BLOG 8.28.12: QUESTION: HOW MANY DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A CHURCH?
How many of Christ’s people does it take to be a church?
Dumb question?
Jesus told his disciples that he would build his church (Matthew 16:18)—using the Greek word, which we translate as: church, that bespeaks a group of people called out (ek-klesia) for some purpose—but Jesus never defined what form that will take, or how many it will require to constitute a church. We only begin to get clues in the Acts and the other New Testament letters.
For starts, Jesus did say: “For where two or three of you are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew18:20).
What becomes obvious is that those folk, who have found new life in Christ, do in fact seek out other fellow followers of Christ and create bonds of helpful relationships with each other. (It is never a company of religious strangers or of folk irresponsible for each other’s welfare in their walk of faith.) At one point a New Testament writer will say: “Let us consider how to stir up one another one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another …” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
How many does it take to meet together in order to encourage and love one another?
In another place we are told: “Let the word of Christ dwell in/among you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom …” (Colossians 3:16).
Such mutuality in accountability and responsibility and encouragement and love has a level of interpersonal intimacy it relationships written all over it. This is not possible in large church assemblies of religious strangers who sit side by each in pews and don’t even know each other’s names.
I’ve watched two guys on the deck of a coffee shop deeply engaged in a study of Colossians (I eaves dropped) together and praying for one another. Then, for months there were about eight Korean young adults who met at Panera Bread with their Bibles and spent an hour intensely studying and discussing the text before them. I recall many occasions where believing folks met over meals to mutually process life, to teach and encourage one another, … and to which they would sometime feel free to invite inquiring and curious friends.
Are these small clusters of mutually ministering believers a church?
If such a church-around-the-table chooses to break bread and drink wine remembering Christ, is he not among them according to his promise. I would venture to say that they are possibly more truly the church than those vast ecclesiastical institutions with all their “bells and whistles” made up of religious strangers. Even in the infant post-Pentecost church, the thousands of new believers in that hostile Jerusalem setting, not only met publicly, but more interestingly, from house to house sharing faith, life, and possessions.
How many does it take to be a church?
Given the fact that over half the world’s population is now under 21 years of age, and that this younger generation is not wedded to traditions, but looking for authentic and meaningful relationship, this question may become more urgent for the church!
