The Locally Global Church

Many of us have grown up here around the "Bible Belt" of the United States hearing the phrase "going to church". In fact, church for me was always somewhere you went. People may ask, "Where do you go to church?" or "Are you going to church tomorrow?" It has simply become a part of our cultural language to "go to church".

Yet this phrase is absurd. The church is not located in space. Believers in Rwanda are connected in every way to believers in Portland, Oregon and Hoover, Alabama. They are not a different church. They are all a part of the same body, same family, same church. On this basis alone, the phrase "go to church" would be absurd.

But that is not all. The church is also not located in time. The church is not present only today, or tomorrow, or this coming Sunday. Believers that have passed on from life in this world into death have in no way, not one single way, ceased to be the church. In fact, they are more presently experiencing what we only get fading glimpses of. So, a body of believers that is in no one place and is connected throughout all of time cannot be a place that is visited. To say that I am "going to church" is an absurd picture of the Body of Christ.

The church is not a place, the church is a people.

However, the church is a local reality. The people that we gather with in worship and the people that push us to gain perspective on the eternal implications of living a life surrendered to Christ are people that we know and are, for us, located in a local body. Are we not to be especially connected to these local believers? Absolutely! We are to be spurred on to good works performed by faith in the one who works them in us as a body. This local body possesses the fruit of the Spirit (not individuals) and the gifts of the Spirit so that the local body may be an expression of Christ's presence. To be a part of this kind of gathering is special and should be praised.

But the local body that truly understands what it means to be the body will always, always, always point that local body to its connection with a global and timeless body. This is not done through once a year offerings (my apologies to Lottie Moon) or speaking engagements of missionaries. This is engaged in worship. Worship that understands the overwhelming reality that there in but one body. Worship that lifts its voice in a melody of praise that encompasses thousands of languages. Worship that proclaims God's Word with many tongues yet echoes in one single message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At this moment the church has become locally global.

Here we have not merely "gone to church" but rather we have experienced the miracle of the people of God.

Such a Great Cloud of Witnesses

Our last blog post about reading Scripture in light of history ("History Glasses") brought up some very good questions in response. Two questions that surfaced regularly were "why?" and "how?" In other words, people wanted to know why history is such an important part of seeing Scripture more clearly and they also wanted to know how they could begin to tackle such a daunting task.

We have a far deeper and more rich fellowship within the church than many people realize and many churches (see our last post) refuse to acknowledge as a witness to various views. Hebrews calls this rich and deep fellowship "a great cloud of witnesses" (12:1). This "great cloud" that surrounds us allows us to "look to the author and perfecter of our faith". Some of us have grown up completely segregated from the church fathers and find them foreign and aloof. Many others approach them with skepticism and a Western idea that newer is better. We who live in the west have a natural predisposition to be wary of history because we can see their mistakes.

Christianity, however, points us to embrace history because the Spirit of God has been moving then, as now, to lead and guide us in faith (the point of Hebrews chapter 11). It is precisely because we can see the mistakes of others that history becomes more important for us. If we are led by the same Spirit, in the same faith, to worship the same Lord, then we might just be heading for some of the same errors. The fathers have given us a gift of seeing farther because we "stand on the shoulders of giants"(CS Lewis).

The barrier of how to go about engaging these fathers is a bit tricky. The immediate attraction is to pick up a history book and begin to read or purchase a paperback of the church fathers (here) and think that we can be in communion with them. These tasks may be helpful but they are not fellowship with the Christ in communion with the saints.

This kind of communion comes in worship, community, and mission. This comes as we celebrate, share, and serve together as we take into account the hearts, minds, and efforts that have come before. This means that pastors have a necessary responsibility to point us toward reflections, prayers, hymns, and confessions of the faithful. We need to be made aware where and when these meditations came from so that we can learn to appreciate them and even learn to read the fathers with eyes for insight. Our worship leaders need to purposely choose music that unites us with ancient paths and future ones.

Our faithful fathers of days gone by are not to be forgotten. They were, and are, the church. We owe much to them. We venture on a journey that has been laid bare by the feet of the faithful that have come before.

This ancient path is our guide as we walk into a glorious future.