Being Church

by Dr Doug Rowston

What is the meaning of 'church'?

In the twenty-first century, our answer could be in terms of buildings or organisations. There are the churches in which people are brought at birth, in times of commitment to Christ, at marriage, and in death. These are the places where congregations gather Sunday by Sunday to worship. There are also the churches or denominations to which people belong. For example, we may be affiliated to the Anglican Church, the Baptists, the Lutherans, the Pentecostals, the Roman Catholic Church, the Uniting Church, and so on. However, at the deepest level, 'church' today means the fellowship of believers or the people of God who seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

In the first century, the meaning of 'church' could be in terms of a building only in the sense of a house church. Believers met in the homes of fellow believers. Furthermore, the meaning of 'church' could be in terms of an organisation on the basis of leadership. There were bishop-based, elder-based, or congregation-based churches. The origins of these three forms of church government appear in different places in the New Testament. But, once again, the most important meaning of 'church' was the people of God or the body of Christ or the fellowship created by the Spirit of God.

When people say the Apostles’ Creed they conclude with the words, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins ... The church is holy. It is set apart for God’s service. The church is catholic. It is general or universal. The church is the communion of saints. It is the fellowship or the sharing in the holy things or the fellowship or the sharing by the holy people. The church involves the forgiveness of sins. It is the company of the forgiven and the forgiving.

Three pictures of the church

The Bible uses three pictures of the church which lead us to say that we are set apart for God’s service, that we belong to a universal movement, that we share in holy things with holy people, that we are sinners who are restored to a dual relationship with God and his people.

The first picture is the people of God. The church is the fulfilment of the Old Testament promise of a chosen people. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.(1 Peter 2:9) This New Testament statement picks up a string of Old Testament passages, including Exodus 19:5-6 (If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation) and Isaiah 43:20-21 (I give water in the wilderness ... to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise).

The Old Testament people of God were chosen to be the nation of God. The New Testament people of God also enjoyed this special relationship to God with two differences. No longer was status as God’s chosen people confined to one racial group and no longer was function as God’s chosen priesthood confined to one religious group.

The second picture is the body of Christ. The church is the company of the committed, the followers of Jesus in their unity and diversity. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ ... Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.(1 Corinthians 12: 12, 27) The New Testament church is called the body of Christ because it exists between the time of the first coming of Jesus and the time of the second coming of Christ to do the will of God and to be the presence of Jesus Christ in the world.

The church consists of members with differing functions: We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith;  ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.(Romans 12:6-8) At the same time the church consists of members with the same goal: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)

The third picture is the fellowship of the Spirit. Fellowship is a word which means sharing.  We often use Paul’s benediction: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion / fellowship / sharing / participation of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.(2 Corinthians 13:13) The words the fellowship of the Holy Spirit can be translated fellowship with the Holy Spirit or fellowship brought about by the Holy Spirit. It has been suggested by J Paul Sampley (in The New Interpreter’s Bible, 11:179) that Paul is being ‘powerfully ambiguous’, that both aspects agree with Paul’s convictions, and that the two understandings are not mutually exclusive.

How do we recognise such fellowship? On the one hand, we can look at the relationship Christians have with the Spirit of Christ: For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.(1 Corinthians 12:13) On the other hand, we can look at the relationship Christians have with each other. In both cases we think of the use of the gifts of the Spirit: Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.(1 Peter 4:10) In both cases we recognise the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). As the Gloomy Dane, Soren Kierkegaard, is reported to have said, “As you have lived so have you believed.”

Perhaps the last word about the fellowship of the Spirit should belong to the great simplifier of the meaning of the New Testament, William Barclay (in A New Testament Wordbook, p 72): ‘The Christian lives in the presence, the company, the help and the guidance of the Spirit.

So where does all this lead to?

If the church is the people of God, the body of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit, how shall we Baptists be a genuine part of the church at large?  Perhaps Ken Manley gives us the answer at the end of his magnum opus. He says (in From Woolloomooloo to ‘Eternity’: A History of Australian Baptists, 2:770) that Baptists have been at their best when they have been “truly ‘missional’ and ‘incarnational’.” If we live out our destiny as believers sent by God to our needy world, and if we truly embody the beliefs and practices of Jesus the Lord in our everyday life, then we represent the people of God, the body of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit.

All biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Dr Doug Rowston lives in Adelaide, South Australia with his wife Rosalie and their Welsh Corgi dog. He has worked as a theological lecturer, a religious education teacher, and a local church pastor. He is the author of A Bird’s Eye View of the Bible and Jesus and Life: Word Pictures in John’s Gospel.