I’ll never forget the church leadership meeting in which commitment to a local church became a major point of contention. It resulted, ironically, in some leaving the church and never coming back.
One group insisted that their local church membership wasn’t as important as their membership in the “universal” Body of Christ. A second group argued that because our local church is a spiritual family, membership should be treated with utmost seriousness. A third group—probably the majority—found themselves teetering in the middle: yes, the local, visible church is important, but so is the invisible, spiritual, universal Body of Christ.
Other questions flowed from this basic divide among the leaders. What do we do about those who leave the church? Let them go? Find out why they left? Plead for them to return? What about church hoppers who come to our church from another? Do we welcome them without question? Have them transfer membership? Send them back to their home church?
At this point, you may not see the question as a big deal. Church is church is church is church, right? Whether it’s big-C Church or small-c church, visible or invisible, local or universal . . . as long as we have a personal relationship with Jesus and are walking in the Spirit, does it really matter how we get our spiritual nourishment?
Yes, actually.
Biblically speaking, the primary place God works out our spiritual growth is in a tight-knit body of believers (Rom 12:4–8) . . . exercising their spiritual gifts for the benefit of one another (1 Cor 12:4–7) . . . under the equipping work of qualified leaders (Eph 4:11–17). That close-quarters community is not some invisible, spiritual “Church” that exists in the heavenly realm. Nor is it a random group of Christians who share a spiritual connection to Jesus. The smallest unit of the communion of the saints is the local family of God. This local church is comprised of brothers and sisters in Christ who engage in service, teaching, exhortation, giving, and leadership. Pastors and teachers equip the saints for body-building ministry in a visible, local body.
I get it. Sometimes our local church experience can be less than inspiring. It can frustrate us, irritate us, and, in some cases, even hurt us. In the local church, sometimes without meaning to, we step on each other’s toes, kick each other’s shins, and sometimes break each other’s hearts. Like our natural family, at times our spiritual family can be more dysfunctional than not. How tempting to trade in the local church’s all-too-real sphere of sinning saints for the idealized abstraction of the invisible, spiritual church.
Yet according to classic theology, what people call the “invisible” church is really the truly saved within the visible church. So, separating the “spiritual church” from the “physical church” makes as much sense as separating the soul from the body. And what people call the “universal” church is composed of the various local churches spread throughout the world. So, we are members of the universal church by being members of a local church, just as we are residents of a county by being residents of a town.
Yes, the “Body of Christ” is more than just your local church. Much, much more. But the Body of Christ isn’t less than that. So, take a deep breath, put on your spiritual armor, and go deeper with your local church. They need you, and you need them.
