What is the Biblical support for the premise that "the local church in the New Testament met together in one location"? I don't necessarily disagree, but I would like to know where that is coming from.

I'm so grateful for Mark & 9Marks, and I understand your position on having one service... however, practically, I've learned that people cannot have a meaningful relationships, even community, with an infinite number of people (even if they have worship in one room at the same time). Community tends to happen in smaller circles.
I met with someone who complained about a proposal at our church to have two services on the basis that we "won't know everybody anymore".
My response was, "You don't know everybody now, you have several close friends, some aquaintances, and a lot of people you don't know." And this is a church of 150.
In a church of 500, in one service, or a church of a 1000, isn't there is a limit to the number of meaningful relationship that you will develop in the worship service?
Hypothetically, if you had the room to make a sanctuary as big as you wanted at CHBC, what attendance level would be the limit for preserving community? (1000; 5000; 10000)
I'm not sure this principle of yours, outweighs the potential kingdom impact of having mulitple services, but I pray that God continues to bless CHBC and multiply its impact for the glory of God!
Kevin

Hey Paul,

I won't put words in Mark's mouth, so here you go. This is from Mark's essay on ecclesiology in the Systematic Theology edited by Daniel L. Akin called "A Theology for the Church":

“When Jesus instructed his followers to seek out the brother who had sinned (Matt. 18:15-21), he was presupposing such an integrated conception of body membership. Actions of reproach and, ultimately, exclusion are to occur within the arena of a specific and identifiable group of people. In many other places in the New Testament, a church appears to be composed of a specific and identifiable group of people (e.g., Acts 9:41; 12:1; 15:3, 22; Eph. 2:19; 3:6; 4:25; 5:30; Col. 2:19; 3:15; 3 John 9) (Dever, 792).”

In Christ,
Noah

Noah,

Thanks for those passages! I think that argument is generally used to show well-defined membership in the local church. I don't see why it is necessary to all meet at the same time or even the same place to have a well-defined body of people who are "the church" in an area. Multiple services is such a widespread practice now that I would think a robust Biblical explanation would be needed as to why this is contrary to the NT model if one is going to throw this out there. Even the churches pastored by Mark's friends from T4G, Lig and CJ (OK, formerly pastored in this case), have multiple Sunday morning services....

Grace and peace,
Paul

Our church is currently praying about and planning a move to a multi-congregational model of church planting, so this post particularly caught my eye.

Mark makes good observations on the advantages of the local church meeting together as ONE assembly at ONE location (and, by implication, the disadvantages of modern innovations like multiple services). At the same time, though, I think that it's possible to minimize (or eliminate) those disadvantages and maintain both the practical advantages and biblical integrity. Let me explain what we're looking to do . . .

We believe that God has called our church (which is relatively small: ~100 to 150 in attendance) to plant more churches in our city, and one way in which to do that is by planting distinct congregations of our church in each geographically identifiable region in the city. Note that this is *not* the same as offering multiple services. Members will be asked to commit to, attend, and serve one congregation. Each congregation will have its own ministry teams, meeting place for worship, community groups, etc. At the same time, all of the distinct congregations will be under the authority of one body of Elders, will be able to share resources (office space, curricula, preacher, etc) with the other congregations. Additionally, it'll give Elders other than the lead pastor more opportunities to preach.

Any thoughts?

Grace & Peace,
Rae Whitlock
Elder @ Grace Central Presbyterian Church
Columbus, OH

As I read through the NT and try to "connect the dots," it seems that the composite of believers in any one city always considered themselves to the "church" of that city. And yet, they met together regularly in smaller "house churches." Beyond this, it is unclear to what degree and with what frequency they all met together as a larger group.

Does anyone have any evidence that would show these assumptions to be false?

David,

The early church's meeting every day together in the temple (Acts 2:46) suggests that there was a larger meeting in addition to their smaller meetings in homes, where they broke bread.

Rae,

Thanks for the response, and the interaction on this point.

Yes, that is true. We also have the example of Paul meeting daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus with the disciples at Ephesus. And, the Paul's reminder to the elders at Ephesus that he had "taught (them) publicly and from house to house." Also, 1 Cor. 5:4, where Paul says to the believers (presumably all of them), "when you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus," and Acts 20:7, where a group of believers (perhaps the entire "church" at Troas) "came together to break bread" and listened to Paul talk to them until midnight.

In spite of this, I find it difficult to claim unequivocably, from biblical evidence, that the entire "church" in each city met together on a regular basis, or that this is a practice that should be viewed as obligatory for us today.

As Dever has already pointed out, meeting in multiple services makes carrying out church discipline very difficult.

I agree that meeting together regularly and in one location helps cultivate community and as long as it's taken as that--a help, I think it's healthy.

However, daily life together is at least equally important. Further, church discipline doesn't happen at that one gathering alone but implies a relationship that goes far beyond a time and place for a gathering of the believers.

Thomas, I don't know that I see why it's necessarily true that multiple services makes church discipline particularly difficult. Could you explain?

Rae,

Let's say a church has a discipline case in which the Elders have thoroughly worked and it needs to now be brought before the church where the unrepentant member must be removed.

If a church has multiple services, before which service do you bring the case? How can the whole congregation vote?

Maybe churches with multiple services call a special meeting to which all the congregation comes together? I don't know....

Thomas,

Ahh, I understand. Yes, it would be difficult in churches with a strictly congregational polity.

There I go, thinking like the Presbyterian that I am again. ;-) I keep forgetting that 9Marks is so Baptist-heavy.

Rae,

I would recommend making contact with Doug Swagerty of Harbor Presbyterian in San Diego. He was very helpful in helping my congregation wrestle through the issues of a multisite model very much like that you outline.

David - thanks! We've actually been in contact w/ the folks from Harbor Pres for a few months.