For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many . . . Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
The World's Perspective:
In our corporate world of today, we have grown accustomed to thinking of the local church as a corporation, and indeed many local churches are non-profit corporations.
It is actually best practice in the USA to incorporate churches and to run their business affairs in a business-like manner. The local church, however, is not a business, nor really is it an organization.
It would be easy to criticize this generation for following the mindset of the world as we think about the church, but previous generations have fallen into this trap as well.
I think it is no coincidence that the rise of Baptists and other groups of autonomous local churches who govern themselves by democratic processes coincided with the rise of political democracy.
Likewise, churches who are structured with Bishops and dioceses closely mimic secular kingdoms and empires.
The Biblical Perspective:
What we often forget is that the best Biblical description of the church is that it resembles an organism. The church is the Body of Christ and it is the Bride of Christ. The church is to be the Hands and Feet of Christ, and also workers who are not ashamed as they rightly divide the Word of Truth.
In short, the church, particularly the local church, is not an organization but an organism. And, as scholars like Robert Dale and George Bullard have noted, churches, like organisms, have a life cycle.
In essence, churches are born, they grow, they mature, they should produce offspring, they plateau, they decline, and eventually, unless the Lord returns first, they will die.
As Dale and Bullard illustrate the life cycle of a church, it resembles a bell curve starting with its birth, growing up to the point of its greatest ministry, then sliding down in an arc through growing ineffectiveness and decay, until the church breathes its last.
Click here to go to a link to a diagram of this concept.
Our Lord's Perspective:
Although this perspective seems to be fatalistic and deterministic, Robert Dale asserted that this did not necessarily need to be the case. If a church which had become plateaued would dream their dream again, they could launch upwards again in a fresh arc of growth and ministry. And Jesus, himself seems to agree with that belief. In Revelation 2:1-5 we read:
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstand “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
The last time that I posted, I lamented the fact that it is hard to start over, but that we must. We must rebuild after the ravages of COVID-19 on our lives and on our ministries. We must dream again, and we must rekindle our first love for Christ, for our communities, and our church congregations.
Conclusion:
Over the next few weeks, I will be using some material created by the International Mission Board to help new churches get started well on the mission field. I believe that the same material would be helpful to us as we rebuild after a year of COVID-19. Until then, pray that God will help us all to find our first love!
Every blessing,
Dr. Otis Corbitt
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