A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 1

Okay, I know I’m likely about to come in for some hot water, because what I’m going to write about (as promised last week) is what defines a biblical church. Actually, it’s pretty simple. Indeed, as Thom Rainer wrote in his book with the fascinating title of “Simple Church,” it’s really far more simple than most Americans think.

So . . . here it is, what defines a biblical church. Two things:
1. gospel; and
2. community.

Actually, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, in their rich little book called “Total Church” speak much more eloquently to these two defining aspects of what makes a biblical church, so let me have you listen to them.

“Two key principles should shape the way we ‘do church’: gospel and community. Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community. Whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship, or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel, and the context is consistently the Christian community.

“Being gospel-centered actually involves two things. First, it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word – the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centered, because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed – the gospel is good news, a missionary message.”

Throughout the rest of the book, Timmis and Chester make a resounding and air-tight case that Scripture requires the church to determine its identity, purpose and ministries around these two simple priorities: gospel, the content of the church’s message; and community, the context of the church’s mission. It’s a very good book. Very good.

However, two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community?

Let’s take those questions one at a time, starting with the simple one: what is meant by community?

“Community” is our English word for the New Testament Greek term “koinonia,” which Scripture uses to describe the way the first Christians related to each other — with genuine love, fellowship, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It’s what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us to love one another.

It’s certainly more than what we do on Sunday mornings over coffee in the fellowship hall. It’s living a shared life centered on the gospel. It means we actually live out – in practical terms! – the fact that we are connected to each other by a shared salvation wrought in us by God’s sovereign grace revealed in the gospel. We help each other. We share with each other. We pray for each other. We obey the 57 “one-another” commands in the New Testament, commands we can’t possibly keep if we live life in isolation from each other except when we meet in a big room on Sundays.

In other words, if there’s no community happening, the church is squeezing itself out from under its own biblical definition. To be a biblical church, there must be community

There must also be the gospel. And we’ll look into that next week.