OceanSide church of Christ

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MULTIPLE PLACES OF ASSEMBLY?

Victor M. Eskew

 

            In the New Testament, God has authorized local congregations to exist in various locations.  We read of many of these churches in the Bible:  Jerusalem, Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, Laodicea, Philippi, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Sardis, and Pergamos to name a few.  Each one of these churches was composed of several members.  “For the body is not one member, but many” (I Cor. 12:14).  These churches were organized under a group of men called elders (Acts 14:23; 20:28; I Pet. 5:1-3).  Each one of these local churches was autonomous, that is, self-governing.  There was no authorized group smaller than the local church.  The only authorized group larger than the local church is the church universal.  “Church universal” stands for all of the saved from all of the local churches. 

            One of the obligations these churches had was to assemble as a body on the Lord’s Day for worship.  In Acts 20, Paul tarried in Troas in order to assemble with the church on the first day of the week.  “And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.  And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:6-7).  Notice two phrases in verse seven.  The first phrase states:  “the disciples came together.”  This was an assembly of the disciples.  It was a time when they met together as a group.  The second phrase says:  “to break bread.”  These words indicate the purpose of the assembly.  The words “break bread” have reference to the Lord’s Supper.  The words are a figure of speech called a synecdoche.  A synecdoche exists when a part, the breaking of bread, is put for the whole, the worship services of the church in Troas.  The first century church was authorized to come together as a single body for worship on the first day of the week. 

            This practiced is affirmed over and over in the writings of the Church Fathers.  “But every Lord’s Day…gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure” (The Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).  “We keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead” (Letter of Barnabas 15:6-8 [A.D. 74]).  “Those who were brought up in the ancient order of things [i.e. Jews] have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death” (Letter to the Magnesians 8 [A.D. 110]).  “But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead” (First Apology 67 [A.D. 155]). 

            When the local churches assembled for worship, they assembled in one place.  In I Corinthians 11, this is made clear in several passages.  “…that ye come together” (v. 17).  “For first of all, when ye come together in the church…”  “When ye come together therefore into one place…” (v. 19).  “Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.”  Note:  We do not know why “type” of facility they used for their assemblies.  The temple seemed to be an option for the church in Jerusalem at first (Acts 2:46).  The church in Troas mentioned earlier had gathered in an “upper chamber” for worship the night Paul met with them (Acts 20:8).  We are also informed that the churches in various locales met in the houses of some of the members (I Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phile. 2).  Regardless of where they met, they all met together in one place in order to worship the Lord on the Lord’s day.

            The teaching we have set forth up to this point is the New Testament pattern.  It was a pattern confirmed by the early Church Fathers.  It was the pattern of the church for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.  The local congregations of the Lord’s people assembled on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, to worship the Almighty God.  Does man have the authority to deviate from this divine pattern?  We could answer this question in the affirmative if the Bible provides alternative ways for the saints to worship on the Lord’s Day, but it does not.  There is not one passage that indicates that man can do something other than assemble as the body of Christ on the Lord’s Day for worship.

            Some will point to the “house churches” as authorization to worship apart from the unified assembly of the body of Christ on Sunday.  Church houses, however, are not substitutes for the one assembly of all the saints.  In the first century, all the Christians in a given local met in the home of one of the saints for worship.  They all came together in that one place.  The body did not fragment itself into many different homes for worship.  If this can be done Scripturally, when can it be done?  How often can it be done?  Does the entire church ever have to come together for worship?  Can one family choose to do this for a month, two months, six months, etc.?  Where are the passages that legislate when it can be done and when it can’t be done?  Can all of the members choose to assemble their family at the lake?  at the local restaurant?  at the park?  or, in a vacation hotel for worship?  Again, does the local church ever have to assemble as the entire body for a worship service? 

            We live in a very busy and mobile society.  People are constantly going here and going there.  Loyalty to the local church is not what it used to be.  Faithful attendance of the worship services is not what it used to be.  Members are not concerned about the pattern.  They are concerned about easing their conscience and saying that they have worshipped God.  I suppose that if the only bread they had available to them when it was time to worship was leavened bread, this would be acceptable.  A few would agree, but most would not agree.  Why?  Because we have a pattern for the Lord’s Supper in the Bible that involves unleavened bread.  In like manner, we have a pattern for the entire body of the local congregation assembling in one place for worship on the Lord’s Day.  We have no authority for multiple places of worship for the local church on the Lord’s Day.