My post on church and evangelism sparked an interesting conversation that inevitably gravitated towards the old chestnut of what we mean by ‘church’. In this Saturday's extract from the archives, we go all the way back to Briefing #15, from December 1988, and to a typically succinct and theologically rich statement by Broughton Knox of ‘what the church is’:

The basic verse for the biblical doctrine of the church is Jesus' words to Peter: “In front of this rock I will build my gathering”. Jesus' promise is couched in terms based on Deuteronomy 4 when God commanded Moses to gather the people in front of the rock of Sinai on which God came down and stood. The members of that gathering all died in the desert through their unbelief, but death will not prevail against those whom Christ gathers into his church. They will always be in his presence, now and eternally. Jesus is in heaven, that is where the gathering is. All Christians have risen with Christ at their conversion and are seated with him in the heavenlies, now and forever. This heavenly gathering into which all Christians have been given access is explicitly called ‘church’ in Hebrews 12 and this is the meaning of the phrase ‘catholic church’ in the creeds, as is clear from a comparison of the two recensions of Ignatius' letter to the Smyrnians, where the phrase first occurs.

Christians are heavenly-minded, but this is not a self-centred heavenly-mindedness but Christ-centred. They “set their minds on things above, where Christ is”. Being consciously in Christ's presence through his Spirit they naturally have a ‘face to the world’, ‘imitating his life’, ‘going about doing good’ as their circumstance and their perception of others' needs provide opportunities. Christ lives in them, and others seeing their good works glorify their Father. It is a contradiction to be consciously in Christ's presence in his heavenly gathering or church without having a ‘face to the world’.

Membership of the heavenly church is experienced as fellowship of the Spirit with Christ and with one another in the things of Christ and will often lead Christians to combine together for many different purposes to serve other people for God's glory, whether it is combining to send out missionaries, or for home evangelism, or for the relief of the poor, or for the other innumerable tasks and objectives for which Spirit-filled Christians perceive the need and combine to fulfill it. The nineteenth century especially gives many examples of this, and individual members of the heavenly gathering round Christ will also be impelled by the Spirit of Christ to bring spiritual and material blessings to those with whom they are in contact. This is the face of the church to the world.

It will be seen that this doctrine of the church is the same as the traditional protestant doctrine of the universal, invisible church of Christ, but it gives it its biblical basis and completes it by making it clear that it is the church of Christ that is the gathering of Christ—for the word ‘church’ always means gathering—around Christ where he is in heaven, where we also are according to the teaching of the New Testament.

This present reality of being in each other's company in Christ's presence in heaven is experienced as fellowship in the Spirit in the things of Christ, one aspect of which is being drawn by the Spirit into each other's company to meet with Christ and one another according to the promise “where two or three meet together in my name, there am I in the midst”. Thus the local church forms spontaneously as an expression of the reality of the heavenly church. It is complete, not merely a part, for it lacks nothing. Christ is present and has gathered his people around him. Its purpose is to make more real our meeting with Christ and our sense of being in his presence together by building one another up in Christ, so that each member may go out to be Christ's witness in the world, either individually or in association together, as circumstances suggest. This is the purpose of the local congregation. It has no other purpose than fellowship in Christ in his presence, though naturally the friendships formed through being in each other's company in the local congregations, and the ideas exchanged and the leadership developed, may be the basis for association together for the work of Christ in the world, which the indwelling Spirit of God impels each Christian to undertake according to his opportunities and gifts.

Christian fellowship which centres itself on our fellow Christians is not full Christian fellowship. Our fellowship is with Christ and with our fellow Christians in Christ. It is primarily heavenly-mindedness. The command is “set your mind on things above where Christ is”. Christians are “the heavenly” (1 Cor 15:48). But it is also earthly-mindedness. We are in the world though not of it and we have a face to the world and must have, for Christ is at work in the world through us. The church is not an inward-looking ghetto but is heavenly-looking—looking to Jesus and his coming in his kingdom, and working for him while it is still day.

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