Role of the synagogue in the first century C.E.
However, the synagogue’s primary importance throughout antiquity [pre-70 C.E.] lay in its role as a community center… Within the confines of the synagogue the Jewish community seems to have not only worshipped regularly, but also studied, held court, administered punishment, organized sacred meals, collected charitable donations, housed the communal archives and library, and assembled for political and social purposes. (Lee I. Levine, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, page 3)
Thus, it is not at all strange that the synagogue buildings [in pre-70 Palestine] identified to date have adopted, each in its own way, an architectural style befitting a community-oriented framework. Gamla, Masada, Herodium, and Qiryat Sefer each have a square or rectangular area surrounded by columns and benches, an arrangement facilitating communal participation, be it for political, religious, or social purposes. The model chosen for these settings consciously or unconsciously approximated Hellenistic bouleuteria or ecclesiasteria, which likewise catered to an assembly of people empowered to make decisions. (Ibid., page 69)
How church leaders were different from synagogue leaders
There were, however, differences [between church leaders and synagogue leaders]. Our Christian documents give no evidence of some of the dignitaries who were occasionally reported at the synagogues. There is no senior elder = gerousiarches, nor any equivalent by another title. The levitical priests, who had only vestigial identity in the synagogues, have none in the churches. The inner circle of authority, the notables = archontes, have not carried over. Nor have the various minor officers mentioned [in the synagogues]. (James Tunstead Burtchaell, From Synagogue to Church, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 340)
Words have a way of turning around without meaning to
Vocabulary has a way of becoming stylized. This is a widespread human experience. A devout and purposeful woman gathers others of like generosity to live and work in a community. Their style is frugal and unadorned: they simply tie white kerchiefs about their heads. Four centuries later those muslin bandanas have evolved into starched linen headgear that is neither frugal nor unostentatious. What was intended to preserve the past has in effect discontinued it.
It is much the same with words. Feminism that is not all that feminine; a Servant of the Servants of God who expects to be obeyed; waiters who are always in a hurry: words have a way of turning around without meaning to. Often a word is put to use in its original sense. For instance, Jewish synagogues and Christian churches had staff members called hyperetai = diakonoi = servants. In time the Christian diakonoi evolved into powerful administrators. Their title had taken on new overtones. It no longer came across like “employee,” or “assistant.” When translated into other languages it could no longer be replaced with an equivalent word, for to call these executives “servants” would be incongruous. And so diakonos could not be translated at all: it was simply brought across as “deacon.” (James Tunstead Burtchaell, From Synagogue to Church, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 276)
Quote 7 from Your Church is Too Small
This week (March 14-20, 2010), I’m taking part in a blog tour of John H. Armstrong’s new book Your Church is Too Small. Armstrong begins each chapter with quotes from various writers throughout church history. Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of those quotes.
One reason the church is failing today is that it has so many members who are not kingdom-of-God men and women! They may be active in the church program – regular at worship, involved in the administration of the religious establishment – but they lack kingdom-of-God qualities. -Richard Halverson
Quote 6 from Your Church is Too Small
This week (March 14-20, 2010), I’m taking part in a blog tour of John H. Armstrong’s new book Your Church is Too Small. Armstrong begins each chapter with quotes from various writers throughout church history. Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of those quotes.
Sectarianism is seeking unity in uniformity rather than unity in diversity and expecting other Christians to comply fully with my views before I have genuine fellowship with them. -Rex Koivisto.
Quote 5 from Your Church is Too Small
This week (March 14-20, 2010), I’m taking part in a blog tour of John H. Armstrong’s new book Your Church is Too Small. Armstrong begins each chapter with quotes from various writers throughout church history. Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of those quotes.
Only in Christ are all things in communion. He is the point of convergence of all hearts and beings and therefore the bridge and the shortest way from each to each. -Hans Urs von Balthasar
Quote 4 from Your Church is Too Small
This week (March 14-20, 2010), I’m taking part in a blog tour of John H. Armstrong’s new book Your Church is Too Small. Armstrong begins each chapter with quotes from various writers throughout church history. Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of those quotes.
I believe very strongly in the principle and practice of the purity of the visible church, but I have seen churches that have fought for purity and are merely hotbeds of ugliness. No longer is there any observable, loving, personal relationship even in their own midst, let alone with other true Christians. -Francis A. Schaeffer
Real Unity – Is it possible?
In his book Your Church is Too Small, John H. Armstrong begins his argument for real, relational unity from Jesus’ prayer in John 17:
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23 ESV)
Early in his book, Armstrong says, “I knew that I couldn’t be satisfied with loving a concept of the church. So I set out to find God’s people, to get to know people outside of my own tradition.”
Concept… We love in concept. We’re united in concept. We’re family in concept.
But, Scripture doesn’t describe or exhort a concept of church, love, unity, and family. Instead, as we read about the church in the New Testament, we read about a reality of love, unity, and family. However, like Armstrong, whenever I talk to people about unity, I hear these kinds of interpretations (taken from Armstrong’s book specifically of John 17):
- We should never try to unite different churches or congregations. The union of churches or denominations is not in view here. Jesus is not interested in such unity.
- We should never engage in serious dialogue with churches that we believe to be unfaithful to the truth. We will become disobedient if we follow this course.
- There is no common mission that churches are called to engage in; thus there is no reason to work together to achieve Christ’s mission in our communities.
- There is no concern in this prayer for the worldwide church, at least as seen in a visible form, since this will lead to ecumenism, a great twentieth-century enemy of the gospel.
- We must always keep in the forefront of our practice the serious biblical warnings about compromise and false teaching (see Deuteronomy 7:1-6; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Revelation 18:4). These great truths always trump concern for visible unity among churches and Christians.
How would you respond to the five objections above? Yes, no, why, or why not?
And more importantly, how do we as believers move forward toward unity, and how do we encourage churches to move forward toward unity?
Quote 3 from Your Church is Too Small
This week (March 14-20, 2010), I’m taking part in a blog tour of John H. Armstrong’s new book Your Church is Too Small. Armstrong begins each chapter with quotes from various writers throughout church history. Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of those quotes.
Although the church of Jesus Christ is found in many different places, she is one true church, not many. After all, there are many rays of sunlight, but only one sun. A tree has many boughs, each slightly different from others, but all drawing their strength from one source. Many streams may flow down a hill-side, but they all originate from the same spring. In exactly the same way each local congregation belongs to the one true church. -Cyprian
Your Church is Too Small – a review
Last month, I received a review copy of Your Church is Too Small by John H. Armstrong (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009). From the buzz that I heard about this book, I was very excited to read and review this book.
When Armstrong says, “Your church is too small,” he does not refer to the size of a church building or to the number of people who meet together. Instead, Armstrong refers to “our all too common penchant for placing limits on Christ’s church – limits that equate the one church with our own narrow views of Christ’s body.” He has two purposes in writing this book: 1) for the reader to understand his/her own spiritual identity and 2) to better understand the mission of the church. Armstrong believes, and convincingly argues, that the two (unity and mission) are interrelated.
The book is a combination of exegesis (primarily of Jesus’ prayer in John 17), historical study, personal experience, and theological reflection. The argument is based primarily on the conclusion that the unity for which Jesus prays in John 17 is not only a spiritual or eschatological unity, but a relational unity that all believers should strive to maintain.
Armstrong’s book is divided into three parts: past, present, and future. In the first section, the author traces his own journey from sectarianism toward unity. He also reviews the perspective of the early church on unity given the four classical marks of the church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
Next, in his section on the present, considers how the church can restore unity today. Armstrong suggests that the cause of disunity in the church today is sectarianism based on intellectual certitude. Instead, the church should be recognized as local, city-wide, and universal, with a focus on the kingdom instead of the local congregation.
Finally, in his section on the future, Armstrong recommends missional-ecumenism as a way forward toward unity. By “missional-ecumenism,” the author means that believers should have relational unity with God and one another, including unity in our mission as God’s “sent ones.”
Throughout the book, Armstrong demonstrates that unity is more than a good idea. Instead, it is our primary apologetic. He says, “How we act and treat one another really matters, because our actions represent the nature and identity of God to those who do not know him.”
Furthermore, Armstrong encourages the respect and consideration of different Christian traditions. All believers have traditions, and Christianity has a basic tradition that was handed down throughout the ages (often called the “Rule of Faith”). Problems arise when our traditions teach us that we are part of the one, true church while all other traditions are in error.
Instead of asking who is in and who is out when it comes to the church, the author recommends that we encourage active faith of all who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.
This is an important book. I recommend it highly. However, I do not want this to be a book that I just read and encourage others to read. Armstrong describes a unity that cannot remain a concept; it must be lived. This is the direction that I’ve been moving, and a reality that I want to continue to seek.
In a future post, I’m going to discuss some real problems toward unity and, hopefully, start a discussion that can help us all live in unity as brothers and sisters in Christ – not by demanding uniformity, but by appreciating our diversity.