CHURCH IS NOT AN OPTIONAL EXTRA FOR CHRISTIANS

 By Chuck Collins

www.virtueonline.org

April 25, 2025

“Church” isn’t an optional extra for Christians. Anglicans understand that church is God’s idea and his special way of reaching his people. It’s his appointed meeting-place. As the Old Testament tabernacle and temple were glimpses back to Eden before the fall, and looked forward to paradise restored in the New Jerusalem when Jesus returns, so today’s church is God’s instrument by which he delivers his grace. And he does this specifically in the reading and preaching of the Bible, and in the word eaten (the sacrament). The English reformers understood and respected the supernatural power of the Bible to turn people’s hearts and affections to God where Christians re-union with their Redeemer. And it is in this reunion by which the Lord reorients the hearts and affections of Christians. Thomas Cranmer, the chief architect of our Anglican heritage, knew this:

“For as the word of God preached putteth Christ into our ears, so likewise these elements of water, bread, and wine, joined to God’s word, do after a sacramental manner put Christ into our eyes, mouths, hands, and all our senses.”

The people who gather expecting to meet God in word and sacrament is the bridge between heaven and earth. One aspect of this is what Anglicans call: the communion of the saints. Before Holy Communion, the congregation is invited to join angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, who are in eternity forever acknowledging God’s holiness - to “lift up your hearts!” When Anglicans sing and when they pray, they are not just coming up with something on their own to offer God. No, it’s far bigger and more important than that! Worshipping Anglicans join the ongoing heavenly choir who are continually, day and night, acknowledging God’s beauty and his worthiness:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5).

Anglicans say in the creed recited each week that the church is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic,” but have you noticed that the word “holy” is missing from the Nicene Creed in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer? This is curious, but it is not accidental. This is a loud and important statement of reformational understanding. The rejection of this word by Cranmer shows how the English reformers viewed the institutional church as essentially a human institution, a larger body that includes Christians and nonChristians.

Anglican formularies make the distinction between the visible and invisible church. The visible church is the human institution rooted in human society that is populated with believers and unbelievers. The invisible church is the mystical body of the elect within the visible church who are chosen from eternity for eternal life. Because no one knows who really belongs to God, the church of which Christ is the head can only be invisible.

This distinction between the visible and invisible church explains how King Henry VIII could be the head of the institutional Church of England, while Christ is the only head of his mystical body, the church invisible, which will be revealed on the day Jesus comes back to bring heaven to earth.

The Thirty-nine Articles spell this out for us: “The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred: so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith” (Article XIX). The reformers wanted to make sure the English church distanced itself from any ideas that the church and tradition (i.e. the pope) is infallible, or in some way equal in authority with Holy Scripture.

There is an ongoing debate in the church today as to whether or not the Bible is the “product” of the apostolic and catholic church. To the extent that this is true, the church that wrote the Bible can then modify it or add teachings that do not necessarily stand the test of Holy Scripture. This makes the Bible subject to the church, and it makes some amorphous undefined “great tradition” the guiding rule of faith and worship above the Bible. Cranmer, once again, saw this coming and he declared, “The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God’s word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another” (Article XX).

Holy Scripture is the divinely inspired authority by which all other authorities are to be judged, including creeds, councils of the church, traditions, human reason and experience. This is why the first Homily is the first: “The Reading of Holy Scripture.” In this sermon, that was appointed to be read in every church in England and Ireland sequentially along with the other homilies, Christians are reminded that, “As drink is pleasant to those who are dry, and meat to those who are hungry, so is the reading, hearing, searching, and studying of holy scripture, to those who desire to know God, or themselves, and to do his will” (Gatiss version).

So, the church is a gathering in which the word of God is preached and the sacraments are duly ministered specifically for the reunion and refreshment of God’s people. Neglecting the gathering, the fellowship, and the worship is to say, “No thank you” to the God who has made his plan and grace available to us in this way. When someone is born again, it is never in isolation to be lone-ranger Christians, but rather into the family of believers who want to be together where God said he will meet and bless his children.

Rev. Canon Chuck Collins is a reform theologian who regularly writes on Anglican issues. He resides in Texas.