Can You Be a Christian Without the Church? Henri Blocher Explains

Introduction

Can you live out your faith alone, without ever stepping through a church door? In this interview with the Tabernacle church (Paris 18th), theologian Henri Blocher goes back to the source of the word "church" and reminds us of a reality many Christians lose sight of: when you place your trust in Christ, you are united to him, and by the same token united to all those who have also received him. Church life is therefore not a decorative option in the Christian life. It is its direct consequence.

Sermon Outline

1. What the Bible calls "church"

• The word "church" comes from the Greek and simply means "assembly", used for the political assembly in Athens, then for the people of Israel, God's people united to him by covenant.
• Two meanings in the New Testament: the universal assembly of all those who, in every time and place, have put their trust in Jesus the Christ; and the local sense, a given group that reflects this reality in a particular time and place.
• The building is not the church. That's a metonymy. The church is the supernatural life that circulates among those who profess the same faith and who are united to one another by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
• The New Testament uses several images to describe this reality: the construction of the temple (God dwells there by his Spirit), and (in Paul's epistles alone), the image of the body, a body invisible in its essence, created by the bond of the Spirit.

2. What "evangelical," "Baptist," and "Tabernacle" mean

• "Evangelical": a particularly rigorous and systematic effort to conform to the Gospel as set forth in the Bible. The movement owes much to the work of the 16th-century Reformers, Luther the German, Calvin the Frenchman.
• "Baptist": it was critics who, at the beginning of the 17th century, attached this label. Baptists wanted to return to baptism as it appears in the New Testament, that of people who confess their faith. No infant baptism is described there.
• Peter's epistle gives a near-definition: baptism is "the pledge of a good conscience toward God" (1 Peter 3:21), something an infant is not capable of making.
• "Tabernacle": the word means "tent." Rather than say "temple," some preferred "tabernacle" to signal that the church is not settled into the world. If we are in the world, we are not of the world.

3. Why you cannot be a Christian alone

• When you enter into faith, you are united to Christ, and by the same token united to all the others who become brothers and sisters in him. Remaining isolated is, in practice, a contradiction of the new reality established by the relationship of faith.
• Within this fraternal community, we need one another. We are all weak, we all have various needs, and God gives various gifts to different people so that we may help one another.
• The number-one mission of a church is to make known the message of the Bible, the word of God, because it is people's eternal destiny that is at stake.

4. What 100 years of a local church have produced in a neighborhood

• The Tabernacle church is more than a hundred years old. From the early 1930s, it was a pioneer in children's summer camps, a camp created in the Aube department, in close association with the church, at a time when very few such camps still existed in France.
• Between the outer boulevards and the suburbs there stretched "la zone," a fairly densely populated neighborhood. A small wooden hall was built there in the 1930s, a work that was both social and evangelistic. People discovered the truth of the Gospel there and experienced real social advancement.
• Today the activities are less spectacular, but there are still meal and clothing distributions, a team of members welcomes people in difficult circumstances.

5. The challenges facing the church today

• Secularism. A little-known fact: the first state in the world whose constitution guaranteed full freedom of worship (including for Jews and Muslims), was Rhode Island, founded by Roger Williams, who at the same time founded the first Baptist church in the United States. There is a kinship between the Baptist affirmation of fully individual responsibility and the very principle of freedom of conscience.
• On the place of Islam in France, an effort to bring more brotherhood and more desire for peace than there spontaneously is in the debates.
• The great missionary challenge: so many of our contemporaries anesthetize within themselves, through a kind of unconscious repression, the sense of God implanted in them, and live a life with no other horizon. That sadness is the great challenge to be met.

6. When the church disappoints : and when you're searching for one

• Things that should not happen do happen, and that in every church, because we are on the way, we are very far from obeying 100% of all the directives the Lord, in his goodness, gives us for our good.
• "Don't look for a perfect church, because the day you walked into it, it would stop being perfect."
• The great principle for the solution: we are in the church because we belong to Jesus, our Savior and Lord. It is not the other way around. If the church disappoints us, Jesus himself will not disappoint us.
• To the spiritual "tourists" who spend years visiting from one church to another: being part of a church also means exercising responsibilities, giving as much as receiving. After visiting a few churches, try to make a choice in prayer.
• The great criterion: the conformity to the Bible of the teaching given, it is through the preaching of the Gospel that God has chosen for us to be saved. The second criterion: fraternal community life and welcome.

Key Takeaways

• "Church" means "assembly." It is neither a building nor a club, it is the people God has formed for himself and unites by his Spirit.
• You cannot be united to Christ without being united to those who belong to him. Remaining isolated contradicts the very relationship that faith establishes.
• Baptism according to the New Testament is the pledge of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21), so an act of confessing faith, not a rite performed on an infant.
• The name "Tabernacle" (tent) recalls that the church is not settled into the world: we are in the world, but we are not of it.
• Don't look for a perfect church. Look for a church that conforms to the Bible and a fellowship that welcomes you, then commit.
• If the church disappoints you, Jesus himself will not disappoint you. You are in the church because you belong to him, not the other way around.

Personal Application

1. Are you simply a Christian "on an individual basis," or a committed, known member of a local church?
2. When you look for a church, what is your first criterion: the atmosphere, the music, the proximity, or the conformity of the teaching to the Bible?
3. Have you accepted that the church you attend is imperfect, just as you yourself are? Or do you expect from it what only Jesus can give you?
4. What do you receive from your church this year, and above all: what do you bring to it?
5. Around you, how many people are living "with no other horizon" because they have anesthetized their sense of God? What can you do this week to open a door for them?

Scriptures Cited

• 1 Peter 3:21 · "Baptism, the pledge of a good conscience toward God"
• Matthew 16:18 · "I will build my Church"
• Acts 2 · The founding of the Church at Pentecost
• 1 Corinthians 12 · The image of the body of Christ
• Ephesians 2:19-22 · The building of living stones where God dwells by the Spirit

Further reading

• Christian Leadership: Biblical Principles and Practical Advice
• Best Church Event Photography Tips
• How to Organize a Christian Conference

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the words "evangelical" and "Baptist" mean?

According to Henri Blocher, "evangelical" designates a particularly rigorous and systematic effort to conform to the Gospel as set forth in the Bible; the movement owes much to the work of the 16th-century Reformers, Luther and Calvin. "Baptist" comes from a label attached at the beginning of the 17th century by critics of the movement: Baptists wanted to return to baptism as it appears in the New Testament, that of people who confess their faith, since no infant baptism is described there.

Why is this church called "Tabernacle" and not "Temple"?

The word "tabernacle" means "tent." In the Old Testament it referred to the nomadic sanctuary set up for God in the midst of Israel, after the exodus from Egypt, before settling in the promised land. By preferring it to "temple," the church's founders wanted to signal that the Church is not settled into the world: if we are in it, we are not of it, we are on the way, carried by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

What should you do when you're looking for a church and hesitating between several?

Visiting several churches isn't unhealthy, but you shouldn't remain a tourist your whole life. After seeing a few churches, choose in prayer. The great criterion is the conformity to the Bible of the teaching given, because it is through the preaching of the Gospel that God has chosen for us to be saved. The second criterion is fraternal community life and welcome. And remember: if the church disappoints you, Jesus himself will not disappoint you.