By Fenter Northern
What is a congregation of the Lord? That is a valid, challenging question that must be settled according to scripture. One of equal importance is: when is a congregation functioning as the body of Christ? What then, makes a congregation the church of Christ?
The answer is so biblically basic there should be no need to ask members of the church of Christ those questions, especially overseers in some congregations, but today there is. “For also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves.”
Foremost, the Lord’s church is not just an assembly of beautiful hymns, as up building as that is to an assembly. Neither is it made authentic by physical animations, as expressive as that may be to some; nor is it by amiability of the preacher and his eloquence in the pulpit as uplifting as that might be. What then makes an assembly of worshiping people the church of Christ? It is before God an assembly of souls hungering for God’s word as His inspired writers revealed it, who are practicing and teaching the Bible without personal emendations that are joined together in the fellowship of the common faith.
It is never left to one’s mere feelings as to how a passage should be interpreted. Paul emphatically states being “led by the spirit” is equivalent to being the children of God. Led by the spirit then, is not something based merely on a “better felt than told” experience in worship. Jesus said His words were spirit and life. To be led by the spirit is to champion the Spirit’s instruction in the holy Bible.
To be led by the spirit is to walk in the light of God’s word in the way it is written seeking the understanding and application that the authors intended for it to be received. This alone, beginning with the eldership, and extending throughout the congregation, identifies the assembly as a living, breathing, God fearing congregation of the Lord.
It also must be said that a spiritual awareness of Jesus’ divine presence is the heartbeat of the assembly. That must not be mistaken, however, by self-engendered feelings caused by an arousing praise service, as valid as praise is unto our God for His manifold blessings. Valid perception, or awareness of God’s presence is because one knows all things in worship, such as the sacrifice of praise, and the edification from the pulpit are according to Bible truth. Nothing is more comforting than a worship service when you know it is offered to God in absolute harmony with His will.
Balaam told Balak he could not curse the children of God because, “The Lord their God was with them.” This is the vital ingredient that is the vital difference between a worshipping group and a congregation of the Lord.
This alone can meet the disillusionment that is sweeping across the world today. How cruel to offer comfort to hungry souls needing instructions from God’s word by feeding them only pleasant panaceas without explicit biblical instructions such as Acts 2:38! Jesus pointed to such cruelty when he said, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?”
The world contains a huge mass of restless and dissatisfied social rebels looking for something, but they do not know what there are looking for. Such blind dissatisfaction is propelling millions, especially youth, to experiment with hallucinogens causing huge problems not only to themselves but society in general.
Many of them are so blind to their true healing need they would despise any for telling them that it is the God vacancy in their soul that brings such misguided chaos into their lives. The grave problem seems that too many congregations have lost their own way trying to attract these hopeless wanderers. What is the church supposed to do to attract the lost generation back home from which they have so distanced themselves from God? Some elderships have tried toning down the strict levels and explicit instructions for righteousness in God’s word to bring them in. That may attract them to a congregation of worshipers but it is not Bible evangelization that leads one to salvation and holiness.
It seems others try diminishing the aura of respectful reverence in worship with less separation from the sinner’s world. Casualness is emphasized that takes some to the point of slouchy carelessness. Pulpit dialogue is carefully chosen so as to minimize any scriptural expressions that would make a person of the world feel uncomfortable about any sin in their life. Invitations are offered for membership—not by a call to repentance for sins, that’s too life invasive, but by saying if they feel something is amiss in their life, they may come forward at that time. Some more conservative preaching these days may point out very briefly at the close of a sermon on life improvement the quick steps for forgiveness,
Evangelism techniques are reversed so as to lure the worldly oriented by refashioning the church service into an hour of religious appreciation with no forthright calls for repentance. When this happens, placing the name church of Christ over the door, only denotes a name of another denomination. The spirit of New Testament Christianity has departed.
The restoration preachers had it right: Back to the Bible for it all; doing Bible things in Bible ways. That pretty well summarizes what it takes to be a faithful New Testament church of Christ. Forsake this and “church of Christ” becomes just another name for a human denomination.