In our contemporary culture, with access to Christian podcasts, livestreams, online articles, books read to us digitally, regular access to Christian worship that is professional and polished, it is no wonder that many Christians are confused as to what constitutes “The Church” and what part we each individually play in our interaction with that Church. In Part I of this series, we already looked at the innate definition of the biblical words behind “The Church” and the fact that they have at their core, the idea of gathering together as the Lord’s “called out people.” With the advent of COVID into our lives, however, the question has quickly become, is the physical gathering together as high of a priority as it has been before? Is it really necessary to gather in order to be obedient to Christ and fulfill the call of The Church when a pandemic rages against us and at the point of this writing, has killed almost 300,000 souls in our country alone? A heavy and important question to be sure. And as we will note throughout this series, one that we cannot answer for you. It is an answer that each of us needs to arrive at fully convinced in our own mind as we have thought, studied, and prayed through the topic to the best of our ability. Hopefully, even when we have arrived at our conclusion, we do so with full humility towards Christ and any of His people who might disagree with us.
To begin the process of answering the two questions already posed, let’s begin by giving a bit of context in regards to the evolution of The Church’s view of how its people should gather. Admittedly, this will barely skim the surface of this topic and much, much more study could be done to gain a full understanding. But let’s dive right in…
The Spectrum Between “High Church” And “Low Church”
A look at church history will show that there has been much change across the 2,000 years of The Church’s existence in what the “gathering” of the saints should look like, especially since the Protestant Reformation. Some would argue that the house church gatherings outlined in Acts 2:42 is the “right way.” Others might say that the Mass and presentation of the eucharist that existed consistently for close to 1,000 years before the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern churches was the “right way.” Still others might say that there should be no “right way” as long as the Word is taught. Where you personally fall on this spectrum of opinion has historically been categorized with the labels “high church” and “low church,” or “high congregationalism” and “low congregationalism.” Those associated with Anglican or Episcopal tradition might be more familiar with these labels. For the rest of us “non-denominational” Protestants, it might be something new. But no matter what, even if a church is as “low church” as one can go, we all have a method behind gathering. Every church has a liturgy, whether they call it that or not.
Again, more study can be done on this topic, but in short, let me give you the defining characteristics of these two poles of the spectrum. High Church relishes tradition, a set liturgy or formula of what the worship of the local church should look like, and gives great respect to the authority of the leadership of the church. In the case of congregational churches, this authority is that of the congregation itself. Low Church fights against traditions, a set liturgy, and any authority outside the relationship between Christ and one’s self. High Church emphasizes a more communal view of what the worship of God’s people should be. Low Church emphasizes a more individual view of The Church. High Church greatly connects the community of the local church and membership within it with the sacraments of Baptism and Communion (and others if you are Catholic or Eastern Orthodox). Low Church may even go so far as to dismiss membership in a local body, ignore the necessity of baptism and regular communion in the life of the believer, and if practiced at all, separate these sacraments from the church community and the authority of church leadership. Even with these few identifiers, you might easily be able to see where your previous experience or personal preference lies on the spectrum.
High Church has traditionally been connected with the Divine Liturgy of Easter Orthodox, the Mass of Roman Catholicism, and the Neo-Catholic traditions of Anglicanism and the Episcopal Church. From there, as the Protestant Reformation began to roll through history, traditions began trending toward a more flexible view of the liturgy and church structure. As we move along the spectrum from High Church to Low Church, we see Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Non-Denominational Bible Churches, and on down to House Churches and Para-Church Ministries. With each successive movement, one can see a lessening of importance with regard to the liturgy, ritual, congregational and priestly authority, etc. But what does this have to do with answering the question of “Why do we gather?” Because how we gather (and if we gather in this time of COVID or any other historical plague with which the church has come face to face) communicates a message.
How We Gather Communicates A Message
It is important to understand this overview of movement in opinions about gathering so that we can see core themes, even in the midst of our differences. Seeing this range of opinions should humble our hearts that many brothers and sisters within orthodox Christian faith have practiced their faith differently with regards to the Sunday gathering and have loved Jesus well. So how do we figure out what is fruitful for us at Mission Fellowship, and for us individually? We first have to ask what the common thread was throughout these changes from High Church to Low Church. Hopefully, it was and will be the declaration of the core gospel (And yes, there is debate as to whether various churches in this spectrum declare the true gospel, but for the sake of this post, we will not tackle that here). But at an even higher level, it is that no matter your tradition, the gathering communicates a message. For example, the consistent and rarely changing tradition held in the early centuries of the church sought to speak to some of the qualities of God such as His immutability, the fact that He does not change. The stone altar upon which the mass was performed and the elements of the eucharist were consecrated in the Catholic Church sought to remind the gathered of the death of Christ on their behalf. In the Protestant Reformation, this stone altar was switched out for a common wooden table, meant to emphasize a reminder of the last supper and the common unity of the family of Christ around the taking of communion. Additionally, the pulpit from which the Word of God was to be preached was repositioned to the center of the gathering location to emphasize the Protestant value of “Sola Scriptura” or the authority of scripture alone in the life of the believer. All of these “traditions” spoke to something of emphasis.
As Protestants and children of the Reformation, however, part of our core identity is that we have attempted to push aside the mere traditions of men in honor of what we know to be biblically true. In doing so, we have attempted to proclaim that theme, once again, of “Sola Scriptura.” Unfortunately, I think that a look at the contemporary church might show us that this necessary corrective to move away from unbiblical and mystical traditions, has often lulled Christian individuals and the Protestant Church as a whole into a posture in which many no longer realize that our gatherings (or lack thereof) proclaim a message. Let’s look at what scripture seems to tell us our gathering proclaims:
1) It proclaims honor and glory to God. In the last post of this series, we looked at Hebrews 12:23 and Revelation 7:9-10. The author of Hebrews is helping us to see that each local assembly of believers in the earthly realm is acting as an embassy of the heavenly kingdom. Gathering together shows an embodied presence of God’s kingdom rule here on earth. When we gather together, the authority of Christ as our King is with us, and we act out that rule in our loving congregational authority with one another as seen in Matthew 18:15-20. At Mission, we do this in both our Sunday Gatherings and our congregational meetings. In both instances, we view the glory and authority of Christ as being tangibly present among His people, because His people are present. One can easily think of the psalmist, with the throngs worshipping together in the temple in mind, declaring that God is enthroned upon the praise of His people (Psalm 22:3). To be sure, the kingdom rule of Christ should be present in our individual lives each and every moment, but the baseline declaration of the church that Christ is our Savior and King begins with taking the first day of the week to declare it together.
2) It proclaims allegiance to Christ and His victory to the spiritual realm. In our secular and post-modern world, we often neglect to think about the effect of our actions in the spiritual realm. The Bible is clear that while we may ignore the spiritual realm, those that abide within it do not ignore us. In fact, the Bible is clear that they are watching us. The book of Daniel even calls angelic beings “Watchers” for this reason (Daniel 4:13, 17, 23). 1 Peter 1:12 describes the fact that angelic beings are greatly interested in the playing out of the drama of the gospel on the cosmic stage. God’s mercy and grace with which he saved us is something “…into which the angels long to look.” In Ephesisans 3:9-10, Paul echoes this idea and emphasizes the importance of the ekklesia (The Church) in declaring the wisdom and authority of God to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” At the end of that letter to the local church of Ephesus that would be circulated to other local gatherings of saints as well, Paul says this, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:10–13) I find it interesting that our God came to seek, save, and gather His sheep into His presence and family while the enemy came to kill, steal, destroy. If possible, I have seen in my pastoral experience that the adversary seems to do this by isolating the sheep so that He might devour them as a lion does its prey. Perhaps, dear saints, in our desire to love others by trying to keep them safe, something we should indeed continue to some degree, we have fallen to a place that we are now finding ourselves in the midst of the adversary’s schemes to destroy the proclamation and authority of Christ. Think about it from a political perspective. If you wanted to rid your realm from any interaction of another sovereign realm, the first thing you would do is order their embassies closed.
3) It proclaims the gospel to a lost and dying world. This is done through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. At Mission, we use the Word of God to call His people to worship at the beginning of our gatherings, during the sermon to remind the saints of the gospel and equip the saints for the work of ministry, and at the end of the service as a benediction and blessing over one another. Through our practice of taking communion together, we are proclaiming to anyone amongst us that may not be truly converted that we have a common unity in the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and that He is calling them to join us in that common unity. Also, Paul was clear that in taking communion together, we are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26). There is no need of an explicit statement in this text that the Corinthian church had to be gathered together in embodied form to celebrate communion because the entirety of the chapter, and really the surrounding chapters, innately expects that the saints are gathered together to practice communion. The presence of this practice at churches throughout the world every Lord’s Day means that the world will never be allowed to forget who its Creator and King actually is. If you were the adversary of that King, what would you want to do to remove the volume and weight of this declaration? You would do anything to get these gatherings to cease. If nothing else, to water them down so that they are lost in the noise of all the other voices on the internet. One person proclaiming a statement in their home is a lot less of a force than multitudes gathering together in unity.
4) It proclaims encouragement, love, strength, accountability, and common unity to one another. The author of Hebrews helps us out here as well. In Hebrews 3:13 and the surrounding passages, the author says that we need one another to stay strong in the Lord. “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” You might notice that this argues for a daily exhortation and so this may not be referring to our weekly gathering. But later, in Hebrews 10:24-25, the author gives us some clarity in this, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Sure, we can encourage one another and stir up good works remotely, but at the same time, recognize how much emphasis is placed in the New Testament on items done during the gathering itself to build one another up: Using our gifts to serve one another in 1 Corinthians 14:4 for example; preaching and teaching to admonish one another in Colossians 3:16; singing and giving praise is actually addressing one another, as well as God in Ephesians 5:19; communion as a corporate activity in 1 Corinthians 10:17 and 11:33; the equipping of the saints is surely part of the gathering in Ephesians 4:12. (Note: This list is part of a wonderful essay written about the necessity of the gathering of the church. If you want to read that as well, you can find it here.)
5) It proclaims a much needed identity to myself. In higher church practices, this act of taking communion is tightly linked with membership within the local body. This practice serves as a very tangible and embodied expression of who is the Lord’s and who is not. The practice of baptism that is to be done in the presence of the community into which you are stepping as a converted member of the faith is the initiation, if you will, into The Church. In other words, baptism is the initiation into that local expression of God’s community, and communion is the ongoing reminder and declaration of unity in the gospel with that community. Church membership and church discipline are the tools with which you know who is part of the community and who is not. This is also part of how we, the local church body, declare the gospel together. In Matthew 18:15-20, we see the Lord institute the practice that we refer to as “Church Discipline.” In 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, we see Paul making use of this as he challenges the local body of Corinth to deal with sin in its midst by excluding one unrepentant member and forgiving and restoring to membership a repentant member in a different case. The apostle John says that it is our love for the body that declares that we are in Christ (1 John 4:7-5:1). We may be able to exist for a short while by “seeing” one another over an internet device, but just as with any close relationship, that relationship will suffer over time without proximal interaction. If I never had time alone with my wife, I would start to doubt the strength of our marriage and my part in it. Similarly, there is a tangible benefit that exists when we gather together. It reminds us of our part in one another’s lives, and thus, in Christ. How much more needed is this, given the cloud of stress and division in 2020.
No matter where you might fall in your innate opinion or biblical view of whether high church or low church is “right,” I hope that you can agree that we are communicating something by our gathering, and even the way that we gather. The innate opinions of high church and low church were already present within us as individuals within the body before COVID hit. They are just becoming more pronounced as time goes on. But I want to call us to have open hearts and minds as we are challenged about whether or not those views have merit from a biblical perspective.
Perhaps we in the church need to ask the question of whether or not we believe that our weekly gathering in which we proclaim the gospel to all the cosmos is still relevant, still urgent, and still important? Is it something that can be put on hold for 2 weeks? 4 months? A year? With close to 300,000 souls in our country alone having moved into either eternal damnation or eternal salvation at the time of this writing, I want to proclaim clearly that I believe it is indeed urgent and necessary. With so many ignoring God all together and church attendance in a massive decline even prior to COVID, I want to proclaim clearly that I believe it is indeed urgent and necessary. And with so many falling into the pit of despair, depression, anxiety, and isolation, to heights previously unseen in our country, I want to proclaim clearly that the hope proclaimed by the embodied community of Christ is indeed relevant, urgent, and important. Perhaps more so than at any other time in history.
Dear saint, how have you historically, and how are you currently viewing the Church? In this time in which many are deciding not to attend the gathering of their local church, what other steps have you taken to proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world? What other ways have you adjusted so that messages proclaimed during the gathering of the saints is happening in some other way in your life? If the answer is that nothing has been adjusted, then I want to lovingly call you back to the gathering. If you are able to answer that you have indeed adjusted a great deal, then I want to say well done! But I still want to call you back to the gathering, because as much as you have done to adjust, I still cannot imagine any adjustment that will completely make up for the lack of gathering together with God’s people.
So where does Mission Fellowship fall on this spectrum of Low Church to High Church, why does this matter with respect to whether or not we gather during a pandemic, and how does risk play into all this? Because this post is already long, we will have to answer those questions in our next post.