The point is, Christ saved us and called us into community with him and with all others who call him, “Lord.” Our initiation into the family of God, to the church of Jesus Christ is not a sentence! Jesus Christ has liberated us into identity with our heavenly Father and all his children. He introduces us into fellowship with each other in which we can enjoy love, care, unity and the thrill of working together to see a lost world reconciled to God through Jesus Christ!

Among the many benefits that we enjoy in Christ’s community of followers (the church) is the leadership and communication that the Holy Spirit authorizes and provides. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit does not speak to and through individuals—he does! But God designed his church family to find protection and leadership through elders who shepherd Christ’s church. When we remove ourselves from the church, we also remove ourselves from under the leadership canopy that God put there for our protection and growth.

The writer of Hebrews urges us, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” (Hebrews 13:7, 17)

After Paul, Barnabas, Silas and other apostles established new churches, they appointed elders for them to shepherd and care for the people. How can we possibly think we are above the need for such spiritual leadership that Christ sees as so necessary? (See Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 3:1, 14-15; Titus 1:5.)

Consider also the high view of the church that the New Testament portrays. Paul referred to the community of Christ-followers as, “the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15) He also explains that Christ “is the head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:22-23) Wow! This is not the description of an out-dated, irrelevant institution, but a living and vibrant organism—the body of Christ!

Finally, the Lord warned us of this trend that is now upon us. In fact, when we look back over history, we recognize that this is no new trend at all, but an old practice sneaking back to try to supplant and destroy Christ’s church again. In Hebrews 10:24, the writer urges us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

You see, we can’t possibly say we’re following Jesus and abandon his church, for in doing so we forget who we are in him and who he is to us—the Head of the church. This indeed would be a serious case of mistaken identity!

©2010 Rob Fischer

First, we need the context of community (i.e., the church) to grow in Christlikeness. We are misinformed, if not arrogant, if we think we can grow in Christ apart from the constant and consistent interaction of other followers of Christ. God’s design for us as Christians is to become more like Christ—that is, to take on Christ’s character. Character issues are predominantly relational. In other words, love, forbearance, patience, grace, mercy, forgiving—all of these character qualities can only be learned and practiced in the context of relationships. 

We don’t learn to be more loving by reading a book or even studying the Bible. We become more loving as we observe others love and imitate love in the context of our own relationships. Jesus demonstrated this principle in John 13:14-15 when he washed his disciple’s feet and then told them to follow his example.

Paul speaks to the highly social and collective nature of our spiritual growth in Ephesians 4:14-16. There he clearly shows how God desires us to grow up as a church—not merely as individuals. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head [of the church], that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

The Ephesians passage leads us into the second powerful characteristic of the church—namely, that spiritual gifts are given to the body of Christ-followers and not to individuals. Yes, the Holy Spirit has distributed spiritual gifts to individual members of Christ’s body, but specifically for the growing up of the body and for the common good of the church (1 Corinthians 12:7, 18, 28; 14:4-5, 26).

Again, we tend to be so self-focused when it comes to spiritual gifts as though our own personal fulfillment were the issue at stake. But that’s not the case at all. The gifts are given by God to grow his church collectively, to serve the body and to bring others to Christ. When we find fulfillment in exercising our spiritual gifts, that’s icing on the cake; that’s a result, not the goal.

Third, we recognize that the church can collectively accomplish what one individual could never do. The church I’m a part of shares tens of thousands of dollars every month with the needy, numerous world-wide mission efforts in evangelism and church-planting, and meeting needs of our church family. This expansive ministry is not merely a matter of scale, but also of camaraderie and joy.

People love to and need to be part of something bigger than themselves. Very few of us can foot the bill to drill a well and provide fresh water for a Ugandan village. But as a church team we can do it! And what joy there is in watching God use us as a team and all the esprit d’ corps that such efforts bring. People are served, Christ is glorified, and we grow in him as a church family! (See Acts 6:1-7; 13:1-3.)

Fourth, the church is Christ’s strongest testimony to the lost. How can I say that? Jesus told his disciples in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And again, in Jesus’ prayer in John 17, he prayed for the love and unity among his followers. “That they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22-23)

I’m convinced that any Christian who has pulled away from the church has forgotten these fundamental characteristics of the church and who we are in Christ as his church body. Again, abandonment of the church must be a case of mistaken identity.

©2010 Rob Fischer

When Jesus called His disciples (followers), He called them not only into fellowship with Himself but into community with each other. Jesus’ pattern in this regard is unmistakable! In fact, Jesus maintains that our unity in Him and love for one another provide the basis for our witness to a lost world (John 13:35; 17:22-23).

After Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given, new followers of Christ immediately became part of the local church, the body of Christ. This was the New Testament pattern. In Acts, Luke uses the terms, “believers,” “disciples,” and “church” interchangeably. Christ-followers were and are the church. The two cannot logically be divorced. The one defines the other.

When Paul, Barnabas, Silas and other followers of Christ began spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the far reaches of the ancient world, they always gathered the new followers of Christ into local churches—always! Acts 14:21-23 outlines Paul and Barnabas’ evangelistic strategy. Their strategy included: 1) preaching the good news and winning disciples to Christ; 2) strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith; 3) appointing elders for them in each church; and, 4) with prayer and fasting, committing them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust. 

The local church was and always has been a key element in fulfilling the Great Commission. Jesus has not established any other convention besides the church for the fellowship, participation, sharing of spiritual gifts, evangelism, and building up of believers. One who removes him/herself from the church cannot possibly be following the Head of the church, Christ.

We see that those who leave the church must not have realized what they were doing or who it is they are abandoning. Again, this is a case of mistaken identity.

©2010 Rob Fischer

In the New Testament, one cannot miss the pattern that the immediate work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a new follower was to bring him/her together into deep fellowship with other followers of Christ. Acts 2:41-47 represents a classic passage on the account of the fledgling church in Jerusalem:

“Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

What an amazing example of God’s ideal for a community of Christ-followers! Their lives were totally entwined with each other as they actively and intentionally pursued Jesus Christ. And lest someone argue that this was their experience, but not necessarily God’s design for the church, check out the one-another passages in the New Testament. These passages underscore God’s desire for us to establish and grow in our relationships with each other as Christ-followers:

• Be devoted to one another in brotherly love –Romans 12:10
• Honor one another above yourselves—Romans 12:10
• Live in harmony with one another— Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8
• Love one another— Romans 13:8; 1 Peter 1:22
• Stop passing judgment on one another— Romans 14:13
• Accept one another— Romans 15:7
• Greet one another warmly— Romans 16:16
• Agree with one another—1 Corinthians 1:10
• Serve one another—Galatians 5:13
• Be patient, bearing with one another in love— Ephesians 4:2
• Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other—Ephesians 4:32
• Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ—Ephesians 5:21
• Bear with each other and forgive one another—Colossians 3:13
• Teach and admonish one another—Colossians 3:16
• Encourage one another—1 Thessalonians 5:11
• Spur one another on toward love and good deeds—Hebrews 10:24
• Do not slander one another— James 4:11
• Offer hospitality to one another—1 Peter 4:9
• Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another—1 Peter 5:5

Obviously we cannot obey our heavenly Father in these noble ways apart from direct, consistent interaction with each other. There is no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. Clearly, we cannot practice these one-another commands by ourselves! Once again, if we have errantly abandoned the community of Christ-followers (our church) then it must be a case of mistaken identity—we’d forgotten who we are.

©2010 Rob Fischer

The 1 Corinthians 12:13 passage does apply to the universal church, but it also clearly refers to the local gathering of Christ-followers. In fact, to think of the body of Christ solely in terms of an unseen spiritual truth represents a Gnostic view which attempts to distinguish between spiritual reality and earthly illusion. But the Scripture demonstrates emphatically that God sees our lives as an integrated whole and we need to as well.

There is both the spiritual and earthly reality. In fact, God holds us accountable for how we function within the earthly reality, here and now. The context of 1 Corinthians 12 bears out the fact that the teaching presented there was written to the local church family in Corinth. Can we really presume to extract ourselves from a relationship into which God’s Holy Spirit initiates us?

Along the same line of thinking, consider the fact that many of the New Testament epistles were written to local churches. The letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Revelation were all written to local gatherings of Christ-followers. These letters speak to issues unique to each church and their situation.

In 1 Timothy 3:15 we read that the church is God’s household—His family. It’s true that some people abandon their families, but that’s certainly not God’s design for His children and His family! Once again, our tendency to abandon the church must be chalked up to a case of mistaken identity! Surely no one would knowingly forsake God’s family!

©2010 Rob Fischer

Early on in the life of the New Testament church, the community of Christ-followers had grown so large so quickly that it aroused the attention of the Jewish religious leaders. These religious leaders launched an organized attack on the church and one of their chief “KGB” thugs was a guy named Saul.

Saul’s goal was to purge the world of Christians and he had the approval of the authorities to carry out his awful plan. The crazy thing is that Saul considered himself an ardent follower of the One True God and thought he was helping God out by ridding the world of Christians. But the Scripture says, “Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers.” (Acts 9:1 NLT)

Saul was so ambitious in his zeal to eradicate Christ-followers that he requested and received permission to pursue them as far away as Damascus in Syria. But on his way there, Saul was interrupted by God. Here’s the account of his experience:

“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’” (Acts 9:3-5)

We must not miss the significance of what Jesus says here. Saul had devoted himself to persecuting the church (Acts 8:1). Jesus Christ so closely identifies Himself with His church that He asks Saul, “Why do you persecute me?” To persecute His church is to persecute Christ. To slander the community of Christ-followers is to slander Christ. If we have done that, perhaps we did it in ignorance like Saul, and again this is a case of mistaken identity. We didn’t realize who the church is!

We also see Jesus’ close identification with His community of followers in the fact that God has appointed Jesus as Head of the church (Eph 1:22; Col 1:18). Jesus Christ is the Founder and Leader of the church. We seem to have no trouble recognizing Jesus’ role as Head of the church universal—the unseen, ubiquitous collection of disciples throughout all ages. But Jesus is also the Head of every local congregation of His followers as well. (See 1 Peter 5:1-4; and Revelation 2-3.) How can we claim to follow Jesus if we refuse to associate with the church that He leads?

©2010 Rob Fischer

The purpose of this posting and those that will follow is not to draw attention to the church as an institution, but as the community of Christ-followers. In order to help us train our minds to understand this biblical distinction, I’m going to deliberately and frequently employ the term community of Christ-followers as a synonym for the church.

How did the church or community of Christ-followers come into being? And whose idea was it? The biblical account demonstrates that the church is God’s idea. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” (Matthew 16:18) In that context, Peter—a follower of Jesus—had recognized and declared Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). In response, Jesus affirmed that God Himself had revealed Jesus’ identity to Peter.

On the foundation of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, He would build his community of followers. The church, the community of Christ-followers is not man’s idea, but God’s.

We gain more insight into this truth when the Scripture declares that God “purchased the church with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) And Paul reveals Jesus as the Savior of the church, whom He loves and for whom He died. (Ephesians 5:23 & 25) There are several things going on in these passages.

For one, Christ’s community of followers is so loved and so precious to Him that He “gave Himself up” for it, purchasing it with His own blood. The point is that the church or community of Christ-followers is so highly valued by God that He paid a price for us (individually and collectively) beyond our comprehension. Therefore, to even suggest that the church is unimportant to God grossly demeans Him and cheapens the value He places on His church and the ultimate price that He paid to redeem it! How could we even entertain the thought that the church is unimportant to God?

Second, Christ did not shed His blood for an institution, but for His community of disciples. Many people who don’t make this distinction are abandoning the institution without thought for the community of Christ-followers. The idea that someone would deliberately disassociate themselves from Christ’s community of followers is horrific! To do so represents an appalling degree of rebellion, spitefulness and ungratefulness toward Christ Himself and His followers.

A third connection we make from the above passages is that the establishment of the community of Christ-followers was no after-thought or knee-jerk reaction, but God’s loving, all-wise plan. (Ephesians 1:11) In rejecting the community of Christ-followers do we presume to know better than God what’s best for His disciples?

Again, giving us the benefit of the doubt, our abandonment of the community of Christ-followers must be a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps we did not realize that the community of Christ-followers is God’s prized possession, purchased with His own blood, and planned by Him from ages past.

©2010 Rob Fischer

I’ve personally heard that claim many times over. “I’m a Christian, but I don’t go to church.” Based on the rest of our conversation, this particular individual expressed a need to justify his actions in the presence of a pastor!

Others who say, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t go to church,” communicate a sense of liberty—that they’ve been freed from the burden of church-going. Some people have been so wounded by a church that they swear they’ll never go back. Many simply hold the belief that church-going is unimportant to God and therefore isn’t important to them.

Many Christians who choose not to identify themselves with a church say things like: “I can worship God better in the woods.” “I pray and read the Bible, though admittedly not as much as I should.” “I try to spread the good news.” “I live as best as I can.” “The Bible doesn’t say we have to go to church.”

George Barna is a researcher who tries to keep his finger on the pulse of the Christian community and trends in America. Commenting on the results of a 2006 survey, George Barna writes, “People do not have an accurate view of themselves when it comes to spirituality. American Christians are not as devoted to their faith as they like to believe. They have positive feelings about the importance of faith, but their faith is rarely the focal point of their life or a critical factor in their decision-making. The fact that few people take the time to evaluate their spiritual journey, or to develop benchmarks or indicators of their spiritual health, facilitates a distorted view of the prominence and purity of faith in their life.” (See http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/141-barna-lists-the-12-most-significant-religious-findings-?q=church+attendance.)

Then, two years later, a 2008 survey revealed new behavioral patterns that prompted Barna to establish a new set of measures or classifications of people. One of those groups he calls the Unattached. These are “people who had attended neither a conventional church nor an organic faith community (e.g., house church, simple church, intentional community) during the past year. Some of these people use religious media, but they have had no personal interaction with a regularly-convened faith community.”

The Unattached represent nearly one fourth of adults in America (23%). About one-third of this group have never attended a church in their life. But nearly sixty percent of this group consider themselves Christians. And seventeen percent of this group call themselves born-again Christians. (See http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/18-congregations/45-new-statistics-on-church-attendance-and-avoidance?q=church+attendance.)

But what does God think? Is church relatively unimportant to Him? Can Christians do without the church after all? What does God reveal about the church in His Word, the Bible? Let’s get one thing straight. Whether we are talking about the label Christian or the subject of the church, if we genuinely seek to please God, then it doesn’t matter what we think, we need to understand and follow through with what He thinks!

For this reason, over the next few posts, I’d like to explore God’s Word on the subject of the church. A helpful place to begin would be to look at the term church in the New Testament. The word for church (Grk: ecclesia) occurs over 100 times in the New Testament. The term was not a freshly invented one used to describe this new phenomenon of Jesus’ disciples. Instead, ecclesia was a common term that was used, for instance, to describe the unruly mob in Ephesus (Acts 19:32) and the congregation or assembly of Israelites in their desert wanderings (Acts 7:38).

But the New Testament employs ecclesia primarily to denote a local gathering or assembly of Christ-followers. In English, the word church has evolved to describe more of an institution or building than a community of Christ-followers. This mindset is highly unfortunate because it pulls us away from how Christ sees His church.

The German language actually distinguishes between the two concepts. The word Kirche refers to the institution and building of a church and is translated church. While the word Gemeinde denotes the community of believers. The one understanding of church is cold and lifeless, while the other is highly relational and full of life. The New Testament’s description of church represents this relational, vital community of Christ-followers. The New Testament’s sense of church is the one I would like to discuss in the next several posts. And as we look at the community of Christ-followers in the New Testament, I think we’ll find that our present-day inclination to move away from the church is chiefly a case of mistaken identity–meaning, we’ve forgotten who we are in Christ!

©2010 Rob Fischer

Apparently a nine-year-old boy had inherited this 100-year-old villa from his aunt, who had not been able to care for it or herself for the ten years prior to her death. After she died, the house sat vacant for another five years. It had been broken into several times and ransacked by vandals. When the mother of the boy (owner) showed us the house, it looked like Frankenstein’s lair! Everything was covered with soot. The curtains, floor and furniture all were blanketed in black soot. The place was a mess!

Additionally, the boiler and all the radiators had burst in the cold. So in its current state the house had no heat and no water. Further details of the repairs the house needed to make it livable are too many to list here! My sweet wife cried after seeing the house and I was overwhelmed with the notion of renovating it.

No other house was available, so we struck an agreement with the owner that we would do the work if they would provide the funds for materials. So for the next five-and-a-half weeks I worked 14-hour days to make the house livable. Our co-workers and friends helped tremendously as well.

But as I began to work on the house, I resented spending all this “ministry time” on home renovations. I kept arguing with myself that I had come to Austria to win people to Christ, not work on this mega home-improvement project! I was really hard on myself during this time and felt guilty and defeated that I—a missionary—wasn’t doing missionary work. I also wrestled through these issues with God. He kept telling me to cool it and trust him that he had everything under control. After all, he cares far more for the lost than I do!

After a few weeks working on the house I began to notice something that I had been too self-focused on to recognize before. Our new neighbors were intensely curious about what we were doing to the house. I also discovered that they were extremely grateful that someone was fixing up this neighborhood eye-sore. The neighborhood grapevine quickly communicated that we were an American family—which spurred a lot of questions. But they were impressed with the intensity of this crazy American’s work ethic.

These sympathetic vibes that we were getting from our neighbors increased as we continued working on the house. People began greeting us and we had some friendly conversations with them. In the process, I got to know our local baker who sustained me daily with his delicious creations.

As a result of their curiosity and friendliness, Linda and I decided to invite all our neighbors to an open house once we finished the remodeling. Someone from every home we invited showed up to see what we had done to the house. This kind of response within six weeks is unheard of in Austria! Normally those kinds of relationships take months and years to develop. And yet God in his wisdom used the renovation of an old villa to break down relational barriers and catapult us into relationships with our neighbors.

This whole experience was a huge lesson for me in trusting God and his infinite creativity in getting the gospel of Christ to others. Because of the renovation of that house and the relationships that ensued, we had many great opportunities to share Christ with our neighbors. And God planted a church in that village that still thrives over twenty years later!

©2009 Rob Fischer

My personal understanding from Scripture is that the Lord does not provide for us a complete list of spiritual gifts. The lists given in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4 contain both similar and unique spiritual gifts. None of these lists neatly overlap. This leads me to the conclusion that these lists provide examples of spiritual gifts, but are not intended to give us a complete inventory of them.

This factor becomes very important when trying to pinpoint the spiritual gifts God has endowed us with. For if the biblical inventory of spiritual gifts is not exhaustive, then we may have spiritual gifts that are not represented in the lists. The Scripture itself suggests this idea in Exodus 31. In that passage, Israel is about to construct the tabernacle under the guidance of Moses.

In Exodus 31:1-5 we read, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.’”

The passage in Exodus clearly indicates that the Holy Spirit gave Bezalel special “skills, abilities and knowledge in all kinds of crafts.” Such skills are not listed among the spiritual gifts in the New Testament, but that’s what they were. From this it appears that the gift itself does not determine whether it is a spiritual gift or not. Instead, two other factors come together to signify a spiritual gift. First, the Holy Spirit gives the gift; and second, the household of God benefits from the gifts given to its individual members. These two characteristics jive with the New Testament description of spiritual gifts as well.

What this means for us very simply is that the Holy Spirit has bestowed some amazing gifts on individuals in the church family in order to serve and build up that church family. In our church I think of people who are skilled artists, mechanics, designers, chefs, small group leaders, carpenters, financiers, leaders, servers, greeters, teachers, musicians, writers, and so on.

In the past we’ve gone to great lengths to try to distinguish between talents and spiritual gifts. But if an ability, skill or knowledge is endowed by the Holy Spirit and serves the church family, is that not a spiritual gifting? What would be the value of even trying to distinguish between the two? I’m afraid we’ve attempted to create an exact science of something that is highly relational and therefore highly variable. (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.)

Here are some simple questions and suggestions for helping us implement our spiritual gifts:

• What special talents, skills, abilities or knowledge has God given you?
• What were you doing when you and others have observed God using you most effectively?
• What do others say that you’re good at?
• What do you really enjoy doing that serves the church family?
• If you’re not sure where to serve, simply pick an area or step into an opportunity and try it for a few months.
• From time to time all of us may feel unqualified and unsuccessful when employing our spiritual gifts.
• Remember, spiritual gifts must also be developed. You may have an aptitude for a skill, but lack the practice.
• Simply ask God to use you and make yourself available to him and your church family!
• Always exercise your spiritual gift with God’s strength, in his character and with others in mind.

©2009 Rob Fischer