The most important thing is to belong to Jesus and not to the church. As a fol­lower of Jesus, I belong to him. I am deter­mi­ned by him. Howe­ver, this does not exclude the fact that fol­lo­wing Jesus invol­ves par­ti­ci­pa­ting in a bin­ding com­mu­ni­ty. It is about the «we». This com­mu­ni­ty streng­thens, pro­tects, heals, cor­rects and strains my abili­ty to love. Every indi­vi­du­al is nee­ded. Co-ope­ra­ti­on takes place through the empower­ment of the Holy Spirit.

In spring 2017, I went on holi­day to Asia with four guys, all except for one theo­lo­gy stu­dent. Me and ano­ther col­le­ague stay­ed for an extra week. We deci­ded to go to a children’s home and help out the­re. The direc­tor of the home is a very enter­pri­sing man and is also a pas­tor, social worker and head­mas­ter. He took us to a church in a vil­la­ge. Church is a big word for what we found the­re. It was a rural, poor vil­la­ge. A few pla­s­tic chairs were set up in front of a house for us and the older peo­p­le. A few mats were pla­ced on the ground in front of it and around 20–30 peo­p­le sat down the­re. We sat com­for­ta­b­ly with tea and cake. Then the pas­tor said to me. So Céd­ric, now we’ll sing a song, then I’ll pray for you and then… Then you give the ser­mon! And that’s exact­ly how it went! I pre­pared mys­elf as well as I could and then I pray­ed to God and said «So, now you have to!»

Today we are loo­king at the topic of «Me and the church». I deli­bera­te­ly use the term «church» as an assem­bly term, as the word church can also be unders­tood too firm­ly as a buil­ding or insti­tu­ti­on. When I speak of the church, I mean «the church as the com­mu­ni­ty of belie­vers in Jesus through whom the Holy Spi­rit works». This mor­ning we want to explo­re tog­e­ther the ques­ti­on of what your task is. And why I have a deep con­vic­tion that the church is essen­ti­al for fol­lo­wing Jesus.

Belonging to Jesus comes before belonging to the church

Befo­re I come to «Me and the church», I would like to men­ti­on the most important point. My rela­ti­onship with Jesus is the most important thing! Belon­ging to a par­ti­cu­lar church is not­hing com­pared to my belon­ging to Jesus. Belon­ging to Jesus is the cru­cial point. For a long time, I defi­ned my fol­lo­wing of Jesus by two things that I did­n’t rea­li­se. For me, belon­ging to a lar­ge com­mu­ni­ty and a church with very good wor­ship was important. Loo­king back, I can say that the­se two were the deter­mi­ning cri­te­ria. But it’s about belon­ging to Jesus, not belon­ging to a church.

It is important that we assess this point cor­rect­ly. Becau­se what hap­pens when peo­p­le have deci­ded to live with God? They do not beco­me part of a par­ti­cu­lar local church, but part of God’s lar­ge, world­wi­de fami­ly. «So then you are no lon­ger stran­gers and for­eig­ners, but fel­low citi­zens with the saints and mem­bers of God’s house­hold» (Ephe­si­ans 2:19 ELB). The ori­gi­nal Greek text here is «oikei­os», which means house­hold mem­ber, house­ma­te or mem­ber of the fami­ly. All fol­lo­wers of Jesus tog­e­ther are one big fami­ly of God – not a shared home. This fami­ly is not tem­po­ra­ry and mere­ly thrown tog­e­ther for con­ve­ni­ence. Ins­tead, as in a per­fect fami­ly, each per­son is important. Each per­son has a dif­fe­rent task, which I will come to at the end. What does it look like for you? If you had to say what is cen­tral to your fol­lo­wing Jesus, what would it be?

Binding community

I would like to come back to this church in Asia from the intro­duc­to­ry sto­ry. They had no buil­ding, no chairs, no struc­tures. I am not say­ing that this is bet­ter. But I am say­ing that the core of the Chris­ti­an com­mu­ni­ty is not infra­struc­tu­re or a cer­tain struc­tu­re. Rather, the core of the church is a bin­ding com­mu­ni­ty. In the New Tes­ta­ment, the­re are various terms for what we call church/community. The term «ekkle­sia» is used most fre­quent­ly. This is also the case here: «From now on you shall be cal­led Peter. On this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell shall not be able to touch it» (Matthew 16:18 NLB). Here it says «ekkle­sia». From «ek – out» and «kaleo – to call». The ekkle­sia is the one cal­led out. It has a spe­cial pur­po­se. At the time of Jesus, ekkle­sia refers to the popu­lar assem­bly in the semi-auto­no­mous Greek city sta­tes. Ekkle­sia refers to the church, as it is cal­led out from the rest and comes tog­e­ther for a spe­ci­fic pur­po­se. Name­ly for wor­ship. The decisi­ve fac­tor here is that Jesus is the one who calls. He is the originator.

Last Sun­day it was par­ti­cu­lar­ly important for me to empha­sise the con­ti­nui­ty bet­ween the Old and New Tes­ta­ments. We also find this here. In anci­ent Hebrew, «kahal» means assem­bly or con­gre­ga­ti­on. In the Sep­tuag­int, the Greek-lan­guage trans­la­ti­on of the Old Tes­ta­ment, «kahal» is often ren­de­red as «ekkle­sia». «And Moses reci­ted this song in the ears of all the con­gre­ga­ti­on of Isra­el until the last word» (Deu­te­ro­no­my 31:30 LUT).

Ano­ther word that focu­ses more on coming tog­e­ther, or gathe­ring tog­e­ther, is found in Hebrews. «Spur one ano­ther on to love and good deeds. And let us not negle­ct our mee­tings, as some do, but encou­ra­ge and exhort one ano­ther, espe­ci­al­ly now that the day of his return is dra­wing near!» (Hebrews 10:24–25 NLB). This includes tho­se who have been cal­led out by Jesus Christ into the new fami­ly. The earth­ly lineage is no lon­ger decisi­ve. «The true child­ren of Abra­ham are tho­se who belie­ve in God» (Gala­ti­ans 3:7 NLB). It is about unity in diver­si­ty. Church is the place whe­re it’s all about the «we». This is exci­ting to obser­ve with peo­p­le who are new to see­tal chi­le. At the begin­ning it’s often «you have, do, etc.», but at some point it beco­mes «we have, do, etc.». Com­mit­ment is important. Not so that I as a pas­tor can brag about a lar­ge con­gre­ga­ti­on, but becau­se com­mu­ni­ty is good, even if it might not be good for you at the moment. So you may be offen­ded, peo­p­le may approach you about some­thing, it may cost you a lot of effort to go out among peo­p­le. Becau­se Chris­ti­an com­mu­ni­ty streng­thens, pro­tects, heals, cor­rects and strains your abili­ty to love.

Your contribution is important!

In the New Tes­ta­ment, the church is com­pared to a human body. «The human body has many lim­bs and organs, but only tog­e­ther do the many parts make up the one body. So it is with Christ and his body» (1 Corin­thi­ans 12:12 NLB). Ever­yo­ne is important, but no one is the navel! No one is the cent­re. You are important! If you are not here, then some­thing is miss­ing! Your con­tri­bu­ti­on is important! But the­re are dif­fe­rent tasks. «So tog­e­ther you form the body of Christ, and each indi­vi­du­al belongs to it as a part. God has appoin­ted cer­tain peo­p­le in the church: first­ly as apost­les, second­ly as pro­phe­ts, third­ly as tea­chers, then tho­se who per­form mira­cles, tho­se with the gift of heal­ing, tho­se who help others, tho­se who have spe­cial lea­der­ship abili­ties, and tho­se who have a spe­cial gift for the church.äand encou­ra­ge others to co-ope­ra­te, and tho­se who can speak in other lan­guages.önnen» (1 Corin­thi­ans 12:27–28 NLB). To make it easier for you to start con­tri­bu­ting, we have had a staff plat­form sin­ce the begin­ning of the year. The­re you can see all the oppor­tu­ni­ties to get invol­ved. We warm­ly invi­te you to take a look and be inspired.

Last Sun­day I pro­mi­sed ano­ther exam­p­le from my church of ori­gin. This comes from a Breth­ren move­ment and is much more gui­ded by the Holy Spi­rit than you might think. At the begin­ning, 50 years ago, it was not clear on Sun­day its­elf who would preach, becau­se the Holy Spi­rit gives the mes­sa­ge. Appar­ent­ly it was then clear which of three peo­p­le would stand up and go to the front to preach. But the idea behind it was that the Holy Spi­rit leads. The Holy Spi­rit is cen­tral to the various tasks in the church and to the com­mu­ni­ty as a who­le. «Endea­vour to be one in spi­rit, kee­ping peace among your­sel­ves. You should all be one body and have one mind, becau­se you are all cal­led to one hope. The­re is only one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, and the­re is also only one God and Father of all, who üstands abo­ve all and lives through all and is in all of us» (Ephe­si­ans 4:3–6 NLB).

I would like to come back to my initi­al exam­p­le. In this moment of my ser­mon, I had to rely direct­ly on God as I rare­ly do when prea­ching. My col­le­ague who was the­re gave me extre­me­ly posi­ti­ve feed­back. «I’ve never heard you preach so well!» – all unpre­pared and in Eng­lish. My point is not to say that the Holy Spi­rit can­not work in the pre­pa­ra­ti­on. But the point is that any invol­vement in the church in which I rely sole­ly on my abili­ties ulti­m­ate­ly leads nowhe­re. The Holy Spi­rit empowers. «God does not call the able, but empowers the cal­led». But the decisi­ve point of my minis­try in the church is yet to come. Becau­se after 1 Corin­thi­ans 12, with the church as a body, comes 1 Corin­thi­ans 13, which is cru­cial in terms of con­tent. For chap­ter 13 is gene­ral­ly regard­ed as the Song of Songs and ends with: «Faith, hope and love, the­se three remain. But love is the grea­test» (1 Corin­thi­ans 13:13 NLB). Love is the decisi­ve fac­tor. Any ser­vice wit­hout love for my neigh­bour is a show and self-pro­mo­ti­on, drains my resour­ces exces­si­ve­ly and burns me out. Love is the decisi­ve fac­tor. But which love? It’s about aga­pe love, sel­fless love that is focus­sed on the well-being of the other per­son. But how do I achie­ve this love? By spen­ding time with Jesus Christ, whom I fol­low. He is the source of this love. Part of this is also being part of a com­mit­ted Chris­ti­an community.

Possible questions for the small group

Read the Bible text: 1 Corin­thi­ans 12:12–1 Corin­thi­ans 13:13

1. Who do you fol­low? Your church or Jesus Christ? Whe­re are you in dan­ger of atta­ching your disci­ple­ship to exter­nal things?
2. Are you part of a com­mit­ted Chris­ti­an com­mu­ni­ty? How could you get involved?
3. «God does not call the able, but enables the cal­led» – whe­re have you expe­ri­en­ced this yours­elf? What does this sen­tence trig­ger in you?
4. Chris­ti­an fel­low­ship streng­thens, pro­tects, heals, cor­rects and strains your abili­ty to love. How do you expe­ri­ence this?
5. 1 Corin­thi­ans 12:27–30 lists the dif­fe­rent tasks to which God has cal­led someone. What gift has he given you? Are you alre­a­dy using it? How could this be done better?
6. Love is the decisi­ve fac­tor. How do I achie­ve this sel­fless love descri­bed in 1 Corin­thi­ans 13?