How the early church knew itself

In the Book of Acts, written by Luke, the story centres round the forming and up-building of local groups of Christians round the Mediterranean basin. It is interesting to see how they understood themselves then. If we study the names given to these groups of early converts in Acts we find as follows. Brothers By far the most common name was simple brothers." This might suggest that church meetings then were less exclusively female than they are in Britain today! The main point is that Christian disciples knew they were bound together in a family. This way of thinking clearly came from Jesus Himself. To Him God is the Father.

So He taught His disciples. When they followed Him they gave up one family and were adopted into another. They became Jesus' mothers and sisters and brothers. For the local Church then, as it meets to worship, the essence of its meeting is that it knows itself to be one family, brought into being by the Father himself. They are called to have a responsibility for each other and a love for each other which recognises their one origin and their common destiny. The love that exists between members of a family is seldom romantic. Brothers and sisters have no illusions about each other.

Pretence and superiority are efficiently dealt with in the household circle. So the love that Christian people are supposed to show is not to be confused with moonlight and illusion. It comes rather from a shared experience of one origin in Jesus, one acknowledged authority-God the Father of Jesus, the need of forgiveness common to all, and a goal they all strive for together-the Kingdom of God. Where these are held in common, men and women are indeed "brothers." Disciples The second most popular name in the New Testament is "disciples." This too stems from the days of Jesus Himself. We still speak of the twelve who were first called by Jesus as "disciples." It means literally "pupils." For Christians, their life is largely a process of learning. They have to learn a new way of living, in which they rely more and more on God and less on themselves.

They have to learn how to discern what God wants: to work out a pattern of life together which points to Him; to maintain, through prayer and personal contact with Jesus, the courage and wisdom by which they can face suffering and sometimes even death for their faith. Learning-not only at the initial stages but all the way through to the end-is a main activity of the Christian congregation. Called The third name given to the local group, in order of popularity, is "the Church" (in Greek "ecclesia" from which our "ecclesiastic" comes.) The root meaning here is "calling." Christians are men and women whom God has called by name to follow Him. They are chosen by God to witness to Christ and suffer with Him. Jesus chose twelve men, "that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth" (Mark 3: 14). The group of people called The Church, the "called ones," are appointed to be with Jesus and to go out into the world in His name. This third name speaks plainly of the Church's mission as the basic reason for its existence.

One of the inevitable consequences of the "calling" of Christians is that they are in some way distinct from the rest of society. Indeed, the exact meaning is "called out." This is not an idea we are happy about today. We prefer to talk about identification rather than separation. And indeed wrongheaded efforts to draw a line between Christians and others on a legalistic basis have done incalculable hurt. But we cannot burke the fact that by its nature as meaning those who have been called out, the Church is distinguished from the rest of mankind and has a special task to do. Those three names, which occur not only in Acts, but throughout the New Testament, show how Christian groups or congregations thought of themselves in the beginning.

There are some other names, however, not on the same level of frequency, but used often enough to be significant as showing how the local body of Christians thought of themselves. Believers The first is "believers." This is odd because there were no atheists in society then. Everyone believed in some god or gods. It stands, however as a sign of the enormously important place of faith in the thinking of the Church. Christians are distinguished not by any code of legal behaviour, or ritual practice, but by their trust in God. By faith they are assured that Christ died for them, and rose again, and will return to complete the world's salvation. Saints There is the strange word-strange to us today at least- "the saints." These same saints had quarrels, and there ongoings with heathen practices, and adulterous relations.

They were not all that saintly as we understand the word. Yet without hesitation these sinners were also called saints. The word means, "set apart" for a sacred purpose. Once again this word that speaks of what God has made them, and how he has called them to be special people, emphasises the uncomfortable truth that Christians, identified in Christlike love and sympathy with their neighbours, are at the same time set apart. The Way Finally, there is not so much a name as a description- "The Way." It appears that the early Christians referred to themselves, and were spoken of by others, not as "that lot," or "that crowd," but as "that way." The description appears to have two distinct meanings. First, the Church was going somewhere, was on a pilgrimage, had an end in view. Like Israel in the desert, they looked for a better place. Also, the description emphasised the different style of life followed by the Church.

Their faith in Jesus stamped on their behaviour, as individuals and communities, a recognisable pattern of worship and humble service. The Simplicity of the Church We are thinking of the Church, then, as a group of local Christians, meeting to sing hymns to Christ, to break bread together, knowing each other as brothers, well aware that they are only pupils still, training for the mission to which they are called. We must not have a picture, however, of the traditional congregation, complete with buildings, minister, organ, organisations, investments and properties. The essence of a congregation is far simpler than that.

You can have the Church, the local congregation, with no building to boast of, yet still the body of Christ and His instrument for His mission to men. You can have the Church in power and effectiveness without a salaried ministry. Wherever a group of men and women who have heard Christ's call and responded in faith to meet together to worship Him and go out to serve Him, that is the Church. Of all the complicated machinery that has gathered round ecclesiastical structures only two activities are really essential. They are, first, the coming together of the people to worship, and secondly, the dispersal of the people to serve Christ in the world. It is this Church, that has come into being at Christ's call, to do His work, to be powered by Him and sent by Him-that is part of our faith. We are proud to belong to it. The Church, according to Karl Barth is "every form of life that has its origin in Christ and in which the new life is active." For every Christian there is one local expression of this Church that claims him, his loyalty and service, not in the name of a human cause but by the authority of the Lord Himself.