Some question if the Christian church in the West is dying out in this century. In the Canadian context, across denominations, the church appears to be shrinking in almost every way—in our small Presbytery of Kamloops alone, two out of 10 congregations closed in 2015.
On another level, however, I’m excited by what I see. I am convinced that the Lord of the Church, who promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18), is reforming or rebirthing his church. The question is, what will the born again church be like?
The church of Jesus Christ was conceived at Easter and given birth by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. I think this process and its result is prescriptive for the church. That is, I think we can know what the born again church will be like by looking at the church in the New Testament.
That early church was largely a small group of risk-taking, countercultural, often-persecuted followers of Jesus. It remained so for about two and a half centuries.
When Constantine became emperor in the third century, things began to change radically. For a variety of reasons, many of them not entirely altruistic, Constantine favoured the Christian faith. The church underwent radical change as it quickly became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire and was eventually declared the state church by official edict in 380 CE.
This Christendom church reached its institutional peak in the mid-17th century and then, as it fully embraced the modernity of the various Enlightenment movements as authoritative, perhaps more so than the Word of God, it began a serious decline that we are still reaping the fruits of today.
It seems to be bitter fruit. But if Christ is rebirthing the church to the counterculture, small group, risk-taking community of Jesus as witnessed in the New Testament, the fruit seems bitter only because it is not yet fully formed. Fully formed, this born again church is bound to see dramatic changes, especially with regards to buildings, leadership, sacraments, and mission. I want to ponder this change in my articles between Easter and Pentecost.
A survey of the book of Acts and Paul’s epistles shows that in the New Testament church, for the main part there were no dedicated church buildings.
History can attest that sometime after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and the Jewish war with Rome was lost, one of the results was the “birkat ha-minim” or the reading in synagogue each Sabbath of a benediction against heretics. Christians often found themselves read out of the synagogue, something that perhaps started even earlier in Jesus’ day (John 9:22, 12:42, 16:2). If they had not been doing so before, certainly they now had to meet in small groups primarily in believers’ homes. Roman persecution of Christians during the same time further pushed Christians to the fringe of society and made house churches not only the norm but usually the only choice. This house church reality is what is reflected in the New Testament, and it is the biblical norm for Christ’s church (Romans 16:3-16). In this apostolic form, what mattered to the church were small, intimate, intentional faith communities gathered around the Word of God and the Lord’s Table in believers’ homes (Acts 2:42).
Centuries later, with the declaration of Christianity as the faith of the Empire, suddenly the basilica became a reality for the radically changed church. Elaborate church buildings became central to the notion and experience of church. Building placement in a community needed to be central and prominent. The building became the prime focus and asset for the church. For the main part, this has continued.
However, in this day and age as Christian congregations decline in numbers, the building very often has become a financial albatross. I would contend though that the church building really has been an albatross from the get-go, not because of finances but because of what it has done to the formation of the faith community and its mission. Buildings have demanded the church form large congregations, gatherings that tend to end up becoming what Karl Jung critiqued as “mere collectivities.” This sadly has become normative rather than the small, intentional, intimate faith communities housed in believers’ homes as in the New Testament. Church buildings quickly become the focus of a congregation’s energy, resources and raison d’être rather than the formation of small, intimate, risk-taking faith communities with a radical counterculture mission for Christ in the world.
In the church that is being born again into this century, I believe dedicated church buildings will once again cease to be normative for the church.
All kinds of radical change will result. For example, we will rediscover that in reality our congregations are made up of small groups and that the congregation exists for the sake of the small group not the small group for the sake of the congregation. Presbyteries will cease to close congregations because they are small whilst keeping their buildings. Rather they will close buildings and sell them to keep and cherish the small congregation, howbeit housed differently. Presbyteries will no longer allow congregations to keep their buildings as they dismiss their teaching elders due to tight finances. No longer will 30 or fewer believers be allowed to gather weekly in cold church buildings to stare at the backs of one another’s heads and sink into an ill-informed faith. Presbyteries and congregations will once again come to favour a church of Jesus built entirely with human bricks.
During our more than a quarter-century experience of house churches in our region, we have between 10 to 40 people per house church gathering weekly in warm homes and we look one another square in the eye as we proceed in our Berean way to carefully consider together, discuss and interpret everything that is taught from scripture. Without a building there is no need for all the committees and headaches associated with the institution and its physical plant. People are liberated to dedicate themselves to Christ and the formation of intimate faith community whilst discerning the Word and Christ’s mission for their world and its culture. It is the New Testament example; the biblical norm. Congregations without buildings or at the very least congregations intentionally not building-focused, will become normative for the born again church.
To be continued…
