The church is the people of God
– those whom He has saved in Christ and called to belong to Him. The Greek
word “ekklesia” is based on two words meaning “called out”. We have been
called out of the world to be His people.
The church is not a religious or
social club, but a divine society. Its head is Jesus Christ and it forms His
body (Colossians 1:18).
Each member of the Trinity is
involved in the creation and life of the church. The Father chose His people
before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). The Son died for the church on
the cross (Ephesians 5:25). The Holy Spirit indwells the church and baptises
believers into the Body of Christ (Ephesians 2:22, 1 Corinthians 12:13).
God created the church first of
all for Himself – for His delight and glory (1 Peter 2:9). Then He also
brought it into being to accomplish His purposes in this world, to help His
people and to reach out to those who do not know Him.
He has given His people the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as pledges of His love.
18 times the word means the universal church consisting of all true believers
in Christ, whoever and wherever they are (Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 5:23). 92
times the word means the local church in a particular place like Jerusalem or
Corinth (Acts 8:1, 1 Corinthians 1:2). (Note that the word is never used to mean
a building or a religious denomination, as it as nowadays by us).
Everyone who belongs to Christ and is born again is a member of the universal church, and they ought, therefore, to belong to a local church. If we love the church as He loved it, we shall surely want to be part of the visible company of believers in the place where we live.
The local church exists first of all for the worship of Almighty God (Psalm 29:2). In our services we should be concerned in every part to set forth God’s “worth”. Then we meet also to be built up in our faith through the ministry of God’s Word and prayer and by encouraging one another (Acts 2:42, Hebrews 10:24,25, 1 Peter 2:2). Fellowship is not an optional extra but is essential for our spiritual growth. Finally, the local church exists to evangelise those who do not know the Lord (Acts 1:8). So in other words we should be looking upwards, inwards and outwards. Any church which neglects any of these three things soon becomes lopsided.
We believe in the independent form of church government, i.e. the church should not be governed by bishops or a central church body, but it should be autonomous, under the immediate direction of the Lord, who is the Head of the church. All the members are equal in status and are free to express their mind at the church meeting. Each member has been given gifts to build up the fellowship (Romans 12:3ff, 1 Corinthians 12:1ff, Ephesians 4:7). Among these gifts are those of leadership and so the church has elders, including a pastor, and deacons.
Within the context of the priesthood of all believers and ministry of the whole church, leadership in the local church is essential for its proper functioning. While some offices (like apostle and prophets) in the New Testament have ceased now with the completion of God’s revelation in the Scriptures, those of elder and deacon remain.
“Bishop” or “overseer” and “elder” were the same office in the New Testament churches (Acts 20:17, 28, Titus 1:5,7, Philippians 1:1, James 5:14, 1 Peter 5:1).
Elders have pastoral care of the church and are responsible for leading, instructing, protecting and guiding its members. They are led in those responsibilities by the pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 5:17) who is also normally (but not exclusively) responsible for preaching the Word and administering the Ordinances.
The character and responsibilities of elder are described in Acts 20:28, 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-3.
Deacons are responsible for the temporal and material affairs of the church and so they care for such things as church property and financial matters. Their character and responsibilities are described in Acts 6:1-6 and 1 Timothy 3: 8-10, 12-13.
Some people believe that in the New Testament churches there were also lady deacons, e.g. “Phoebe” (Romans 16:1). They argue that in the context of 1 Timothy 3:11 “women” is a better translation than “wives”. (N.B. There is no “their” in the original Greek). From the 17th century onwards there have always been some churches (fully accepting the authority of the Bible), who have appointed lady deacons (but not lady elders) to care especially for the needs of ladies in the fellowship.
Leaders of a church and of organisations within the church set the spiritual standard of that fellowship by their commitment and example. Rarely do churches rise higher than the spiritual level of their leaders.
We believe that people should be members of a church not because they were born in a “Christian” country, or belong to a Christian family, or because they have been through a religious ceremony. People should be members only because they have personally responded to the Gospel and know Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Saviour (That is also the reason why we practice only believers’ baptism and emphasise that only believers should partake of the Lord’s Supper).
When we join a local church it becomes our spiritual home and we are committed to supporting it in every way. Membership is an important way of confessing and serving the Lord and we ourselves find much help from the support and experience of other Christians.
In New Testament times there were no independent and isolated Christians, but everyone was a member of a church. We believe all Christians should follow this pattern today.
Our supreme loyalty is of course to the Lord, but our second commitment is to His people (2 Corinthians 8:5). If we belong to the head, we belong to the body as well. We are not doing God a favour by joining a church, but enjoying a great privilege and so we are bound to take the matter very seriously. Before joining a church, people should remember that membership involves very serious responsibilities. Our loyalty to the church should be expressed in various ways:
(a) Attendance at the various meetings of the church on Sundays and during the week as far as we possibly can. (After all it was the church and not the minister which fixed those meetings and their times) (Psalm 27:4, 121:1, 1 Corinthians 11:33, Hebrews 10:25).
(b) Concern to maintain unity and love among the members (John 13:34, Ephesians 4:3). We, as brothers and sisters in the same family, should be warm, welcoming and very practical (1 John 3:16-18). We are “all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). We should bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), be ready to forgive (Ephesians 4:32), and regularly pray for one another (James 5:16). It would be very helpful if, using the church list of members and friends, we prayed for one or two people or families each day. We should also carefully avoid anything which spoils fellowship and good relationships in the church.
(c) Wholehearted commitment to the doctrinal position of the church (Jude 3).
(d) Support for our leaders who bear very heavy responsibilities (1 Thess. 5:12, 13, Hebrews 13:17).
(e) Care for the good name of the church in the community (1 Thess. 4:11, 12). People judge our church by us. Actions speak louder than words. Never criticise fellow Christians before the world. Remember the confidentiality of church meetings – “The things of the house within the house”.
(f) Concern for our fellow Christians who faithfully preach the Gospel all over the world. We should take an interest in them, pray for them – especially those who are suffering and being persecuted (1 John 3:14, Hebrews 13:1-3). When we are on holiday we ought to join in worship with other Christians in the place where we are staying. This will greatly encourage them and at the same time help us.
(g) Responsible stewardship of our time and talents and money for the work of the Gospel (Matthew 20:26,27, 25:14-30). Many Christians argue that if God’s people in the Old Testament gave a tithe (i.e. tenth) of their income to the Lord (Malachi 3:8-10), Christians who belong to the New Covenant can hardly do less.
(h) Concern about the outside
world. We are to love our neighbours as ourselves (Luke 10:27-37) and to do good
to all men, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Galatians
6:10). This will include a concern to help people in material need and also a
concern to bring them the Gospel (Romans 1:14,15).
“If every member were just like me
What
sort of church would my church be?”
All these responsibilities of church membership remind us how much we need the power of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives to enable us to live and serve Him as He deserves (Romans 5:5, 1 Corinthians 3:5, Ephesians 5:18).
