The Distinctive Church
Since returning to the United States after years on the mission field, I have begun attending a local church and asking the question: what I should expect form a church? This is a difficult question because church means different things to so many people. There is high church and low church; contemporary and traditional; Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglican, Orthodox, non-denominational, and so much more! We have small churches and large churches, churches with pastors, priests, elders, and bishops. All these differences can bring up questions of authentic church or church as it should be, of getting back to the “first century” or finding an “apostolic” or “genuine” church. In all the variety, the question remains…What should we expect from a church gathering? What makes the church distinct from anything else?
This question is difficult to answer in a world of online church and long-distance fellowship. When I say church, what I mean is the in person gathering of believers, not online or pre-recorded church (as I mention on the Beliefs page). While online church may have its place occasionally, I am going to suggest that it is no substitute for in-person gatherings. There are three aspects of in-person meetings that I think are irreplaceable: dedicated, guiding fellowship; synchronous, corporate worship; and the practice and reception of spiritual gifts. These are what make the church distinct!
1. Dedicated, Guiding Fellowship
It should come as no surprise that the weekly meeting is intended for fellowship, but not just any kind of fellowship. I’m not talking about coffee and cookies after service (something I much appreciate about my church!). There is plenty of fellowship to be had outside of the church too, both Christian and secular. Weekly Bible studies, potlucks, game nights, you name it; there are many opportunities to spend quality time with fellow believers. But simply spending time with other believers isn’t the kind of fellowship I’m talking about. The weekly fellowship is dedicated and guiding in a way that can’t be replicated elsewhere.
Church fellowship is dedicated because it creates a rhythm of time for your week, a point of consistency in the chaos of life that you decide will take priority in your faith. While there are other activities that can fill certain fellowship roles, the gathering of the church is intended to have the prime place by reorienting and ordering the rest of your life around the shared values and beliefs of your faith community. This is where the guiding aspect of fellowship comes in.
The second aspect of fellowship is guiding fellowship, the time spent with fellow believers engaging and growing in the life transforming truths of the faith. For the weekly gathering, this is usually the time of teaching and preaching. For many churches this ministry if from the pulpit. From a house church or small church, it might be found through sharing as a small group. Whatever form it takes, the expounding and teaching of the word at a level the congregation can understand and apply is necessary for the fellowship of the church and the life of faith lived by its members.
Hebrews 10:24-25, Acts 2:42
2. Synchronous, Corporate Worship
Our modern access to recorded worship music is a blessing, but it’s not a substitute for the church gathering to praise God together. We are commanded to come together with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We can’t do this on our own. With recorded worship music and scriptures read to us by AI, it’s tempting to think that private worship time can fill our need for corporate worship. In the scriptures, whenever we see musical or liturgical worship, it is corporate. All the worship we see in scripture was also synchronous, that is, it occurred for all worshipers at the same time. We have the option today for asynchronous worship through recordings and online-church, but we lose something if this is the only way we engage with worship, especially musical worship or the reading of scripture. The unity of our communities depends on us worshiping together, and the experience of God that we have in moments of corporate worship is meant to be a shared experience that unites us as a family of faith.
Another form of worship always practiced in scripture in community is communion, the eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper. We won’t discuss the mechanics of communion, that’s too in-the-weeds for this post. But the practice of taking the Lord’s Supper has been part of the church since the beginning. When we take it together, it promotes unity among the body and reminds us of our place in Christ. I believe the Spirit moves among His people in the reception of communion and that when we obey its observance as the Lord commanded that the body is built up into greater conformity to Him.
Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16, Psalm 95:1-2, Luke 22:14-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
3. Practice and Reception of Spiritual Gifts
This can be one of those dodgy topics for many in the church, but regardless of what spiritual gifts you believe should be operating in the church today, we should at least agree that the gathering of believers is the place to use them! Even a cursory reading of 1 Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12:3-8, or Ephesians 4:7-16 will show that the church is the place for these gifts to find their full expression and that their operation is essential to the building up of the precious body of Christ. They are necessary for the instruction, encouragement, direction, and growth of the Church. Whether teaching, giving, service, prophecy, shepherding, leading, discernment, or administration, everyone in the body has a place and a gifting, and those giftings are not intended for personal prowess and glory, they are intended to strengthen the bride. A church without any exercise of spiritual gifts is one that is relying only on the work and strength of men to function, and such a church will be ineffective in its internal ministry, leading to ineffectiveness in outward ministry. I don’t believe many churches fall into this exact trap, but I do think the work of the Spirit in the church gets overlooked in many contexts. Nothing of lasting importance will be accomplished by a church acting in its own strength. Only lives lived in the Spirit bring lasting fruit. The recognition and promotion of this truth will only serve to take the focus off of people and ministers and place it where it belongs, on Christ and His work, bringing glory to God.
“...Let all things be done for building up.”
In closing, let me provide an encouragement and a word of caution. There is no perfect church. Stop. Read that again. Be sure you understand. Churches are filled with fallible people who are doing their best. There are churches that practice these three principles better than others, but if you expect to find a church that perfectly conforms to this or any other ideal of what you think a church should be, you’ll be searching for a long, long time. While I firmly believe that the practices discussed above are marks that distinguish the weekly meeting of the local church from any other collective or individual practice of the faith, you will never find a group of people that practices them perfectly all the time. If your search for the perfect church has kept you out of church, it’s time to go back. You can’t get what’s necessary for the Christian life on your own. We need each other, and in a culture that values self-expression and individualism, this might be hard to hear, but an independent Christian life is not the way of Christ. If you find a church that is practicing all the above principals, great! If your church isn’t and this frustrates you, be a humble, prayerful and loving voice for change. Make the weekly gathering of believers your priority and don’t settle for long-distance, online fellowship that’s no fellowship at all. Be part of an imperfect church, seek the Lord together, and be amazed at how your life will be transformed!
Do you have other practices that you think set the weekly gathering apart from other corporate or independent practice of the faith? Think there is something here that shouldn’t be? Let me know in the comments! I want to hear from you!