The Not So Simple Church

The Not So Simple Church

The not so Simple Church

The church is anything but simple. From the Disciples in the first century church to the birth of Protestantism in 1529 when German princes banded together, and signed a decree at the Diet of Speyer, publicly declaring their support for Luther and his teachings. They became known as the protesting princes. Hence the word Protestant. We in the church have a propensity to protest, I think. Submission is what comes hard. From the Reformation to our present church culture there is a complexity of an organism that finds its comparison to the very organism of life itself and that is all but simple.

It was God, Father, Son who created life. He created man in his image from the ground of the earth. No one would argue that the marvel of human creation is simple. It is complex from the tip of every hair follicle to the human genome. What does the Bible compare the church to? The Bible compares the church to a human body made up of many parts. To try and anticipate her movement from a head nod to a toe tap is impossible. Too often we give up on her and her many parts because she doesn’t meet up with our expectations. The problem is our expectations are trying to frame the church as if it were a simple basic single cell organism when it’s not. Something with so many parts is going to bring with it challenges. The key is getting to know the anatomy and discovering the awe of the designer who fashioned us together in her.

1 Corinthians 12, states “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. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. We need each other: not like movies where one guy battles 1000 and wins by himself like the movie Priest where Scott Charles Philip plays a priest who disobeys church officials to track down evil forces who have kidnapped his niece. We can’t defeat Satan alone. Only as one body saved by the work of Christ and lead by him as the head, will the church prevail. So, we are parts of the Body and Jesus is the head. It is not a child’s Mr. Potato Head toy. It is a complex spiritual and metaphysical body.

Next add, the visual imagery from Ephesians 5 where the church is a bride and she is wearing a white gown to display His righteousness. Scripture also describes the church as growing on the vine that is Christ and even the words Ekklesia: arises out of its common use in the first century Roman world meaning assembled or called together to attend city affairs. Jewish scholars translating Hebrew Scriptures into greek chose the word ekklesia to depict the Hebrew qahal (assembly) of the Lord in Deut 23; 1 Chron. 28:8. Jesus promised to build his congregation/assembly in Matt 16:18, 18:17 and He did The “Early Church” believed the church was ordained by God. Even the language connects us to this vine of Christendom that goes back to the Old Testament.

In Acts, 1 Corinthians and Ephesians, church is like being in a house, a city, an area, meeting together, expressing joy, growing in peace, having structure, unity, breaking bread, meeting needs, sharing in the sacraments of the Lord’s supper, disciplined, empowered in love, making disciples and planting churches, raising up elders, and pastors, and teachers. When you step back we can have an awe of this organism that Christ is the head of. I think just coming to the reality that just like we can’t get our hands around life itself and comprehend the complexity of the life, we can be humbled and in awe of the church. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to project the church can be summed up with formulas and simplicity and help the church fall in love with something bigger than books and conferences have made her to look. What she looks like, we will cover in another article.

For now, my challenge is for you to look into the history of your own church. Who started it? What happened? Who are the people who make her up today? What are their stories? Take a photograph or two of the bride in all her history. Look at her preparing for her wedding day and do all you can for her to see she gets to the chapel on time. As you study her and recognize what Christ has given for you and His church, what are you willing to give in return to Him? Not so simple anymore is it?