What is Distinctive about the Gathered Christian Community?
/I’ve done a lot of reflecting on this question. Put more simply, why Church?
This is a fitting beginning to the worship blog for 2 main reasons:
Because of studying Kierkegaard’s critiques of church, and for many other reasons from before that, I tend to focus on the negative aspects of organized Christianity in North America. I am certain it doesn’t always come across this way but I should be clear from the beginning, my interest in critique and my own critique is mostly spurred by a hope for what the gathered body of Christ could be. So, I thought it would be helpful to begin with the positive.
My answer to this question is ever evolving and I am deeply interested in working it out in conversation. By no means should this post be the final answer to the question but rather a starting point.
To begin, I think we have to focus on the word distinctive. It is the word that gives motivation.
For example,
-Does the church primarily exist to be a social club? No, because there are many options for community.
-Is the church primarily an education center where people learn information about God? Perhaps at one time this was true, but in the age of information I think that motivation has disappeared.
-Is the church primarily a source of freedom or salvation of some sort? While those things happen in community, I’m certain whatever is meant by those terms (we’ll get into that later) is often achieved outside of the church walls.
I’m not suggesting the church can’t do these things. When done healthily they are all possible. I just think in a time where it is easy enough to say, “Any of that can happen outside of church walls,” a distinctive function for the church is necessary.
So instead, try this on for size.
The church is a place where the Kingdom of God is imagined in community. I use the term imagined because of the ‘already but not yet’ nature of the Kingdom of God.
It is not difficult to recognize that the world is not ideal. It is in the diverse, gathered community that we wrestle with ideas, we practice love for one another, we begin to demonstrate inclusion, and we are continually formed into the people of God (and many other things), SO THAT as we leave our imagination is filled with hope for all that exists outside of the boundaries we are leaving.
Let me give one example of why this distinctive matters:
I’d be willing to bet that, if you attend an evangelical church, the majority of the songs sung would deal with one of two topics:
How vaguely “great” God is.
Personal Salvation - more specifically atonement - more specifically BLOOD.
Now, there is nothing wrong with speaking of the greatness of God or being thankful for Christ’s work (no time to get into models of atonement now but fortunately there is plenty of time in this blog generally).
But, assuming I am right, that what we are doing in church is formative for people that attend there, what is happening is that our continued insistence on just two topics makes it appear that the Kingdom of God is about either vague or limited views on just two topics. So, now we are in a situation where some are frustrated that church can’t get much traction with any ideas besides ‘saving souls’ and “God is good, all the time.” Even worse, our vagueness on the greatness of God and the details of Christ’s work encourage individual conceptions of the precise details of those things. It is the perfect church growth strategy, but it is, at best, a weak strategy for enacting the Kingdom of God in the world. Those of us involved in the planning of services have actually created this problem.
So, for those of us who plan worship gatherings or speak at worship gatherings. I would encourage us to continue to be intentional about this distinctive of the church. For those of you who attend, I encourage you to insist on more. Because, people’s imaginations of the Kingdom of God are being formed by these gatherings and I am concerned that our imaginations are becoming more and more limited.
I really intended this post to be an introduction to the problem I hope we can generally address in this blog. Many more posts are coming to offer more details for many terms mentioned here. I hope you will join the discussion!
For further reading on this topic I highly recommend two James K. A. Smith books. They have deeply influenced the perspective articulated here.
