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By: Pastor Berg

The Greek philosopher, Plato, said in his Republic, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  What he meant is that a need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. In our congregation and in our synod, I wonder if there isn’t a need to help people understand the purpose and mission of The Church. For the next few months, this portion of the newsletter will be devoted to meeting that need and solving that problem. However, rather than invent something, I simply want to review and perhaps teach anew what God’s Word says about the Church.

This series of articles will seek to answer the following questions: 1) What is The Church?  2) What is its mission?  3) What does it mean to be a member and what is my role?  4) How can I work with fellow believers to carry out that mission? By returning to the Word of God to find the answers to these questions, I’m confident understanding will follow. I’m confident that the Holy Spirit will help us to better understand who we are as Christians and that understanding will surely lead to godly fruits of faith.

So what is The Church? The word, “church,” comes from the Greek word ἐκκλησία, which is really a compound. It combines a preposition, which means “out of or from,” with the verb that means “to call.” Very literally, it means to “call from” or to “call out of.” The word developed to describe the group of citizens that were called together for a meeting by a herald. That term, then, was transferred to describe the body of believers. Already in the Septuagint, which is a Greek version of the Old Testament, the word “church,” was used to describe the Children of Israel, God’s chosen people. In Psalm 22:22, you’ll find the word translated as “congregation,” but it could just as rightfully be translated as “church.” It was a very natural transition that Holy Spirit would inspire the New Testament writers to refer to God’s chosen New Testament people as “The Church.”

Essentially, the Church is an assembly, a gathering, a grouping of believers. Paul says in Ephesians, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,” (Ephesians 1:22). The Bible uses many different figurative names to describe this group: The Body of Christ; the House, Temple, City, or People of God; The Bride or Wife of Christ, are all terms used to describe this group of believers.

Yet, even in the New Testament, all of the believers were never gathered together in one physical location at one time. So, how do these believers become grouped as the Church? How can we place them together and rightfully describe them as “church,” when they are not physically together? It is through the Means of Grace, God’s Word and Sacraments. The Means of Grace unite people into one body of believers. The Means of Grace are the marks or signs of The Church. Wherever the Means of Grace are present, wherever God’s Word is preached in its truth and purity, wherever the Sacraments are used as Christ intended, there you will find believers; there you will find The Church.  Paul writes to the Corinthians, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

What is The Church? The Church is one body of believers who are gathered around the Means of Grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Next month, we’ll dig a little deeper into exactly what is The Church and what is her mission.