Church Community[1]

From God’s declaration that “it is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18)—to the example of the one true God who Himself exists in Trinitarian community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the witness in Scripture is that God’s people are meant to dwell together in community.  So it should be no surprise when the Bible declares, that through the saving work of Jesus, every Christian is not only part of the larger church body that exists thru the ages (Ephesians 2:17-22), but is also expected to be part of a local church body that exists in his or her own town (Hebrews 10:24-25). 

Regrettably, there is a trend today in which many who claim to be children of God the Father, have little to do with their brothers and sisters in God’s family, the church.  This is despite God’s clear instruction telling us to conduct ourselves by, “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 (Hebrews 10:25).”  God’s will is for every Christian to participate in the biblical community of His local church.

What is the Local Church?

A good summary of the local church is seen in Acts 2:41-42 were it records that after the Apostle Peter preached the good news of Jesus, “…those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added [to the church] that day about three thousand souls.  And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  From this and other Bible passages we see that the local church is characterized by at least seven things:

1. The gathering of local Christians.  Though others can attend the meeting of Jesus’ church, the real local church is the assembly of those who have been made alive in Jesus by believing into Him for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:41). 

2. Organization under qualified leaders. At the start of the church in Acts 2 the leadership role was fulfilled by the apostles.  Yet as the church spread throughout the ancient world, elders (a.k.a. pastors) were appointed to shepherd—to lead, guard, protect, and teach the church according to God’s Word (Acts 14:23; Acts 20:28-32; Ephesians 4:11-16).  God tells His people to place themselves under the authority of these leaders and to lovingly cooperate with them (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; Hebrews 10:17).  The qualifications for elders are given in 1 Timothy 3:1-8 and Titus 1:5-9.

3. Preaching God’s Word and Worship. Acts 2:42 tells us that the early church devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching”.  From the beginning the church recognized the authority of the apostles’ writings and canonized them as divinely inspired just like the Old Testament Scriptures (for example see 2 Peter 3:15-16 where the Apostle Paul’s writings are put on par with God’s Old Testament Word).  Elders are to continue to rightly handle and teach this same Word to the church (Ephesians 4:11-15; 1 Timothy 5:17; 3:2; 2 Timothy 2:15; 3:16-4:2).  Further Christians are to worship together by heeding God’s Word (James 1:21), by corporate prayer (Acts 2:42), singing, thanksgiving, submission (Ephesians 5:18-22), and by using the gift(s) God has given each Christian (1 Corinthians 12:4-7; 14:12), so that God may be glorified and His people built up through their love and service of one another (1 Peter 4:10).    

4. Observing the ordinances of baptism & communion.  The gathered church practiced baptism (Acts 2:41) and communion.  Communion is our remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus together through the bread, which symbolizes the body of Jesus broken for us; and the wine or juice, symbolizing the blood of Jesus shed for us (1 Corinthians 11:23-34). 

5. Holiness Together. When Christians sin they repent of their sin (1 John 1:9).  If someone should fail to repent of blatant sin, the church and its leaders loving enact church discipline in the hopes of bring the sinning believer to repentance.  This is done in order to reconcile the sinning Christian’s relationship with God and His people (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-11; Galatians 6:1; 1 John 1:7).  This truth highlights the fact that God never meant a Christian to go it alone or to be accountable only to one’s self in their relationship with God.  On the contrary God designed and charged His church to provide the loving accountability and protection we all need to live and grow in Jesus. 

6. Loving community devoted to fellowship with one another.  Again Acts 2:42 says the church was devoted to “fellowship” or koinonia as the Greek puts it.  Koinonia includes the idea of God’s people doing life together in intentional, relational community, to seek the well being of one another physically, spiritually, materially, and emotionally.  It is characterized by an attitude of good will that is manifested in generosity, altruism, grace, and in short, love for one another as God’s family (John 13:35; Philippians 2:1-8; 5:1-2; Acts 2:44-45).  

7.  God’s mission to make Jesus known.  The church is an evangelistic community where the gospel of Jesus is constantly made known by its preaching, witness of its members, and its Spirit empowered life of love.  The church takes seriously Jesus’ Great Commission for us to be His witnesses and make disciples for Him (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8), as well as Jesus’ Great Commandment that we love God and our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:36-40; 5:16; John 13:35; Galatians 5:19-26).

Some Christians gather at a coffee house or pub to discuss Scripture or do good deeds and call this “church”.  Matthew 18:20’s “where two or three [Christians] have gathered together in my [Jesus’] name, there am I in their midst,” is often cited to validate this definition of church.  What’s missed though is Matthew 18:20 is set in the context of church discipline, not the context of providing the definition of the local church (see point 5 above).  This is not to say that Bible study or noble deeds are bad; the issue is that this understanding of church is too narrow to reflect the biblical description.  For biblically the local church is a community of Christians replete with biblically appointed leaders, structure, accountability and God given purposes.  If you’re a Christian, don’t do your own thing, do God’s thing—get involved in a gracious, Bible-focused, Jesus-centered church and serve today.