Church in a Century of COVIDic Captivity | Epistle 1

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed everything; including ‘church.’ As one who loves the Church and studies her, I hope to capture my (and others) random thoughts about the Church here at a time when COVID-19 threatens to hold us all to ransom.

A few of my library books on ecclesiology (the part of theology that undertakes the study of the Church)

1. CHURCH IS PEOPLE FIRST

Some have been upset by various governments prohibiting the gathering of people, including churches, during this COVID-19 pandemic. In trying to make a point regarding what is the most important thing about church, I have seen well-meaning Christians ask on social media: “is church a place we go or what we do?” I’ve had to gently nudge some to say it’s both; and neither. Because church is first and foremost who we are. Church is people first, before it is what they do (‘doing church services’) or a place they go (‘going to a church meeting place/building’).

To all who believe in Jesus Christ as their saviour from their sins and accept him, God gives the right to become children of God (John 1:12). These persons become engrafted into Jesus, forming ‘the body of Christ’. “All of you together are Christ’s body,” Paul writes to the church in the commercial city of Corinth in ancient Greece, “and each of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). These believers in Christ and now the body of Christ are also called “the household of God, which is the church of the living God” (1 Timothy 3:15, ESV).

These people may gather at a particular place (which over the centuries has become known also as ‘church’) and conduct a ceremony (which has become known as ‘doing church’ too) but church is first and foremost God’s people in Christ, before it is where they go or what they do.

So ask yourself if even you’ve been ‘going to church’ and/or ‘doing church’: are you really church? “… God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The LORD knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil” (2 Timothy 2:19). A symbolic way the Bible puts turning away from our sins and evil is ‘washing your hands and purifying your heart’ (Psalm 24:4). Perhaps as you physically wash your hands in this season you might want to consider inviting Jesus to wash your heart with his shed blood on the cross as well so you become church; and not just go to or do church?

2. CHURCH SO SIMPLE YET SO COMPLEX

Precisely because church is people and people are diverse and complex, what should’ve been the simple definition of church in the point above, has evolved in complexity! As Karkkainen bluntly puts it, “the term church for better or worse reasons has been loaded wth so many unfortunate connotations from authoritarianism to coercion to antiquarianism.” Almost anything anybody says about ‘church’ can be true because there is such a wide range: the good, the bad and the ugly. All those books in the picture above (and I have more) are my feeble attempt to learn more and more about the church.

So, there is Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology, Roman Catholic ecclesiology, Lutheran ecclesiology, Reformed ecclesiology, Free Church ecclesiologies, Pentecostal/Charismatic ecclesiologies, the Ecumenical Movement ecclesiologies, Communion ecclesiology, Universal Ecclesiology, Messianic Ecclesiology, Participatory ecclesiology, Baptist ecclesiology, Missionary Ecclesiology… Do you have the time for me to go on? Mehn, people make a living from this and get PhDs studying this stuff!  If you didn’t know, at the last count there were approximately 40,000 Christian denominations, each one with a slightly different emphasis, all from that one God and His single Bible!

3. CHURCH HAS BEEN HERE A LONG TIME; AND AIN’T GOING NOWHERE

Not physically meeting as church for a few weeks isn’t going to destroy the church; and please don’t call it “persecution.” There’ll be an instalment on ideas for being and doing church in these Coronaic times. I like the use of the word ‘century’ in this Church in a Century of COVIDic Captivity series because it provides a significant long-term perspective. The Church and churches have been around for at least 2,000 years i.e. 20 centuries. The Roman Empire tried to vanquish her in the first two centuries and ended up merging with her under Constantine around 300A.D. When the church was oppressed during the Chinese cultural revolution in the last century and missionaries expelled many thought the worst for the barely 1 million Christ followers in Mao Zedong’s communist/atheist China. By 2010 the Church had grown to 50 million; and many believe it is about 100 million now.

A hundred years ago (1918), the Spanish flu killed 20-50 million people, 3% of the world’s population (some say 100 million); Church didn’t die. And we’re still here, 2.3 billion strong. This COVID-19 pandemic is not the worst thing that ever happened to Church. Oh, and the Church will still be here till Jesus returns for his bride (another word for church)! How do I know for sure? Jesus himself says so: “I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18, NLT). I almost said “you can bank on it” but we’ve seen several banks collapse in this century. So let me rather say, you can church on it!

Reference

Karkkainen, Veli-Matti. 2002. An Introduction to Ecclesiology. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.