“Local” Church — Why do this?

“The church is not only a vehicle of salvation; it is also an embodiment of that salvation itself.” — Evan Howard

It was the summer of 2020 and all my plans had been canceled. Going into the year, I had a lot of high hopes and big plans in place for how my year was supposed to go. There were some exciting opportunities (like getting to be the camp speaker for the youth camp I was saved at) that rightfully fell through in light of the pandemic. However, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. It was my last summer as a full time student — which meant I had a ton of free time thanks to the mass cancellation.

I wanted to maximize this time somehow. So I sat down at a park one evening and started thinking and praying. As I did so, it occurred to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to do some independent research on a topic near and dear to me: the local church.

As an aspiring church planter and pastor, I figured it would be a good idea to learn as much as I could about the nature, purpose, and function of a local church. However, right at the start, I encountered my first challenge.

How do you define the word, “Church”?

The question seems simple at first glance, but the longer I think about it, the harder it becomes to really nail down a nuanced yet concise definition. The word “Church” bears a heavy load. It is steeped in assumptions, biases, images, culture, history, and complex spiritual concepts. Perhaps the first thing you think of is your home church building, sanctuary, or friends at church. Or the Great Commission may come to mind. Maybe your mind goes to the global body of Christ described in Ephesians 1:20–23:

20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens — 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.

But as our minds flip back and forth between some global expression of the church and the church we go to down the road, we can quickly get confused. It can be easy to define “the Church” along the lines of “the global body of Christ composed of all true believers,” so that’s where I often stop. While that is an okay definition for the global church, what about the “local” church? What is the local church really? What is its purpose?

It was this question that inspired this research project. I set out to interview around 30 pastors, lay leaders, and ministry leaders from a variety of churches, denominational backgrounds, and contexts with 10 questions on the local church. The goal of this multi-part project is to compare, examine, and discuss those answers in light of scripture about the nature, purpose, and function of the local church.

Throughout the course of this series, I’ll discuss the accumulated data for each question. While we will not examine all 30 responses for each question (thank goodness), I will seek to gather common themes and principles, as well as outliers and then compare that data to scripture. Through all this, we will hopefully arrive at a better understanding of not just what some people think the local church is, but what God desires for it to be in actuality. If the church on a global scale is the body of Christ, it is vital that we understand it on the local scale.

The Process

Before we get into the actual data, it would be prudent to detail how the data was collected and how it will be processed. This is by no means a statistical analysis of the local churches on a grand scale. Make no mistake, data is not the accumulation of anecdote. Instead, the answers retrieved should be seen more as “food for thought” and the thought processes of seasoned ministry leaders. The problems brought up by some leaders are not the same problems brought up by others. I will seek to not paint with too broad a brush when examining these answers because they are by nature localized and contextual to the churches they represent.

For instance, it would be unfair to say that just because one of the more common problems for some churches in Texas is racial diversity, that all churches in the United States struggle with this issue. Instead, I’m more concerned with how these local churches are addressing or reconciling this issue of racial diversity. I am not trying to draw broad implications for all contexts from this small subset, but rather discuss how these churches understand the function of the local church and how that informs their day to day ministry. Let’s learn from one another rather than just compare.

In each interview, I took written notes and recorded audio of the interview. It was explained to each interviewee that their answers would be anonymous unless I got their express permission to quote them. During the interview, I did not debate or counterpoint any statement made by the subject, as the purpose of an interview is to get their opinion, not mine. Once the interview was concluded, their answers were entered into a spreadsheet for reference.

The questions asked of each participant were as follows:

1. What is the purpose of the local church in your opinion?
2. Why does your local church exist?
3. Who leads the church and why?
4. How do you evangelize?
5. How do you disciple people?
6. What are the meanings of baptism and the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist?
7. What does worship look like?
8. What is something the local church struggles with in your context?
9. How should the local church engage their contextual community?
10. What does it look like for your local church to reach the “least of these”?

For each of the following parts in this series, we will examine each question and the answers given. Again, I won’t detail what everyone one said verbatim, but instead discuss their answers and what they prompted within myself. I’ll also provide my answers to the questions and the reasoning for those answers in each section.

I’m excited to write about the conversations I had. Each interview was informative, challenging, and encouraging. I truly feel that I have a better grasp of what the local church is after this project. Hopefully, by writing my findings, you’ll feel the same way too.