I never paid much attention to the sign. Many days I would drive by the Mary Ellen and Harvester Church of Christ (located at the corner of Mary Ellen and Harvester streets in Pampa, Texas) and see nothing but the name. One day however a member of my church, and a former member of that congregation, told me to look at what was written under the name. I looked and there were these words, "The Church of Christ meets here." When I asked him why he wanted me to see those words his response was that it was his impression that the manner in which they were interpreted by his former congregation was that the only place where the Church of Christ met was at the corner of Mary Ellen and Harvester Streets. His impression was derived from the fact that in Pampa, a town of 18,000 persons, there were three Church of Christ congregations, each having emerged from the same mother church because of doctrinal disputes…and the members of one church would not speak with the members of the other churches because those "other" people did not believe the right things.
In many ways this has been the history of the Church. From the church in Corinth (46 CE) which was divided into factions, to the split between Roman (Western) and Orthodox (Eastern) churches in 1054 CE, to the Reformation (1500's CE) in which Protestants split from the church in Rome, to the current move toward the creation of new Presbyterian denomination for conservative congregations the church has had this long history of dividing in order that one church could claim to the only place where the Church of Christ meets. We have believed that by creating a new denomination or moving to a more "true" denomination we will no longer be associated with "those" lesser Christians. The joke on anyone who has ever broken away for those reasons is that the Mary Ellen and Harvester Church of Christ got it right…the Church of Christ does meet there…but it also meets in every other church where Christ is worshipped; which means we are all the church and are thus all related.
Hans Kung, in his book The Church (Sheed and Ward; New York: 1967; p. 85) puts it this way. "Each individual ekklesia (each individual congregation, community or church) is not the ekklesia (the whole Church, community or congregation); but none the less fully represents it: this means two things, Firstly: the local ekklesia is not a "section" or a "province" of the whole ekklesia. It is in no way seen as a sub-division of the real "Church"…no, the local Church does not merely belong to the Church, the local Church is the Church…Secondly: the "whole ekklesia" is not a "collection" or "association" of local Churches." What Kung is trying to say is that the church exists wherever followers of Jesus Christ meet, whether as individual Churches or as the Church. This is so because every place where Jesus followers meet they receive the same Gospel, are given the same mission, receive the same grace and worship the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It matters not whether a church is liberal or conservative, Presbyterian or Pentecostal, speaks Spanish or Swahili; they are the church of Jesus Christ.
We at First Presbyterian attempt to affirm and live into this reality in many ways. First we offer open communion. Anyone who has been baptized is invited to come and partake. It doesn't matter if someone has been sprinkled by a priest or dunked in a river by a preacher; they are still part of the Church of Christ. Second we work ecumenically. This Good Friday we will remember Christ's death with our Methodist, Baptist, and Disciple neighbors. We understand once again that we are bound together by Christ, even if we belong to different denominations. Third we work with Presbyterian churches which are more conservative than ourselves to do the work of Christ. This spring when many of our members travel to Mexico for a medical mission trip they will be teamed with members from the First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio, which is a "Confessing Church", meaning we disagree with them about who may be ordained. All of this is to say that we strive to live out the reality that we are linked with every community where "The Church of Christ Meets."
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