It’s important to distinguish between a biblical view of church and traditional views. This leads to a healthy view of church and an ability to react accordingly to see things for what they are.
When we identify things as biblical when they really aren’t, it leads to misinterpretation and misapplication. This can result in abusive things going on that you don’t identify as unhealthy because you think those things are biblical when they’re not.
Mainly, the Bible puts forth that a church is a group of people that makes the Kingdom of God visible in their life together.
God is our partner
If you go back to the beginning, one view of the relationship that humans and God were designed to have that gets underestimated or not talked about very much is that of a partnership. You’ll hear much more about how God is our Father or Savior or Lord. But we don’t hear much about how God is our Partner. This is what covenants are all about.
You move to the New Testament and you see phrases like “God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9) and “God’s ambassadors” (2 Cor. 5:12). An ambassador is a person that goes to another land that’s not their home and they live there to communicate the mind and will of their home country.
The point is…we’re fellow workers, co-laborers and partners with God to reveal the Kingdom. The endgame is for something more than salvation. Christ brought the Kingdom back to earth and a church is to be a visible expression of that Kingdom, where there are right relationships that image the type of relationships between the Persons within God.
When we don’t have a clear distinction between biblical and traditional views of church, we fall into a lot of ways of thinking and doing things that aren’t of the Kingdom of God. They are not the way the Kingdom of God operates. When we do that, we violate our main mission, which is to make the Kingdom of God visible.
To make the Kingdom of God visible, a church must operate like a human body – many parts in one functioning together in a way that’s unified and complete.
The business of church
One of the obstacles to healthy church is when churches operate like a business corporation. What I mean is, they do things the way a worldly business or government would do things.
For example…
They offer services people pay money for in the marketplace, like great music and great public speaking.
They are legal entities.
They generate profit.
They create jobs in the community.
They use tax loopholes.
Founders have to be good entrepreneurs to grow the business.
They compete against each other.
Leadership operates by a hierarchy of offices.
A staff is paid by the community to take care of its religious functions.
There’s a board of directors (they are called elders).
There’s a hierarchy of values among spiritual gifts (like executives getting paid more than non-executives).
There’s a membership and perks.
These characteristics are not right or wrong, but they do affect the health of a church.
Organizations that call themselves churches while operating like a business don’t fit into a biblical view of church.
Which is fine as long as we label it what it is. They are Christian ministries. Everyone is better off when we identify them for what they are.
This is especially freeing for those who have dissatisfaction with their experiences with these types of churches. When you see that they are not churches in the biblical sense, things start to make more sense.
Charismatic communities
In his book The Community of the King, prominent author on the topic of church life Howard Snyder says this…
Many of the churches I know are not charismatic communities in which each person ministers according to the gifts each has received. Rather they are little more than organizations not fundamentally different from other organizations in the same culture.
Such churches attempt vainly to minister through ever improved and expanding programs, training and techniques. Under unusually talented leadership, such churches succeed, and everyone praises that success and takes it as a model.
In the majority of cases such spiritual technology eventually fails, however, and leaves congregations frustrated, disillusioned, starving for real spiritual fellowship and wondering why someone else’s sure-fire program didn’t work in their situation.
For these reasons churches today should self-consciously seek a charismatic model for their life and ministry to replace the dominant institutional model.
Note: The word “charismatic” Snyder uses here is mostly associated with a denomination or movement within Christianity, but it’s a word that just means “led by” or “of the” Spirit of God. So Snyder means that a charismatic model of church is one in which the Spirit is the leader through the ways it empowers every person, as opposed to a person, persons or positions being the leaders.
A biblical church is to be a rejection of and challenge to the social and political structures of the world. When compared to systems of business, politics, education, etc., it’s supposed to be completely other-worldly.
If a church is supposed to be a visible expression of God’s Kingdom, what’s God’s Kingdom like? It’s not like a worldly business. When you find organizations that call themselves churches operating like worldly businesses, how much of the Kingdom are they showing?
Snyder also said this…
As an ecclesiastical institution, the church can show little, if anything, of the kingdom. But as the messianic community functioning as a charismatic body, it can and does reveal the true nature of the kingdom and hastens its coming.
There’s something to how we operate and function together that makes the Kingdom of God visible. Operating like a business puts a chokehold on it.
The Holy Spirit can still use people in a business organization, but the Holy Spirit does not function like a business organization functions.
While this may come across as negative toward organizations that call themselves churches, that’s actually not the intention here. They are useful. The main point I’m making here is it’s healthy to simply identify what they are and what they’re useful for in building God’s Kingdom.
What the business of church is useful for
Think about it this way…
I work in the marketing field. We have conferences put on by people that organize the event, they’re incorporated, they have a staff, they come up with programming, they hire people, they rent out space to meet in, etc.
When they put the conference on, I pay a ticket price to go and receive something from that conference. I get educated, I connect with people, and pull other benefits from attending.
So I live my “marketing life” outside of the conference, I go to the conference to get equipped and networked, and then I leave and take what I learned and the connections I made and then go do better marketing.
That’s how organizations that call themselves churches function in our culture today. They can be useful for providing education, bringing people together and more. But then the issue is what we do with it. Within the organizational experience, you can’t be the visible Kingdom of God. You have to go and be the visible Kingdom of God with others with what you take away from your experience with these organizations.
Thinking this way has been really helpful for me. It helped me see I don’t need to abandon the organization that calls itself church, I can simply use it for what it’s good for and how it can help me better make the Kingdom of God visible.
Richard Halverson, a former chaplain of the United States Senate gave this insight…
In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centering on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise.
Again, it’s healthy just to identify that there is a difference between a biblical church and a parachurch organization that can exist to serve the church. That’s the point Snyder is trying to make. It’s healthy if we just call these organizations what they are and renew our understanding of what the church is biblically.
Michael Fleming
Mike Fleming is the creator of Finding Healthy Church. Over 20 years ago, he was sparked by the frustration of failing to experience what the biblical story claimed a healthy church was like. He caught a vision and passion for seeing local churches be what they were designed by God to be. He shares what he's learning along the way so the health of local churches around the world are improved. He’s currently working on an eye-opening book that will help better understand what it means for a church to be healthy.