The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum The Local Church

So, what does the New Testament teach us about the local church assembly?
1. First, we see that churches gather regularly. Paul uses phrases like “when you come together as a church” and “the whole church comes together” (1 Cor. 11:18; 14:23).
2. Second, a church assembly is a distinct event. This is evident because Paul provides instructions on what believers should do “in church”—that is, in the church meeting. “In church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Cor. 14:19); “if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church” (v. 28).
3. Third, even large churches met as one body in the New Testament era. Thousands of believers belonged to the congregation at Jerusalem, yet they met “all together in Solomon’s Portico” (Acts 5:12).
4. Fourth, the New Testament writers instruct churches to do activities that can only be done by meeting together: teaching and admonishing one another; singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16); reading Scripture publicly (1 Tim. 4:13); and encouraging one another (Heb. 10:24–25). None of these can happen in a vacuum. And while it’s true that many of these things can take place among smaller subsets of the church (such as your Tuesday night Bible study), we should assume that they belong first and foremost to the main congregational gathering, given the biblical emphasis on the whole church meeting together.
5. Fifth, church discipline is an act of the gathered congregation. Jesus envisions “the church” as a whole, the ekklesia, speaking to the unrepentant sinner. In order to do this, they must be “gathered” in his name (Matt. 18:17, 20). Paul echoes this language as he instructs the Corinthians to implement church discipline “when you are assembled [same Greek word as gathered in Matt. 18:20] in the name of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:4).