Extra ecclesia nulla salus

Have you ever been in a place or with a group of people and felt, "I don't belong here"?

I remember trying to find a summer job during college, and I ended up at a training session for selling vacuums door to door. It was clear within a very short time that this was neither my crowd nor the right job for me. I felt very out of place with the values and motivations of other attendees and trainers, so I left after the first day and did not return.

However, sometimes we are "in a place" where we feel "out of place", but we're called to stay "in place". In fact, one of those places might be the church.

Extra ecclesia nulla salus

What comes to mind when I say “the church”?  A building?  A certain group of people?  What does it mean to be a part of the church today? How you answer these questions contributes to how you feel about my statement of being called to "stay in church".

If you are a follower of Jesus, then you have been called to a new way of living alongside and in partnership with other followers of Jesus.  Long ago, the church had an expression for this belief: extra ecclesia nulla salus: “outside the church there is no salvation.”  Nowadays we gasp at that statement. It seems so arrogant and heavy-handed.

However, listen to what Douglas Brouwer says about this statement in his book Remembering the Faith:

“This may come as a surprise to you... [but] the church has never backed away from that claim...

The church still says that when you announce your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you have at that moment aligned yourself with every other human being, living or dead, who ever made that profession of faith.  When you announce your faith in Jesus Christ, you become, whether you know it or not, a part of the church."

Thus, extra ecclesia nulla salus: outside the church there is no salvation.  This does not mean there is no salvation unless you enter a church building, sing, and listen to a sermon on Sunday mornings with other believers. Rather, it means when we align ourselves with the lordship and mission of Jesus, we receive salvation, and when we receive salvation, we automatically become a part of the body of Christ – the Church. Thus it stands to reason that if we never were a part of the body of Christ (the Church), we never received salvation.

In other words, the phrase “outside the Church there is no salvation” has been true since the Ascension of Jesus Christ.

Even when we feel "out of place" in a church (with a lowercase "c"), which is a local expression of the Church (with an uppercase "C"), which is the body of Christ on earth, the author of Hebrews encourages us:

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near."

- Hebrews 10:23-25, NLT

But what if I do feel out of place in church?

There are two thoughts that come to mind. On the one hand, it is good to be around people who are unlike us. The New Testament church was full of different ethnicities and socio-economic classes who were called to love each other and serve one another. At times it was difficult and uncomfortable, at times they grated on one another, at times they needed outside help with conflict resolution, but to the best of their ability they stayed true to their call to embody and display the love of Jesus to the world through their boundary-breaking unity with one another.

Thus, I encourage people to remain committed to their local church, working through discomfort, differences, and even conflict in a healthy way (in fact, true community doesn't even start until after conflict).

However, on the other hand, it's not always the right call to stay in a local church. Some local expressions of the universal church are are loving... other local expressions are toxic.

Some local expressions of the universal church welcome people from all walks of life... other local expressions act as gatekeepers, keeping undesirables away.

Some local expressions of the universal church make space for the imperfect and broken... other local expressions clearly desire pure and perfect people (which no one is therefore everyone must pretend).

Some local expressions of the universal church truly live by the "one anothers" of the New Testament... other local expressions live by "othering" people and make it about "us and them."

So where does this leave us? Whether you like it or not, you have no choice but to be a part of the church. However, you do have choice in where you express your participation.

This means that although you as a follower of Jesus are a part of the body of Christ (the Church) whether you like it or not, and although you may feel uncomfortable in a local setting because people are different from you, you may still be called to participate there. Or not, because not every local expression of the un universal church is healthy, and some should be avoided.

PAUSE and REFLECT

Where do you stand with the idea of Church? How often do you engage in a church community?

It may be uncomfortable to hear this, but if you are a follower of Jesus, your Lord calls you to participate in some local expression of Christian community, love, and mission. It doesn't have to look like a traditional Sunday morning church service (in fact for some it probably shouldn't look like one), but the New Testament question is not "Do you want to participate in the Church, the body of Christ?" It is, "How is Jesus calling you to participate in his love for his church and his love for the world through his church?"

Again, although the church is made up of all followers of Jesus, and Jesus encourages us to engage with people unlike us (different culture, different theology, different politics, different generation, etc), we can and should be discerning about the community to which we plug in. It's OK to leave one local expression for another, but let it not be for some shallow ("I didn't like the music") or immature ("I had a disagreement with someone and didn't want to try to work it out") reason.

You are the church. You are also called to love the church (i.e. the community of God's people) and participate with the church in God's mission of reconciliation to the world.

Can the church be irritating? Yes. Can the church be full of hypocrites? Yes. Can the church act in ways that are unloving and unkind? Yes. Does this mean you and I can forgo church? No. It means we must be discerning, find a local expression of God's people who align with God's values (this is much, much more than "right doctrine"), and offer our selves, gifts, resources, and service there.

Today, where might God be encouraging you to "not neglect meeting together" with God's people?