As a Christian for 25 years now I have observed many different expressions of worship, service, church and faith. I have been a part of the Church of England, Elim and Assemblies of God Pentecostal Churches, and various house-church denominations.
I have also been involved in varying degrees of leadership within some of these churches, as well as para-church organisations such as the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International, Evangelical Fellowship groups (local churches) and Christians Together. I have preached the gospel and taught in a wide variety of churches and situations and have witnessed God’s miraculous powers at work. I also published a non denominational magazine for 4½ years and have fellowshipped with Christians from every denomination.
I mention the above only to show that I have a wide experience of Christian and Church expression and feel well qualified to write on this subject.
THREE CHURCHES
It must be incredibly confusing for non-believers and new Christians to know which the ‘true’ church is. There is so many denominations, so many cults and groupings that all claim the title of ‘Christian’, the new believer could be forgiven for giving up seeking the right church before they start. Fortunately most people come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ via a personal relationship with another believer. The new believer mostly follows their ‘buddy’ into the friend’s church until they are mature enough in the faith to choose their own church family for themselves.
All churches have their own emphasis and to some extent their own beliefs or doctrine. Even within the same church or denomination there can be a wide variety of doctrine and belief, or unbelief.
Some churches put more emphasis on the traditions of the church, some on the traditions of the church fathers, and some reject tradition totally, and unknowingly create their own tradition.
Some churches put emphasis on one particular doctrine almost to the exclusion of all else, whilst others have such liberal doctrine it is difficult to pin down any specific belief.
Some churches are ruled by, or follow their governing body; some follow only the New Testament pattern for church, but most follow the Old Testament pattern of one priest/minister/leader at the front.
I want to address all these examples as we work through this series and try to find God’s heart and mind for the building of His church, His Body. It is my hope that we will discover the identity of ‘The Hidden Church’ as we examine the issues relating to Christian belief and practice.
I am going to try and not be technical, theological or use jargon. I will ONLY quote scripture to support my case, and will NOT allow my opinions to creep in, or the opinions of any denominational or non denominational church body.
Virtually all my experience has been within UK churches therefore readers outside of the UK must seek God and ask Him what of this book applies to them, in their situation.
I have observed many denominations, many expressions of tradition and many differing manifestations of faith within Christendom. But within them all, the one thing they have in common (apart from claiming the name of ‘Christian’) is that within each there are 2 churches at work.
Those churches are:
1. The Visible Church
The visible church is comprised of all who claim the name of Christian and who meet together for one or more of the following: worship, prayer, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, Baptism and any other rites or traditions of the Church.
The members of the visible church claim the name of Christian and consist of both believers and non-believers. It is the visible church that those outside of the Church judge and use as their yardstick to measure what Christianity is all about.
2. The Invisible Church
The invisible Church is comprised of the actual body of believers. They are the ones who have sincerely expressed repentance and trust in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for all that they have and are, by faith. The true believer is indwelt by the Lord Jesus (John 14:23) through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the invisible church is the ‘body of Christ’ (Romans 12:5).
The meaning of ‘church’:
The word "church" comes from the Greek "eklesia" which means "gathering" or "assembly."
The Christian church was founded by Jesus and He is its head and Saviour, (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23).
The church is the gathering of the believers who come together to share fellowship together as they worship God and read/hear His Word.
The purpose of the ‘church’:
The church has been equipped by the Holy Spirit with members possessing different spiritual gifts (Romans 12:5-8). The purpose of these gifts is "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ," (Ephesians 4:12-13).
As a member of the Church, the Christian is subject to the Lordship of Jesus (Ephesians 5:24) with the Word of God being the 'manual' by which we come under church authority and our guidance for our life.
THE THIRD CHURCH
There is also a third church though, The Hidden Church.
The Hidden Church consists of true believers who may or may not be a part of some other established church.
In the event of them being a part of an existing church they have joined the body of the Hidden Church, usually because they have a hunger in their spirit that is not being fed within their existing church family.
Those that are not part of an existing family usually find themselves excluded because nobody will listen to their encouragements or exhortations. They can be unpopular as they speak the Word of God and expose weaknesses or encourage people to grow and expand their comfort zones. It may be that they have found themselves rejected because they would not bow the knee to authoritarian leaders, or questioned doctrine taught, or the hierarchy of a denomination.
In many other cases these people have been hurt and/or rejected because of sickness, or because they are the sort of person Jesus loved to associate with, the criminals and prostitutes.
So how do we identify ‘The Hidden Church’?
Any church that does not carry an identifying label is difficult to individually distinguish because its identity is in the mix of members, their personalities and their gifting. Each group of the ‘Hidden Church’ will have a unique identity, but there may well be certain identifying features common to the groups or individuals.
I have used my knowledge of those involved in the ‘Hidden Church’, and the groupings I know of and have visited to come to the descriptions listed below.
The groups
The groups may consist of up to about a dozen or 15 ‘members’. They meet in houses mainly, during the course of a week to praise, worship, pray, break bread, encourage one another and to hear the word of God. They may well meet together in a larger family group, monthly, for celebration.
The groups will divide and multiply when they meet a maximum comfortable number for the size of home they are meeting in.
They do not grow by ‘stealing’ people from other churches. They do not evangelise other believers to make their ‘church’ grow. They are open to receiving new ‘members’ from those God leads to their group. There are so many seeking God for spiritual growth and fulfillment, and that identifies with the group ethos, that growth is unceasing.
I use the term ‘member’ but there is no formal membership. There are extended family groups, whose uniting factor is not formal ‘membership’ but the Holy Spirit.
Each group has an administrative/pastoral leader, but does not have a priest/minister who solely stands up and leads meetings, intercedes with God, or takes responsibility away from the believer. They put into practice the Truth that each is priest and minister of the Most High God.
The group ‘members’:
These usually fall into one (or more) of the following categories:
(a) Those that have been hurt and rejected by the established churches of all descriptions
(b) Those that are members of existing churches but seek more depth of God and His purposes for them and His body
(c) Those that have left existing churches to be devoted to the purity of seeking God and choosing not to feel compromised by being part of an established church.
Please note that I am not including here those independent minded and spirited people who think they know best and will only do things their way.
To identify the ‘rebel’ from the ‘Hidden Church’ member, there are two keys to the identification of individual members of ‘The Hidden Church’, humility and team mindedness for the purposes and good of the Kingdom of God. I will deal with these in depth later.
One common factor, whichever of the above categories the member falls into, is that of the desert experience. This will be the subject of the next article.
[Please note that this series has been published as a book and as such is subject to worldwide copyright]
