What is Good Church?

What is a good church? This is a good question. This is an appropriate question. It is timely. Yet, the question itself appears to me to be fragmental. At first glance the question causes my mind to instinctively divide the church, separate it, denominationalize it, de-unify it. The idea of isolating a “good” church apart from the broader identity of the-people-of-God-as-church seems all too natural while at the same time violating something deep inside of me. Chalk it up to the good Protestant upbringing, I suppose. And yet, sermons and teachings concerning the bride of Christ, i.e. the Church, finding unity and solidarity as a present work of the Holy Spirit, hoarsely whisper from my past that this question is loaded. Is the question really about “a” church, as in a location or model, if there can be such a thing, or are we talking about “the” church, inaugurated at Pentecost, authorized by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and historically upheld by the understanding that Jesus is LORD…already…in the now?

William Stringfellow, an American Episcopal lay theologian writing in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, posits that the church is always now, but not necessarily now and then. The idea being that the church is the living, active body of Jesus present in the world always and only during its moment in time. This is the church for now, requiring the active and militant Word of God for the present moment in any particular segment of history. The church by engaging with the “now” Word of the present Lord remains free from the confines of measuring herself against the church of history; or in Stringfellow’s words “the church then.” Thus, the church is now, but not now and then, as it follows Jesus who is actively LORD of the ongoing present.

I suppose I believe that the Church (notice the big “C”) is the universal body of Christ comprised of those that are beginning to understand and believe that Jesus is LORD. The present tense of this declaration is subtle yet distinctly different from the pervasive claims made by some that Jesus was Lord and hence crucified or that “one glad morning when this life is over” Jesus will be Lord. From its earliest proclamation, the church formed from its collective lips the verbal understanding that Jesus is Lord…even during the Roman occupation, even during the destruction of the Temple, even during the Constantinian Era followed by the Crusades. Jesus is Lord through the Middle Ages on past the Enlightenment. Jesus is Lord during the Black Plague as well as the glory of the Renaissance. Jesus is Lord during the rise of the Third Reich as well as Lord during the destruction at Hiroshima. Jesus is Lord during the bailouts that robbed the masses in 2008 and is Lord in the midst of any present situation we might find ourselves this morning. The Church is the body that, by faith, bears witness to the present Lordship of Jesus in whatever culture or climate she finds herself.

This is her uniqueness. She simply but profoundly witnesses the ongoing activity of God already at work in the present world, which is yet still floundering in its fallen-ness. The Church is the collective body of Jesus, alive in this present age, proclaiming the foolishness of Jesus’ Lordship when all the senses appear to suggest otherwise. The Church is the living witness of the life and activity of God pervasively at work in the world today. She is the living reminder of the incarnation of God already breathing life into the cavity of death. And yet, she displays a freedom from the allegiance to death, bearing witness instead to God and the life of God at work in the world until the day of God’s finality. Where death appears to be king, it is the Church who stands in its present time witnessing, not for God to a world consumed by death, but simply bearing witness to God who is already on the scene, incarnate, and blowing the breath of life. The Church is a “first fruit” picked right from the midst of fallen Creation. Redeemed? Yes, but bearing witness in two directions. She presents herself before God, gathering in worship as a delegation from the world giving God His honor, praise, and due glory. The Church as worshipping body is fresh from the fallen world proclaiming to God what all of Creation will one day proclaim in full. The Church is thus anticipatory in its worship as on behalf of all Creation locked under death until the Eschaton. Likewise, the Church bears witness in the world of the incarnation of God right now…in the present. The Church; that is to say, the good Church, presents the world to God while simultaneously bearing witness of God to the world.