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The Church!
The ancient Creed affirms that we believe in “one holy catholic church.” The word “catholic” is an adjective (as it only was in the early centuries of Christianity) meaning “universal, whole, complete, general, all-embracing” and should not be confused with the legal, corporate moniker of a singular denominational institution that eventually applied the adjective to itself alone much later.
We affirm the “mystical union of all believers,” “the communion of saints,” the “community of faith.” ALL believers in Jesus – across the centuries and continents – are united by our common faith in Christ as our Savior, united into the “household” or “family” of God, united as the “Body of Christ.” This communion, the church, this family is not limited by time or geography or institutional affiliations. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. The church is CHRISTIANS – in this sense, not an institution. Pardon the grammar, but “It’s not Jesus and ME, it’s Jesus and WE.” This is the primary and foremost meaning of “church.” See Ephesians 2:19-22, Ephesians 4:4, 1 Peter 2:9, Romans 12:4, Ephesians 1:1, Luke 17:21, etc.
We affirm in the Creeds that this corpus of Christians (past and present) is “one, holy, catholic, communion of saints.” Christians are bound together as one community of faith in Christ. We are holy because through this faith in Christ we are forgiven, we are catholic because together we are the whole corpus of believers, and we are a communion or community or fellowship of saints (those made so by faith in Christ). See Matthew 16:18, 1 Peter 2:5 & 9, Mark 16:15, Romans 15:25, 1 Cor. 14:33 and 16:1, Eph. 1:1).
Congregations…
Christians usually associate together, congregating or assembling typically for the purposes of public worship, mutual cooperation, edification, support and accountability. They NEED not (they are Christians - the Church - because of faith, not because of formal institutional membership). Such a gathering in a given place and time is technically called a “congregation” (although the term “church” may be used here in a secondary sense as in "First Baptist of Chicago"; this use is seen in Scripture, too – see Galatians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1). These associations may assume some institutional aspects (property, constitutions, officers, budgets, etc.) but the “church” is the people, not the institution. Actually, the Christians who associate in that congregation are but a small, tiny part of the “church catholic” – the whole number of believers, past and present.
By their very nature, congregations include non-believers in their midst (some seekers, some “hypocrites”), Matthew 13:47-49 seems to indicate we should not be too obsessed about that, just preach the word and love all people (God will sort it all out). Of course, clearly unrepentant sinners and heretics should not be embraced since they can harm or even destroy the fellowship, and give a “false witness” to the community.
Because Christians are spread out all over the world, it’s no surprise that that are literally millions of congregations – some huge, some tiny, some with institutional aspects, some just an informal gathering in a living room. Several congregations are mentioned in the New Testament (Galatians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Revelation 1:4, etc.).
Denominations…
Congregations may be denominational or non-denominational.
“Non-denominational” congregations are autonomous, independent, separate – with no formal relationship with any other congregation and with no accountability beyond itself (usually indicated as directly to Jesus).
“Denominational” congregations have bonded together with others in a formal, institutional manner, usually for reasons similar to why Christians bonded together with others in congregations. These congregations work and serve together, provide mutual accountability and support, etc. Denominations may actually legally/economically own the parishes that belong to it.
Usually (but not always) denominations have a common “Confession” (statements of doctrines and beliefs), a common name and a common governance and polity. They are typically legally incorporated in the jurisdiction in which they own property and govern its affairs. In some, this is well developed and regarded as binding, in some it’s all pretty loose with a lot of “room” for the local congregation to apply such as they see best.
There are no examples of denominations in the New Testament. For the first 300 years, Christianity was an illegal, “underground” religion – more a movement than anything, often “on the run” and meeting informally and occasionally even secretly in “house churches.” This changed when Christianity was made legal and then the official Roman religion in the 4th century. At that time, the Roman Empire formed the first denomination, The Roman Church, for the Christian parishes within the Empire (it never had any relevance outside the Empire).
Today, there are literally thousands of denominations, although perhaps 90% of Christian congregations are in 8 groupings (or confessional communities) of denominations. The fact that there are billions of Christian people, millions of congregations and thousands of denominations has no relevance to the fact that there is ONE, holy, catholic, communion of saints. Irrespective of our institutions, WE are ONE by virtue of our one Lord Jesus, our one faith in Christ, our one baptism (Ephesians 4:5-6, Romans 12:5, Ephesians 4:25, 1 Corinthians 10:17 and 12:12-26).
- Josiah
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