The above comment came after a Bible class in which we studied and discussed the very first church, the one established on Pentecost (Acts 2). Because it began with a membership of 3000 and quickly grew to 5000 men (Acts 4:4), which could easily have translated to 10,000 when counting wives and widows, this comment was muttered by one of the women sitting in the class. She didn't like "big" churches, and evidently that included the congregation founded on the Day of Pentecost. Can you imagine saying that you would not have wanted to be a member of the first church, the one where the apostles themselves did the teaching, where miracles were still performed, and the Holy Spirit made himself evident? Unfortunately, I think I have a lot of brethren who feel the same way whether they say so or not.
They want a small congregation so they can become "involved" and, though they probably won't say this, "important." They want a church where they can know everyone personally and have close relationships with everyone. They want a church where what they say and think matters and where they have as much say-so as the next guy because there are no elders. Do you think I exaggerate and presume? I have heard all of these things.
We forget what the church is. Jesus did not die for a social club where we get to make the dress codes and decide who can belong based upon the severity of their problems or their social stratum. (When we fail to meet and greet certain ones in a friendly fashion, that is exactly what we are deciding.) The church does not exist so we can all get a turn showing off our perceived talents and abilities and garner praise from everyone else, or so we can be sure to have a group who will give our children a wedding shower or a graduation present, or so we can have people to cater the family meal after a loved one dies. Those are simply the side benefits of being in a body of Christians. And if those things do not happen for us, we do not have an automatic right to leave the Lord.
What Jesus died to establish is a dynamic group of believers whose minds are on the spiritual world (the "heavenlies") not the physical; who understand the severity of God's judgment; who believe it is not only their mission to make sure they are saved, but also to take as many as they can with them; who believe their worship must include a life of service to others; and who put the unity and good of the body ahead of their own likes and dislikes. When we reach that point, statements like the one at the top of this post will simply disappear.
But you have come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warns from heaven…Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:22-25,28-29).
Dene Ward