The Baptist gathering –be it a prayer meeting, Bible study, business meeting, or worship service– is, in many ways, like a snowflake: completely unique every time.
Yesterday I preached a sermon in which I compared the recycling of cells in the human body with the recycling of generations in the body of Christ. Just as one’s precise cellular makeup at any given moment is irreplicable at future moments, so it is (in a sense) for the body of Christ.
This analogy is so useful because it makes room for newness and sameness, both of which we see quite clearly in human bodies and the body of Christ.
If you were to take a snapshot of your cellular makeup right now and take another every seven years, you’d think you were looking at a different (new) human being each time. Despite such cellular regeneration, however, throughout the years this remains the same person, the same body.
Newness and sameness can exist together.
Baptists, among other things, are distinguished by their congregational polity and spiritual spontaneity. What I mean is: rather than receiving key pronouncements and decisions by priests, bishops, presbyteries, and the like, Baptists come together at the prompting of the Holy Spirit to discern the will of God afresh whenever they gather.
The business meeting is thus a sacred rite for Baptists, especially for small(er) congregations in New England (20-80 people). Patterned after the local meetings of villages, hamlets, and other northern townships, such meetings reveal the heart of a local community.
For Baptists, such gatherings are not limited to the business meeting, but may include prayer meetings, Bible studies, and even Sunday morning worship. What distinguishes the Baptist meeting, however, is that like the cellular snapshot, each gathering is unique.
At this point, I’d like to introduce a new image, given plummeting temperatures and northern flurries (in the north): the Baptist gathering, in many ways, is like a snowflake.
My son and I checked out an interesting volume from the library which details the fascinating science of the snowflake. While some contend that certain forms of snowflakes can look exactly alike, the vast majority (represented in other forms) are completely unique.
The Baptist gathering –be it a prayer meeting, Bible study, business meeting, or worship service– is, in many ways, like a snowflake: completely unique every time.
While we worship the same God, interpret the same Scriptures, and comprise the same Church, the cellular snapshot at each of these gatherings is always just a little bit different.
This phenomenon was expressed at a recent meeting of ABCOM’s Committee on the Ministry (ABCOM = American Baptist Churches of Maine). Al Fletcher, the region’s executive minister, shared the following (I think ‘spirit-filled’) remarks:
“Whenever a group of believers comes together at a particular moment in time to either engage the Scriptures or discern God’s will, that gathering at that moment is unique and irreplicable.”
In other words: Let’s say ‘that congregation’ decides to gather the following week, but some from the previous week are not there, and others who were not there the week before, are present now. Not only this, but with the week that has gone by, the people who were present last time and are present again, are now slightly different people, with new experiences, memories, and knowledge acquired over the last seven days.
Since individuals are constantly changing and the attendance roll is rarely the same (among congregations larger than 20), each gathering then is just a little bit different.
Al went even further in saying: “the church that met the week before is not the church that is meeting right now, and the church that will meet next week will be a new church, etc., etc.” Rather than being rigid and uniform through time, the Baptist congregation is like a snowflake: completely unique every time.
To return to the image of the organism, then, its cellular makeup is constantly changing, as old cells fade, current ones change, and new ones find their place.
Perhaps this is disconcerting to you, to think of the church as ever-changing, in flux, and never fixed. However, like a human body, to be in a state of change, of constant newness, doesn’t preclude continuity. It doesn’t preclude a state of sameness.
We wouldn’t call “Cellular Snapshot 1” (at seven years) and “Cellular Snapshot 2” (at fourteen years) different people. While the cells may look different, they still comprise the same, continuous person, identity. So, it is with the Church.
Because the body of Christ is comprised of ever-changing Spirit-filled humans, who rarely come together as the exact same collection every time, this allows for both newness and sameness, at the same time.
Thus, despite the fluid nature of our existence and the unpredictable attendance of each meeting, believers come together full of the same Spirit, in pursuit of the same God.
While each meeting may unveil a slightly different church (cycle), in reality it’s the same Church (body). Cells may be constantly cycling but the body remains the same.
This, I think, is a vital reminder for believers everywhere, who may be tempted to emphasize one pole or the other.
Is the church an unchanging, rigid, and fixed set of beliefs, traditions, and opinions that persist unmodified through all of time? Or is the church an everchanging, unstable, and fluid movement which must alter its outlook with every new generation (cycle)?
Like a body, as Christ’s body, the Church holds room for both: while its cells may constantly cycle, the body remains the same.
Whenever a local congregation gathers, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, with all present being equal, you never know what God’s going to do.
At the same time, whenever a congregation gathers, in possession of an unchanging Spirit and in pursuit of an unchanging God, you know exactly what God’s going to do ( = what He’s always done).
My hope is that you would find life today in the beauty and complexity that is the body of Christ. Trust deeply, then, in God’s stable sameness, while not forgetting that like a snowflake, He is always doing something… new.
Jonah Bissell
Pastor