| CHAPTER FIVE: The Church Illustrated
CHAPTER FIVE: The Church Illustrated Introduction We believe that God's salvation is corporate in nature rather than individual. By this we mean that God intends through our salvation to purchase for Himself a people (Cf. Mt. 1:21, I Peter 2:9f) who join Him in the cosmic warfare in which He has been engaged since the fall of Satan (Cf. Revelation 12:10,17, Ephesians 3:10,11, 6:10-12). Although God saves men and women individually, His purpose is to add them as subjects to His kingdom where they join with others in this cosmic struggle. Thus, all new believers need to be added to the body of Christ (Acts 2:41) where they can find their place of ministry (I Corinthians 12:18) and the purpose that God had for them when he saved them (Philippians 3:12, Colossians 1:24-28). The church of God is made up of local churches. These local churches are groups of believers who are committed to obey Jesus Christ and accountable to one another for carrying out His plan for them. This simple definition of the church is like defining the Rockies as a mountain range; it fails to summarize the beauty and majesty of these mountains. To get a better glimpse of God's great mystery, we must go beyond a mere definition to illustrations of the church. These illustrations give insight from which we can develop the functions and structures of the church. The Church as an Army An earthly army is made up of units, which are in turn composed of individuals. When the army goes into battle the effective coordination between these units and individuals determines who wins the war. A unit functions effectively only as the individuals in it work together to accomplish their task. This coordinated activity is also seen in the "corporate" nature of our salvation. Although we are saved individually, only when we find our place within His Kingdom and work in cooperation with others, are we able to accomplish that which He plans for us. The individualism of our western culture blurs this aspect of salvation. Like lone rangers, we seek to accomplish God's purposes in isolation. Others may help us, but we often try to follow God along our own individual paths. We often go to seminars, do Bible studies, listen to sermons so that we as individuals might become like Christ. But God desires that the whole body grow together into the reflection of Christ (Ephesians 4:16). We are like lone snipers hiding here and there randomly getting in a shot at a disciplined and coordinated foe. God commands us to put forth a coordinated, corporate effort in order to secure victory! This understanding has tremendous effect on our practices as churches and church planting teams. Neither our church planting teams nor the churches are merely a collection of individuals who come together for worship or training. Rather, we are units of God's great army, and of His kingdom engaged in a life and death struggle. God has called us and enabled us to find one another. He has equipped us so that, relying upon Him as well as each other, we can carry out the task He has assigned to us. But this happens only as we learn to work together; to trust one another; to appreciate each others strengths, and our own weaknesses. God provides others to make up for what is lacking in me in order to carry out the task. God's work, by its nature, calls us to be molded and shaped together. Then not only will we win the war, but we will also learn how to love one another. The Church as a Pilgrim People (e.g. Wagon Train) Another illustration of God's purpose for his people is a wagon train. We are pilgrims caravanning to a better country. Much like Israel coming out of Egypt, our goal is to arrive at a promised land and (for the sake of the analogy) to raid Satan's kingdom along the way taking prisoners who will join us in our journey. Each one in the train of wagons has a job to do. God has given each one gifts, talents and resources to be shared with the others so that goal can be reached. When attacks come and the wagons are circled, each wagon must prevent the evil one from penetrating the community and destroying it. As we travel together, grow together, succeed and fail together, we get to know each other and help one another as new trials occur. The process is as important as the goal. Our calling is relational. The warfare is such that love (From God) overcomes the attacks of the evil one. God has called His people to love: to love him and to love one another. When He first called us we were not predisposed to love, nor did we know how to love. As a matter of fact, the rest of our Christian life will be spent learning to love. When we join the wagon train (not just ride near it), we find many who are offensive to us, that irritate us, and that are just plain wrong in their view of things (for we, after all, are always right). As we travel together this leads to conflict and discomfort. But these very difficulties also enable us to learn to love. And when the enemy attacks, we see these people that we find hard to love fulfilling crucial roles; our new appreciation for them allows a foundation from which love can spring. We also find that often the very things that were offensive to us are invaluable in the battle. In the process of getting to the promised land we learn how to love -- if we submit to the lesson! The Church as a Family God has called us first into relationship with Himself. He has set His love upon us like a banner, and claims us as His children. This love led Him to send His unique son to die on a cross and purchase us, that we might be adopted sons in His family. He has called us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. He gives us His Holy Spirit who continues His work in us until we are remade in the image of His Son. But He has also called us into relationship with the other members of His family. He has called us not only to receive His infinite love, but also to pass on that love. God wants his invisible love to be made visible on earth through our love for each other in His family, the Church. Perhaps this illustration of the church as a family with children is the most appropriate for this manual. God's plan for the family is reproduction. Adam and Eve were commanded to fill the earth. God's ideal was for one generation of healthy, godly families to produce another generation of godly families and so on down to the present. Of course the fall into sin messed this up. Yet a godly family is the foundation of society and of the church community. So this remains God's plan for His people. God has called us into His family. He is our Father. We are His sons. Others in His Kingdom are our brothers and sisters. And yet we are so ill equipped to carry out his plan as a family! Most of us learned family life in our flawed, earthly families. We learned wrong ways of coping with those who sinned against us and we sinned in return. We learned early in life wrong ways of relating to those in authority as well as to our peers. Much of our Christian life will be spent unlearning these natural reactions and relearning how to love in deed and in truth. The church is the place for the family to relearn this new way of life. The house church, because of its size and ability to give more personal attention, is an ideal setting for these lessons. Discipling relationships are developed as older Christians teach newer ones to love God and their neighbor. As the group undergoes the natural conflicts in family relationships, barriers to love arise from the flesh. These are dealt with by those who shepherd and disciple the sheep. In this small church environment, patterns which cripple our ability to love are compassionately brought into the light and we repent of them. New patterns are learned and practiced under the loving care of a mentor who helps us move toward love and service (Cf. Galatians 5:13-15). In this family context each member of the house church often painfully learns to function in a family to carry out God's plan for the church. Each member learns how selfish they are. But they also learn how to bear such revelation, being covered by the blood of the lamb. Individual care also enables them to grow through these failures by the grace of God, as they learn repentance and restitution which leads to further growth. In this family context believers learn to die to their own selfish agenda as they cooperate with and submit to the corporate wisdom of the community. They learn selfless service as they see needs in the body and move to meet those needs sacrificially. They learn in humility the limitations of their gifts and talents, and the benefits of mutual dependence that God provides in his church. As conflicts arise, we run up against others selfish desires and see how they cause our own flesh to erupt. We then learn new, godly ways to deal with conflict. We learn the crucial lessons of repentance, restitution, forbearance and forgiveness. The leaders, of course, learn much about leading by loving, guiding, shepherding and nurturing (as opposed to leadership by edict, Cf. Matthew 21). They learn God's wisdom of plural leadership in the church. They learn to cooperate with other leaders, and how to influence them as well as work through conflict with them. Above all, the members of the church learn how to love, practicing for the perfect Kingdom which is yet to be revealed in all its fullness. But when it is, we will recognize it as our home! In the meanwhile we are called to grow in love, and as this love is displayed to others to see others touched by God’s love. In this context it is natural that reproducing churches should be the result. Principles 1. God’s salvation is essentially corporate and incidentally individual, not the other way around. I Peter 2:10, 2 Cor. 11:1-3, Rev. 21:2,9, Mt. 1:21 2. The church is an army of God engaged in worldwide conquest of cosmic proportions. Rev. 11:15, 12:7-17, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:1-11, Matthew 24:4-14 3. The church is a pilgrim people on a mission forsaking the Kingdom of this world. Mt. 12:25-29, 2 Cor. 2:14f, Eph. 4:8, Hebrews 11 4. The church is a family where we are members one of another. Ephesians 2:11-22, 4:25, I Timothy 5:1,2 Questions for further discussion 1. How is the church like an Army? How does this differ from what we see in our traditional churches today? 2. How is the church like a pilgrim people? What happens if a member fails to carry out his or her respective duty? 3. In a wagon train the roles of men and women often differ. How is this true in the house church? Are both important? How? 4. How does our church family help us reshape our view of family life? 5. What are some other illustrations that the Bible gives us for the church? Back |