Ecclesia and “Abiblical” Stuff

Every time I prepare a post on "what makes a church a church" I find myself compelled to address the good challenges posed by the comments.  So, first a bit more on first century “ecclesia” and then the biblical “marks of the church”. 

One of the most personally interesting parts of reading Mr. Barna’s book, Revolution, was glancing through the list of “Books of Interest” (p.141) at the back of the book.  Right at the top of the list is The Church Comes Home, by Robert and Julia Banks.  I know that book well.  Indeed, I know just about everything that Rob Banks has written on the church and more because he was my doctoral mentor at Fuller Theological Seminary.  Indeed, one of his last assignments after he left Fuller to return to his native Australia in the wake of Julie’s passing was to help me finish my Ph. D. dissertation in practical theology.

Rob Banks is a leader in the house church movement in Australia and was a provocative and caring mentor.  Frankly, I was a bit surprised at Rob’s graciousness and eagerness to work with me on a dissertation about spiritual formation and Christian community because at the time, I was on the staff of a 4000 member church.  But to study with a guru of houses church while working in a “tall steepled church” was invigorating to both my research and to my development as a pastor.  (Interesting bit of trivia: Last year, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian—which is the re-write of my Ph. D. dissertation under Rob Banks, was chosen as an “Award of Merit Book by Christianity Today, the book that ‘beat’ it for “book of the year" was one co-authored by Rob Banks.  A student is truly never greater than his teacher.)

While I am thrilled that Mr. Barna has read The Church Comes Home, I would like to recommend another book by Dr. Banks, his seminal work, Paul’s Idea of Community.

In this work, Dr. Banks lays out a long discussion of the Greek word, “ekklesia”, a word that was very familiar to everyone in first century Roman culture, because it had long been used to refer to the assembly of citizens in a particular place to make decisions for their common welfare.  It did not regularly refer to anything even remotely religious.  It’s not in the first instances a “Christian word” at all.  (p. 27ff)

But the early Christians took this same word to describe their most basic act of devotion and worship; they would gather.  And those gatherings would not be random meetings, but regular, deliberate and purposeful assemblies to be “the church” for a particular locale.  (The Big C Church for a specific place.)

Dr. Banks’ own words on the subject:

“In these early letters of Paul, the term ekklesia consistently refers to actual gatherings of Christians as such, or to Christians in a local area conceived or defined as a regularly assembling community.  This means that ‘church’ has a distinctly dynamic rather than static character.  It is regular occurrence rather than an ongoing reality.  The word does not describe all the Christians who live in a particular locality if they do not gather. Nor does it refer to the sum total of Christians in a region or scattered throughout the world at any particular time.  And never during this time is the term applied to the building in which Christians meet.  Whether we are considering the smaller gatherings of only some Christians in a city or the larger meetings involving the whole Christian population, it is in the home of one of the members that the ekklesia is held—for example in the upper room.” (p. 35, see also Acts 18:7-8, 20:7-8)

This understanding of first century ecclesia demonstrates that the definition of the “church” is as a specific gathered people—“a regular occurrence rather than an ongoing reality.”  Exactly the opposite of Mr. Barna’s contention, “if a person is able to live a godly life outside of the congregation-based faith, then that, too is good.”  While Dr. Banks and other home church advocates want to encourage smaller, more organic gatherings that are no less church, Mr. Barna argues that the church is the church whether anyone gathers or not.  For Mr. Barna the only ecclesia required of believers is the fellowship with whomever helps the individual to grow in Christ—thus, as I have already pointed out, relegating the gathering to nothing more than one strategy amongst many personal discipleship options.

(Interestingly, Mr. Barna’s interviews about the book have far more emphasis on “community” than does the actual book—which I applaud—but he still maintains, in my opinion, a deficient ecclesiology.)

Gathering, regularly, with a specific group of Christians was from the beginning the central activity of faith (Acts 2:42) and even the first modality of mission and witness in the world (Acts 2:43-47). 

Dr. Banks also helps us to recognize that while it may indeed, “take a church to raise a Christian” it does NOT “take a building to make a believer.”  I believe that  Mr. Barna is at least partly correct when he says that the “services, offices, programs, buildings, ceremonies” are “abiblical—that is, such an organization is not addressed in the Bible.”  (Partly in that he dismisses out of hand at least some degree of organization and structure that is present in the New Testament—like organizational structure (Acts 6) leadership requirements (1 Tim 3), worship and ministry instructions (1 Cor 11, James 5:14) and the like.)

But the issue is not whether we gather, (we must!), but in what ways, with whom and what requirements are necessary for the ekklesia to be the ekklesia.  (A subject that, bearing your patience, I will address directly next post)

Comments

[Rev. Mike]

YES! Thank you, Tod. I've been waiting for you to get to this point, and you have not let us down.

Now ... from an historical perspective and considering the nature of frontier and rural life, say, in the 19th century, would you consider the family to have qualified as a minimalist ekklesia?

[Gordon]

I find this issue a very important one that I've been cogitating on for some while. I did blog on the topic once last year:
http://gg-probes.blogspot.com/2005/09/thinking-about-churchive-been-thinking.html
(I'v given the link rather than add a long comment.

Shalom

Gordon

[Richard]

Hi Pastor Tod,
I too enjoy Robert Banks' work. I read and reviewed (on the blog) Redeeming the Routines. Wondered what you thought of that work as well.
Take care,