CITIZENS OF GOD’S KINGDOM COMMITTED TO ONE ANOTHER.
What do you think? There still seems to be something missing.
PART 3: PURPOSE
Purpose has been a buzzword in the Western world for some time now. I cut my teeth in “church ministry” at the height of the Purpose Driven movement. I have seen church leaders approach the question of purpose from multiple points of view, but they most often fall into one of two categories. For the first group, the pursuit of purpose focuses on the people involved in “the church.” In such cases, several common questions are asked: “What are we good at?”, “What are we equipped to do?”, “What are we passionate about?”, and “What needs around us do we care about?”. The second group takes their cue from dynamic leaders. In this situation, a specific leader or group of leaders determines the purpose of the church in a similar manner to the first group but bases their conclusion on personal strengths, passions, and understandings. They each find Scripture to support their position; however, in both cases, the purpose of the church ultimately stems from humanity.
While I think this pursuit of purpose has often led the church astray, it is an important question to answer. Remember, ekklesia means “called out” with a common purpose. However, we cannot look to humanity for the purpose. So what is our purpose?
The Scripture likens ekklesia to a body. Each member has his place in the whole, but we all depend on and take direction from the head (Colossians 1:18). In order to know the purpose of the church, we cannot look to the individual or collective parts. We must defer to the head. In Luke 19:10, Jesus very clearly summarizes His purpose. He says, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” What was lost?
We are all quite familiar with the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-11;22-24). They decided that they knew better than God and ate the fruit of the one tree that was off-limits. Sin and its consequences entered the world. Humanity lost its intimate relationship with God. We lost our citizenship in His Kingdom.
But that’s not all. It’s not only about you and me. God lost His citizens. From Genesis 4 to Revelation 22, the whole of the Bible is about GOD RESTORING RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANITY – bringing people back into His Kingdom. The purpose of God is singular. And HE does the work to provide the means for this restoration through Jesus.
“If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!” (Romans 5:10)
“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross - whether things on earth or things in heaven. Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him.” (Colossians 1:19-22)
“We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:7-8)
“When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Ephesians 2:17-18)
Jesus makes it possible for people to once again be counted as citizens of God’s Kingdom – a child of God. IN JESUS, God provides the MEANS for restoration.
God’s MECHANISM for COMMUNICATING this restoration is citizens of His Kingdom – EKKLESIA.
“Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, 'Be reconciled to God.' He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)
I think this gets us much closer to a minimum understanding of the church that holds true to Scripture, crosses cultures, and withstands the test of time.
THE CHURCH IS CITIZENS OF GOD’S KINGDOM COMMITTED TO ONE ANOTHER AND HIS PURPOSE (MISSION) TOGETHER.
This definitely isn’t the end of the journey. In many ways, it’s just the beginning. Maybe these minimums can help us continue to journey together toward maturity and multiply many more churches that will join this journey as well.