The Church by A.W.Tozer

"Without doubt the most important body on earth is the Church of God which He purchased with His own Blood.Unfortunately the word "church" has taken on meanings which it did not originally have and has suffered untold injury in the house both of its enemies and of its friends.The meaning of the word for the true Christian was fixed by our Lord and His apostles. What they meant by it is what we must mean by it; and no man nor angel has authority to change it.The simple etymological meaning is easy to discover, but its larger significance must be learned from the New Testament Scriptures. All that is meant by that wondrous word cannot be stated in one sentence, nor in one paragraph, nor scarcely in one book.The universal Church is the body of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, the habitation of God through the Spirit, the pillar and ground of the truth.The local church is a community of ransomed men, a minority group, a colony of heavenly souls dwelling apart on the earth, a division of soldiers on a foreign soil, a band of reapers, working under the direction of the Lord of the harvest, a flock of sheep following the Good Shepherd, a brotherhood of like-minded men, a visible representative of the Invisible God....A true church is something supernatural and divine, and is in direct lineal descent from that first church at Jerusalem. Insofar as it's a church it's spiritual; its social aspect is secondary and may be imitated by any group regardless of its religious qualities or lack of them. The spiritual essence of a true church cannot be reproduced anywhere but in a company of renewed and inwardly united believers.The Christian life begins with the individual; a soul has a saving encounter with God and the new life is born...Once the "great transaction's done" the communion of believers will be found to be the best environment for the new life. Men are made for each other, and this is never more apparent than in the Church.All else being equal, the individual Christian will find in the communion of a local church the most perfect atmosphere for the fullest development of his spiritual life. There also he'll find the best arena for the largest exercise of those gifts and powers which God may have endowed him.The religious solitary may gain on a few points, and he may escape some of the irritations of the crowd, but he is half-man, nevertheless, and worse, he is a half-Christian. Every solitary experience, if we would realize its beneficial effects, should be followed immediately by a return to our own company. There will be found the faith of Christ in its most perfect present manifestation.But one thing must be kept in mind; these things are true only where the local church is a church indeed, where the communion of saints is more than a phrase from the Creed but is realized and practiced in faith and love. Those religio-social institutions, with which we are all too familiar, where worship is a form, the sermon an essay and the prayer an embarrassed address to someone who isn't there, certainly do not qualify as churches under any scriptural terms with which we are acquainted.The elements of a true church are few and easy to possess. They are a company of believers, the Lord, the Holy Spirit and the Word of the living God. Let the Lord be worshiped, the Spirit be obeyed, the Word be expounded and followed as the only rule for faith and conduct, and the power of God will begin to show itself...The church will produce a spiritual culture all its own, wholly unlike anything created by the mind of man and superior to any culture known on earth, ancient or modern. God is getting His people ready for another world, and He uses the local church as a workshop in which to carry on His blessed work.That Christian is a happy one who has found a company of true believers in whose fellowship he can live and love and labor. And nothing else on earth should be as dear to him nor command from him such a degree of loyalty and devotion."