Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
This is where YP’s desire to associate the term “church” or “assembly” only with a single physical gathering is potentially incorrect.
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I have no such desire and have never said this.
I recognize the members of all the gatherings/churches within a geographical area as constituting the unique assembly in that place. I'm recognizing all the people gathering in all the denominational churches in a place as as spontaneously and collectively representing the genuine and unique assembly in that place without them or anyone else doing anything more.
- Once born again, you can't get out of the Lord's Body. Call it "Universal Church" if it makes you happy to do so.
- Wherever you are, LSM-affiliation having nothing to do with it, there is an "assembly of God" in every place where there is one Christian meeting with another one Christian.
- Optimally, all believers meet together as much as possible while ignoring the denominational differences that could cause genuine divisions.
You're born again, you're in a place with other believers, you meet with other believers, you are in the assembly and can't get out of it because it's not of you or of any human being or organization. There is no necessity for a designated or official leadership or "local church" designation for this to exist. It is the spiritual reality of there being Christians meeting in a place and God being glorified therein.
If Paul were to write a letter today to the believers meeting in Anaheim, I'm certain he would intend that letter to be read by all the believers in Anaheim, not merely those who claim a certain status or qualification. He would write to "the assembly in Anaheim" and mean the Baptists and Catholics and Presbyterians and Lutherans and Local Churchers as well.
I can't condone the denominationalism which undeniably tends to keep the believers separate in ways contrary to the free flow of God among His people. Nevertheless, all the brothers and sisters in a place are the members of "the church" in that place no matter what they say or do or think about their meetings. The various meetings, if the hearts are pure, are a small problem indeed. I'm not thrilled about the signs on the lawns but, some have said here, those signs don't really mean anything anyways. In the larger picture, I'm inclined to agree and had to repent for getting as hung up on them as I once did.
On a side note, because of the religious connotations of "church" and the fact that everyone wants to be "a" church or "the" church and the fact that it's just a lousy translation, I have advocated referring to the collective of all the believers in a place as "the assembly." Let them be a "church" who wish to be a "church"; if they are believers, they are nevertheless the assembly as well.
I have stated that the assembly is constituted by its assembling but I've
never stated that there was an issue of "a single physical gathering" at all.
In fact, I would strongly argue exactly the opposite.
The assembly can be seen
everywhere the believers physically meet, even in the denominational gatherings. I cannot otherwise explain my experiences of seeing for myself God manifested in the praises of His saints in denominational and independent gatherings.