Blog: Max Dawson
December 19, 2016
It sounded like a really great idea to some folks. I encountered it about 25 years ago. Several Christians here in Southeast Texas sort of fell in love with the idea.
“We are just going to be Christians. We don’t believe in local churches. We won’t have elders or anyone to oversee us. We don’t believe in having a full-time preacher or deacons. We won’t have a church building or a church treasury or anything like that. We are just going to be Christians.”
Those are some of the things they said to me. Every few years someone seems to come up with this revolutionary idea of churchless Christianity. They think they have found something everyone else has missed. They imagine that they have discovered the heart of true Christianity. They will just be a loose-knit group of disciples–without any real leaders–who just meet in someone’s home and sort of have fellowship with one another.
This sort of rather aimless movement can take many forms. But one of its consistent marks is that of throwing off institutional religion. They claim to be real followers of Jesus, living in a fellowship without the confines of church.
A good idea?
Actually, it’s a very bad idea. Besides being unscriptural, the very idea of churchless Christianity is unrealistic, unworkable and an immature approach to serving God.
When you look into the Bible, it is plain that Jesus came to establish a body of people called “the church” (). All the saved are added to that universal body of believers (). Disciples, then, were expected to be part of an organized assembly of believers–the local church (; ). Local churches were organized with bishops and deacons (). Bishops had oversight of those churches as the saints worked together (). They worked together out of a common treasury ().
All the things the “churchless Christians” reject are things that are plainly found in God’s pattern in the New Testament. That’s why it is a very bad idea.
THE FINAL WORD
Someone may take offense to what I wrote above about “churchless” service to God, especially when I wrote that it is “unrealistic, unworkable and immature.”
Unrealistic, because they imagine the group will survive “with no real leaders.”
Unworkable, because they imagine everyone will get to do things their own way.
Immature, because they imagine their little group will survive over the long haul without the God-given directive of corporate worship, and the God-given mandate of accountability and leadership.
Immature, in that they are much like the young couple who imagine that romance preserves a marriage. In truth, those couples who have made it to their golden anniversary know that it is the institution of marriage that preserves the romance!
It is the local church, with its God-given structure, that helps preserve disciples and gives them a long term working arrangement that helps them survive.
Blessings to you, church lovers,
–Max