First Things

Why We Gather: Part II

Welcome to the second in a series of articles written to explore and uncover the purpose of the Christian gathering.

In the previous article, we started by exploring four prototypical forms of the church—the Trinity, human social design, the Synagogue, and the Greek legislative assemblies. While these forms pre-date the church that Jesus launched, there’s evidence to suggest each was intended to model the Christian assembly in its own way. If you haven’t read that article yet, I would highly recommend you read it first.

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In Part II, we’ll now turn our attention to the scriptures. After all, doesn’t the New Testament describe about how Christians met together in the first century Church? Wouldn’t scripture describe church life in its purest form?

Well, yes and no.

Scattered throughout Acts and the epistles, we find the kinds of activity that occurred during a first century church. But we need to be careful not to assume the activity we see there was meant as a prescriptive model for the modern church. I grew up in a denomination whose goal was to “restore” the New Testament Church. Unfortunately, this involved using Biblical narratives as the authoritative recipe for our church gatherings. It’s more important to look beyond the biblical description through the lens of history and culture to understand the central reasons why the church met. When meeting, it’s less important to satisfy the specifics of how we gather, so long as we’re satisfying the purpose that the Lord intended for our gathering. The specifics of how a church gathers might vary across time, culture, and situation. Why the church gathers is eternal and unchanging. However, how a church will gather should always facilitate why it gathers. It would make sense then that there are some core activities of the gathering are timeless and can never dispense with.

This isn’t to say scripture can’t still offer tremendous insight as to why we gather. While tantalizing clues are scattered throughout the epistles, the following passages provide concentrated insight into why the first century church gathered:

• Acts 2:42-47
• Romans 12
• 1 Corinthians 11-14
• Ephesians 4
• Philippians 2:1-16
• Colossians 3:12-17

To find the Lord’s purpose for His children’s gathering is to isolate the root task and purpose behind the broader narrative. As we’ll see, these concepts are bound tightly to the reason the church exists to begin with.

I Will Build My Church

When you read through the bulletized list of passages above, you get a definite sense that the assembly exists for something big. Whatever it is, it’s bigger than evangelism. It’s bigger than singing a few songs and hearing a sermon on a Sunday morning. And while it’s not easy to discern why the church exists, you get a sense that (whatever it is) it’s both self-evident and monumentally consequential to the recipients of Paul’s letters.

In the post The Kingdom of God, I borrowed the language of author Frank Viola to describe the church as a community that manifests God’s ruling presence. In other words, our purpose as a church is to be a visible and practical expression of the living Christ on Earth. We do this by doing what He did–by embodying, demonstrating, and proclaiming His Kingdom—first to one another and then to the world. While the church has all but lost this understanding of its purpose, it is central to what Luke and Paul are attempting to convey in the six passages above.

Manifesting God’s ruling presence just doesn’t happen on its own. No matter how well-trained your pastor, no matter how old your traditions, and no matter how mature your members, it will always require Christ’s involvement to both build and to shape the assembly for its God-given purpose.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

– Matthew 16:17

While Jesus may have handed over the keys to the Kingdom, He wants to make it emphatically clear that He will build His church. He later states that He would be the church’s “chief cornerstone” (Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11). In ancient construction, a building’s cornerstone is the first stone set in a building’s foundation. It’s usually placed at the corner where two exterior walls meet. The cornerstone not only determines the position and orientation of the structure, but it also bears the weight of what’s built on top of it. By identifying Himself the church’s chief cornerstone, Jesus was saying that He would be the template of its design and pattern of its construction. Jesus was saying that He would not merely be the church’s blueprint. Having been built into it from the beginning, He would remain a permanent and critical fixture within its structure.

The Greek word used for ‘build’ is oikodomeo (οἰκοδομέω). This word is used over and over again in scripture to refer to individual believers as well as the church as a whole. Depending on context this word can mean the act of building a physical structure (like a home or building) or to the building up of the character or stature of a person or group. For the church, both senses are true: The assembly is a dwelling place for the Lord that will progressively bear His image. For it’s by bearing His image that we manifest His Kingdom.

Let’s look at some key passages that describe these two ways the church was built in the New Testament.

Being Built Together

First, both Paul and Peter advance this idea of God’s children being built into a spiritual home where the Lord literally takes residence.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

– Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)

…you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

– 1 Peter 2:5 (ESV)

…but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

– Hebrews 3:6 (ESV)

In the first passage, we see that the Lord used the believers at Ephesus as raw materials—joining them together as to become a spiritual structure that served as a temple for the Lord to literally dwell. He’s not referring to a church building or a cathedral. The temple he’s talking about is made of humans! Just as Solomon’s Temple was constructed from a variety of materials, with a variety of gifted artisans, from a very specific blueprint (1 Chron. 28; 2 Chron. 2), the New Temple—the assembly—is built with a variety of materials (fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God), with a variety of artisans (the apostles, prophets, and those gifted in building up the church), with a very specific blueprint (a foundation of Jesus Christ).

The second passage echoes this analogy by referring to the believers as living stones. This temple of God was not a static structure made of brick and mortar. It was a living house made of priests. Like the old Temple, the function of the new priesthood was to offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices. But since the ultimate sacrifice had been made in Jesus Christ, new sacrifices offered were to be vastly different type than those under the old covenant (as we’ll discuss in the next post).

A westernized Christianity that emphasizes our individual identity while remaining disconnected from one another would be a completely foreign idea to Paul and Peter. While the Lord is happy to dwell within the individual, His greatest desire was to dwell within us as a body. The default context of Christ’s image and function in the earth was an assembly of believers who were built to function together.

Needless to say, being built and joined together cannot happen outside of being assembled and submitting ourselves to the building process. Being built together is a primary reason why we gather.

Being Built Up

Not only are we to be built together, but we’re also to be built up.

Beginning with Christ as cornerstone, a foundation is laid by the apostles and prophets who equip the members to function (Eph. 2:19-20). It’s from this foundation that the house grows together as it’s built up for its task and purpose. Being “built up” can include numerical growth, but more importantly it points to spiritual maturity. For as long as Christ remains the center and focus of an assembly, it will be progressively conformed to His image and likeness (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10; 2 Peter 1:4).

While scripture will often refer to being “built up”, the process of being conformed to the Lord’s image has been given many names. Protestants use words like sanctification, transformation, or spiritual growth. Roman Catholics will refer to it as divinization or deification. The Eastern Orthodox use the word theosis. The point is that most Christians understand that being “built up” is a critical part of the life of a believer. Most also understand that true character transformation doesn’t happen immediately. It requires that we submit ourselves to the Lord and allow Him to shape us. This can take years, even decades.

But while most understand the sanctification of the individual, we seem to have lost the idea that this process also happens with assemblies. A careful survey of scripture reveals that passages that refer to sanctification are almost exclusively written in a communal context, using words like “body” and “church” to refer to what’s being built up.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

– Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

– Ephesians 4:15-16 (ESV)

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

– 1 Corinthians 10:23 (ESV)

The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

– 1 Corinthians 14:4-5 (ESV)

Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

– 1 Corinthians 14:12 (NIV)

When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

– 1 Corinthians 14:26 (NIV)

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

– 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

Obviously, such things can’t happen without the intentional gathering of the believers. Along with being built together, being built up is another primary reason why we gather.

One striking aspect of these passages is the means by which a church is built up. To be clear, the Lord Himself does the work of building His church (Matt. 21:42; Acts 20:32). But in his sovereignty, He has chosen to do His work through the individual members of His body!

How does this happen?

Scripture tells us that happens in the context of fellowship as each member shares grace in a framework of love.

The Context of Fellowship

Let’s first talk about fellowship.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

– Acts 2:42 (ESV)

Devotion to the fellowship was a core practice of the assembly from the beginning. In the Greek, there are two words that translate roughly into what we understand as “fellowship”. They are homilia (ὁμιλία) and koinonia (κοινωνία).

Homilia can be thought of as everyday companionship and friendly interaction that implies a familiarity with other individuals. It can describe intimate conversations that highlight the social aspect of community. This could easily describe much of the interaction we experience in a church gathering today.

But the word that was used in Acts 2:42 is koinonia. Koinonia connotes a deeper, more committed form of fellowship that includes sharing, partnership, and mutual support within a wider community. It can be seen as fulfilling of the anthropological need for human gathering as well as the Trinitarian model of relationship that we discussed earlier. Rather than sharing our lives directly with one another, koinonia involves participation in an object or activity shared among the members. This can include sharing or participating in things such as the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3,6-7; 1 Cor. 1:9), the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1), someone’s faith (Philemon 1:6), Christ and His sufferings (Phil. 3:10), the work of the gospel (Gal 2:9), or any other thing an individual enters into with the other members of the Body.

While koinonia is expressed in different ways during a gathering, the most concrete expression is in the communal meal known as the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper. This is the “breaking of bread” referred to in Acts 2:42. While this simple fellowship meal has been become stylized in its observance, it’s historically been the centerpiece of the gathering, serving as both a memorial and celebration of Christ’s sacrifice whereby we spiritually ‘feed on the Lord’ (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:42; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:24-26). I talked about the special significance of the Eucharist in an earlier post.

All this to say, the kind of fellowship that scripture talks about is not the casual “arm’s length” social interaction we commonly have with acquaintances. Rather, it’s participating in a loving and close-knit family with Christ who is very much alive and present within it (Matt. 18:20; Matt. 28:20; John 17:20-23).

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So, in light of a proper understanding of fellowship…

• How should we spend our time in the assembly?
• What would be the nature of our gatherings?

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Here are my thoughts:

Today, we like to think of fellowship as the things we’re supposed to do on your own time, outside the designated holy hour of our assembly. Of course, some churches will have a few minutes of coffee and donuts in the fellowship hall before church. Others will spend time after the designated worship time catching up with one another. Sometimes a church will meet in the “fellowship hall” for special events and potlucks that encourage member interaction.

But I have a nagging suspicion that a lot of true body fellowship may have likely occurred during the meat of the assembly. Keep in mind that the assembly of the first century may have had some liturgical elements carried over from synagogue worship, they were nowhere as ordered and scripted as church services are today. They also had much fewer people (due to the limitations on the number of people that could be gathered in a typical house). Such a loose, cordial, homey environment would have been a perfect place to practice fellowship through interaction and sharing. As such, fellowship would not have to be “nurtured” as might need to be with large assemblies of people who are not familiar with one another. Koinonia naturally precipitates in close-knit families who are being built on the foundation and continuing revelation of Jesus Christ.

Sharing Specialized Grace

It’s in the context of koinonia that the Lord continues his work of building up. He does this as the believers share grace with one another. Grace is a word we throw around a lot in Christian circles, but what is it really?

In simplest terms, grace is unearned favor. This means that while we’ve done nothing to earn someone’s favor, they offer it anyway. The Greek word for ‘grace’ is charis (χάρις). Incidentally, the Greek word for ‘gift’ is charismata (χαρίσματα) along with its synonym dorea (δωρεά). The similarity between the words grace (charis) and gift (charismata) in the Greek is significant–a gift is just favor in a form that can be shared.

A gift is shareable grace!

Of course, the Lord is the source of all grace (James 1:17). Scripture tells us that Jesus Himself is a grace offered to us by the Father (Rom. 5:15; 2 Cor. 9:15). In turn, Jesus offers immeasurable grace to all who accept Him. This includes forgiveness, salvation, purpose, peace, rest, the assurance of hope, renewal, guidance, transformation, reconciliation, empowerment, communion, faith, glory, and son/daughter-ship. These are the foundational graces we receive as co-heirs with Christ.

But that’s not all.

In addition, He offers a diverse assortment of specialized graces to the individual members of His Body (Rom. 12:6a). I call them “specialized” graces because they’re not broadly effectual like the other forms of grace the Lord provides. Instead, they’re more like tools in a toolbox—each type serves a specific purpose in the assembly and in the broader Kingdom. These graces are apportioned by the Spirit to the individual members of the assembly (1 Cor. 12:7). But rather than being used for the sole benefit of the recipient, these graces were designed to be shared with others in the assembly. While we might be more familiar with the term “spiritual gifts”, I’m using the term specialized graces to broaden our perspective of their variety, function, and origin.

So, what specifically are these specialized graces?

A good place to start is the scattered list we find throughout Paul’s epistles. They include things like:

• Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous works, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues (1 Cor. 12:8-10)
• Apostles, prophets, teachers, miraculous works, healing, helps, guidance, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:28)
• Prophecy, acts of service, teaching, exhortation, financial aid, guidance, and being merciful (Romans 12:6-8)
• Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers (Ephesians 4:11), and oversight (Phil. 1:1)

Taking a close look at these graces, you’ll notice that they broadly fall into one or more of the following categories:

1. Those that offer revelation and deeper knowledge and understanding of God and His Kingdom,
2. Those that offer leadership in spiritual care, encouragement, and oversight,
3. Those that offer practical help to the body (physical healing, financial aid, etc.), or
4. Those that specialize in interfacing with the world to declare and establish the New Kingdom.

Note also that each category supports the primary dimensions by which a church is built—building together, building up, and building out (by having others being added to the church). Those graces that focus on building together and building up would most often be practiced within a gathering (or possibly in smaller settings among believers outside the larger gathering). Those graces specializing in building out would most often be practiced outside the gathering where a Christian witness does not yet exist or in mixed gatherings of believers and non-believers (1 Cor. 14:24-25).

Scripture tells us that these specialized graces are not static. While every member has at least one form of specialized grace, some have more than others (1 Cor. 12:7,11,29-30; Rom 12:3,6; Eph. 4:7,11). There is nothing to indicate they were restricted to any gender, age, race, or social status. Also, members could gain additional graces since Paul admonishes the Corinthian church to seek those that they don’t already have (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1).

Also, while we can put a lot of emphasis on the specific lists found in scripture, I’m not so sure these lists were intended to be theologically complete. You’ll notice some graces are distinct in their function while some overlap with others. Some are mentioned in more than one of the lists while others are only mentioned once in all of scripture. Rather than trying to be comprehensive, it seems Paul was offering several common examples, but with these examples tracing their source from an infinitely deeper and more diverse well of God’s grace.

For example, several epistles admonish practicing what’s referred to as the “one another” activities within the gathering. These include:

• Exhorting and encouraging one another (Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Thes. 4:18)
• Teaching and admonishing one another (Rom. 15:14; Col. 3:16)
• Serving one another (Gal. 5:13)
• Carrying one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2)
• Being compassionate to one another (Eph. 4:32),
• Addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19-20)

Each of these activities can build up the church. But notice that some of them can be mapped to Paul’s previous lists while others can’t. However, their broad encouragement suggests that everyone in the assembly were given sufficient grace to practice each of them at some level. Paul even views something as simple as bringing a hymn to the gathering as effective in building up the church (Eph. 5:19-20; 1 Cor. 14:26-27).

Also, while we recognize that a grace is a manifestation of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7), some view the only legitimate graces as the ones that are both instantaneous and miraculous—like healing and speaking in tongues. Of course, graces can have these characteristics. But to think of them only in this way dismisses other avenues the Spirit uses to dispense grace.

For example, natural talents and abilities may lie dormant until quickened by the Spirit’s prompting. Personal wealth is certainly a non-miraculous blessing that can be shared as the Spirit directs us. Also, while apostleship, teaching, and evangelism are listed as graces, we know that Paul taught these skills to others for approximately two years in the Hall of Tyrannus while staying in Ephesus (Acts 19:9). This strongly suggests that some graces can be naturally learned from others. The bottom line is that we should be less concerned about how we receive specialized grace than we are about being obedient to share what we’ve been apportioned when prompted (and allowing the space in our assemblies to do so).

Given all this, it seems any Spirit-prompted contribution that builds up the assembly would qualify as a sharing of grace and beneficial to the gathering. So rather than concern ourselves with identifying our specific spiritual gifts before we share them, we should simply share what grace comes naturally to us in the gathering as we’re prompted by the Spirit.

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Based on what we know about these specialized graces…

• How should we spend our time in the assembly?
• How might this look in a typical church meeting?
• How exactly does sharing specialized grace build us up?

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Again, here are my thoughts…

If the primary purpose of gathering is for the Lord to build us together and to build us up. If sharing grace with one another is the primary means of accomplishing this, then it would seem the bulk of our time should be spent sharing grace. The emphasis in the passages that focus on gatherings seem to bear this out. Again, this is not to say sharing grace is the only activity happening at a gathering, but it would certainly be the focus.

Perhaps it’s hard to get our minds around what sharing grace would look like—especially if your church experience is limited to a very specific order of worship with no room for deviation. I imagine it would be much less “organized” than what we’re used to. While focusing on what the Lord, one person may be prompted to have the group join them in singing a hymn or reading a Psalm. Maybe another would want to share a story about an encounter with the Lord they had earlier that week. After that, another might be prompted to have others lay hands on a member with chronic back problems and pray for their healing and comfort. Then, another may have an intense need to share a short lesson that they had been prompted earlier in the week to prepare. A gathering may break out in spontaneous praise.

The combinations would be limitless, but all orchestrated by the Lord Himself.

While informal, this would all be done with an air of reverence and respect. Sharing would not be limited to trained religious professionals, but would include each member of the body using their apportionment of specialized grace. And while this may seem like chaos for those used to a scripted church gathering, Paul lays out some very specific guidelines as to how this would be done in an organized fashion (1 Cor. 14:27-33).

Now, understanding the mechanics of how sharing specialized grace builds up a church can be a bit of a mystery. (Ours is to trust the process.) But one clue might be found in a previous article entitled Drinking From the Source. In it, we talked about beholding the Lord’s glory as the true means of spiritual growth and transformation. It would seem to me that, to witness and experience the Lord’s operation through His people by His grace could very well be one of the purest forms of beholding His glory that we can experience. I imagine it would be rocket fuel for edifying both the individual and the assembly.

A Framework of Love

Paul reminds us that even the best executed of the graces fall flat without a framework of love that undergirds their use (1 Cor. 13:1-3). An environment of mutual love is the catalyst that activates the graces for building up the assembly.

Loving others in the assembly might seem obvious and even a little bit trite. “Of course I love the other members in my church”, we might say. But recall from the post Re-Examining Love that we defined love as:

“A divinely supplied, unconditional act of the will that seeks to elevate others by demonstrating God’s affection for them through personal sacrifice.”

Ready through those words again slowly.

Properly understood, the practice of authentic love is deep and multi-faceted. It’s also very difficult. It’s an investment of time, patience, and resources with no guarantee of reciprocation. In a time of disposable relationships amid flawed and difficult people, loving others authentically is also one of the most difficult things we can do. In fact, it’s impossible—requiring the Love of Christ Himself working through us as we die to ourselves for the sake of others.

Theological nerds are quick to point out that love is not a gift, but rather a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). But instead of trying to map out all the avenues of how the character of God flows into and out of His children, it’s probably enough to understand it all comes from the same source and leave it at that (1 Cor. 12:4-13). The Spirit abhors being constrained to a theological systematic (John 3:8). We are dependent on the Lord, drawing from Him His life in all its forms as we interact with others.

Love and grace “build up” the gathering. Having been “built up”, the gathering being produces more love and grace. It’s as simple as that.

When, Where, and with Whom?

Before we finish, it’s important to say a few words about the time, place, and size of church gatherings during the New Testament period.

Robert Banks, in his book Paul’s Idea of Community, explains that while the earliest gatherings were intentional, all the believers in a city didn’t necessarily meet at the same time and place for every gathering. Meeting on Sunday may not have been a universal practice until the early 2^nd century (as the only mention in the New Testament of a church meeting on Sunday comes from Acts 20:7). This is not to say that there weren’t good, practical reasons for meeting at a specific time or day of the week. However, there was no mandate requiring this observance.

Paul will occasionally refer to the gathering of the “whole church” (1 Cor. 14:23; Rom. 16:23). This might suggest that in larger cities like Corinth and Rome, smaller groups may have met at different times, places, and frequencies, and would then occasionally meet as a combined group. This manner of having smaller meetings more frequently would have been helpful to accommodate different work and schedule commitments. However, given Paul’s use of the word ekklesia to refer to these smaller groups, suggests that he considered them no less a “church” than the less frequent but larger city-wide gatherings.

Given how small these gatherings could have been, any scriptural admonishment for how believers interact would apply to even the smallest and most informal gatherings. In other words, a meeting of two believers over lunch while intentionally recognizing the presence of Christ among them would have been considered “church” from Paul’s perspective. The potential informality and intimacy of such small groups might explain how so many “one another” admonishments could occur during a church meeting.

Taken as a whole, the earliest churches may have included groups of three or more who met regularly and intentionally in the name of Christ (and at any location). While gathered, they would have fellowship, share their graces, and to love one another. While not all gatherings may have been this simple, it’s important to view such meetings as having everything necessary to be rightly called “church”.

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So, why did the earliest church gather according to the New Testament?

In the broadest terms, the first century primarily gathered for the purpose of allowing the Lord to build His church so that we would exemplify Christ’s present rule as King of creation.

To exemplify Christ’s rule is to be led by Christ into a continuum of activities that embody, demonstrate, and proclaim His Kingdom both internally and externally. This didn’t happen automatically just because a few believers made a habit of getting together. After the work of being firmly established in a foundation of Christ, it continued in an environment of intimate fellowship as each member shared grace with the others in a framework of love. It was by this activity they were built together as a spiritual dwelling of the Lord and corporately built up into the image of the Lord. None of these things would have happened if the church hadn’t gathered regularly and prioritized this kind of activity.

Incidentally, this New Testament model also appears to align with the themes distilled from the prototypical church models we studied in the previous post: They require communal relationships, mutual participation, a sense of obligation, and a practical expression of the Lord’s life. Given this alignment, I’m inclined to believe that the reason the first century church gathered as we described it is the same reason the church would gather today.

In the next post I want to explore how the church has largely deviated from its purpose in its gatherings. We’ll respond to some common objections, provide some historical context, and discuss what we can do to bring our gatherings into alignment with their primary purpose.