9.1 The Local Church as Community

For just as the body is one, but has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12). – Christ is a many-membered body. – The Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all (Ephesians 1:23).

The first part of our Glorious Salvation is that each one of us knows the Father and shares life together with the Father in every ongoing step. The second part of our Glorious Salvation is that we are members of one another as the Church, as the visible form of God, as the revelation of Jesus Christ.

One Visible Appearance. More than that, even though knowing God as individuals always comes first, yet the larger part of knowing the Father is known by us only when we are together as members of one another, sharing all the doings of life together.

Of truth, God has only one visible appearance inside of creation. The one appearance of God is the love shared reciprocally among believers in Jesus, it is Christians loving one another with pure hearts fervently. There is no other God. Everything else that is God comes into the knowing of created things only as and through this one appearance, the final form in which God appears inside of creation, the local Church, Christian Community.

The Apocalypse. This chapter, then, is about knowing the Father together inside of knowing one another, and about knowing one another together inside of knowing the Father. The full and final symmorphy of Jesus with us is Christian Community, small and local groups of believers walking together in commitment and in liberty. The moment when the whole world will see Jesus as He is, the Father as the Love shared together inside Christ Community, is called, in the Bible, the Apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That they might be one just as We are one; I inside of them, and You inside of Me, that they might be brought to full completion inside of one, that the world might know that You sent Me, and have loved them in just the same way that You have loved Me (John 17:22-23).

The Structure of Community. Before we can explore the meaning of our love together, we must first, in this lesson, outline what the structure of Christ Community might be. A good way to think about the local Church as Community is what I call “the five P’s.” Those five are (1) Prayer, (2) Provision, (3) People, (4) Property, and (5) Participation.

Prayer includes every part of our acknowledgment of God in the giving of thanks, God with us, the anointing and wisdom of the Spirit. Prayer, then, comes first in all. Provision comes next. You can’t bring people into community without meeting their immediate needs, from a welcoming hug to “our daily bread” and a place to sleep. Needs are daily; provision must also be daily. Community together as God among us is an inherently practical proposition.

People. Third, you must have people. Gathering together unto Christ is both a great inclusion and a great sifting. All are precious beyond measure, as Jesus to us, but not all are serious. Many go with the crowd, not knowing themselves that their hearts are insincere. The gates of Jerusalem are pearls. Those who enter Christ Community are those who turn all the difficulties of life into God-with-me through giving thanks. Yet in every gathering of humans you have every different sort of person you can imagine, all welcome, all needed, and each one as valuable as the Blood of Christ.

Communities should be between 50 and 100 people, approximately, of varying ages and of differing natural families, not too many or too few for truly knowing one another inside the joy of fellowship.

Agreement and Commitment. Christ Community is not a loose association, but a commitment to walk together inside of liberty. That commitment is similar to a marriage on the one hand and a business partnership on the other hand. Christ Community is an agreement to share life together. For this reason, there must be a shared property, even if that property is a number of homes in close proximity, but scattered throughout a town. It is in the arrangement of people, property, and buildings, that communities vary the most from one to the other.

And finally, Community means the active participation of every person involved, each one contributing, causing the growth of the body of Christ inside of Love.

A Manual for Community. I would point you to my text, Symmorphy V: Life, which is a practical manual for Christian Community. Everything in that text includes much experience and much prayerful thought over years. It remains a guide only, for sons of God are led by the Spirit inside themselves. Yet the wisdom in that text should not be discounted.

The most important part of what Jesus does for us in joining us with God is the joining of will with will, desire with desire, sharing the same motivation and heart. The most important part of a Christian Community is how decisions are made, a joining of minds and desires, a careful walking together. That is, the most important part of God-among-us is Community governance inside of Love.

Seeing God. Christian Community is believers in Jesus walking together, sharing daily life together on a shared property. This sharing of life together is how God reveals Himself. It is vital to know how that works. God is invisible Spirit; He has no solitary form inside creation. Yet God is family; He is togetherness, the Grace of Himself is known in completion as a shared life.

Thus it is that the interactions together among people who know one another in the daily activities of life, those interactions are God’s form; His place of visibility. God’s visibility is as a swarm. You see His form in creation, that is, LOVE, only as you witness the movement together of the members of His Body..

Members of One Another. For we are members of one another (Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12). I am vitally part of you, you are vitally part of me, and nothing we might ever do can change or lessen that reality. We drink of the same Spirit; we are valued by the same Blood; we embody the same Jesus; we share Hheart with the same Father.

Yet as members “in particular,” each one is very different from every other person. That difference is how God made us to NEED one another. No one is created to be sufficient in self. God is not sufficient in Himself, for He has no body. I NEED your differences and you mine to make our lives complete inside of God.

Sharing from Every Part. Christ—out from Whom the whole body, being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply or provision, according to the energeia inside the sharing from every part, causes growth of the body into the construction of itself inside of love (Ephesians 4:16).

You have things in your person and makeup that I NEED. I have things in my person and makeup that you NEED. I receive from you as Jesus to me. You receive from me as Jesus to you. As we share Christ together in our daily gathering, something happens, an ENERGEIA happens, the very Life that is God happens among us. Knowing God together is the deepest meaning of Grace.

The Completion of Jesus. This is My full completion, that you love one another in just the same way that I love you (John 15:12). – Christ Community is the completion of Jesus, His final and only True form. – Christ lives inside of your hearts through faith.

When John and Andrew first met Jesus, they asked Him, “Where do You live?” He replied, “Come and see.” On the Day of Pentecost, when Jesus filled His Church, and in the gathering together of that Church as God Tabernacling among us, they saw Jesus where He truly dwells. Yet that first fulfillment of Tabernacles endured for only eight years. The final completion is now. The glory of Jesus revealed through His Church, believers in Jesus loving one another as “Jesus to me,” is today greater than all.

Our Home and God’s. Knowing one another is the deepest level of Grace, the final form of God-made-known. Knowing one another is our home and God’s, our final resting place. In the next two lessons, we want to consider the practical meaning of loving one another and then the fellowship we share together inside the inner sanctum of Community.

Love is a decision. Although love carries with it wondrous emotions of joy and goodness, it remains firm when no emotion exists. Love is practical, daily, and costly. The fellowship of believers together, inside the privacy of devotion, is the very essence of the Father Himself. It is together as believers that we Truly share Hheart with God.