The Ground Of The Church

[YP0534]

Originally Posted by Terry

MikeH, the way I have understood this teaching is one city one expression. Meaning in a city there could be only one expression of Christ, but more than one assembly. Let's take Seattle for example. For years the LC church in Seattle had two assemblies, but one expression. Practically one assembly was for the English speaking and the other for the Chinese speaking.
The fallacy behind the LC concept is they are the legitimate expression of Christ in any given city. Any assemblies apart from them are illegitimate.
It is simply ludicrous to say an assembly needs to be affiliated with a specific Christian publisher/ministry in order to be considered legit.

For example usually on Saturday nights I meet with a group of Christians in Bellevue, Wa. With each of us our only common connection are brothers and sisters in Christ. However since it's not a LSM/LC home meeting, I have been told our meetings are illegitimate.
I disagree with such a divisvie concept. Rather all Christians who meet in a given city are the expression of Christ regardless whether they meet with lcers, Presbyterians, Baptists, etc.

Terry

Well, based upon my recent observations of posters on this site, I'd say, paraphrasing someone else, you're merely kicking the can down the street. Soon enough there will be groups of Christians arguing that they are the only genuine representative of the "expression" and then you'd have some others claiming that there are obviously multiple "expressions" in the city.

I have previously advocated for use of the better translation when referring to the unique group all the believers in a place and relegated the poor translation of "church" to whoever wanted to use it. But if there are now to be multiple "assemblies" within a single place, well, you'll soon enough have multiple "expressions" as well.

Obviously, no one can control the vocabulary used to describe the different sects and denominations. They are "churches" or "assemblies" or "expressions" or whatever people want them to be. So, those who contend for the oneness of the Spirit clearly cannot be hung up on the vocabulary.

Grace be with us all today!