THE CHURCH IN THIS CITY

          Chapter 3           ONE VOICE IN THIS CITY

                      I do not pray for these only, but also for

                      those who believe in me through their word,

                      that they may all be one; even as thou,

                      Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they

                      also may be in us, so that the world may

                      believe that thou hast sent me.

                                                                       --John 17

         The Congregation

             It is generally agreed that when the Spirit of the Lord broods over

         his people on this planet, he does not recognize the walls that we raise

         between this group of disciples and that. He sees his church as one.

         “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members

         one of another.” Moreover it is obvious that it would be utterly pre-

         sumptuous for a particular Body of believers to point to itself and say,

         “We are the church, and we alone.”

             Yet, up to now, the only place where we could see what this one

         church on earth is really like was in the congregation, the local

         assembly of believers. The congregation is the basic unit. It is like

         the family into which a child is born. Just as surely as a newborn

         child, if left to itself dies; and just as surely as an adult marooned

         on a rock in the middle of the ocean loses his grip on reality as soon

         as hope of some human relationship is gone, so the solitary believer

         without brothers and sisters to function with talk to, pray with, love

         and be loved by, soon dies spiritually.

             The congregation is the workshop where God forms and molds and

         hammers and bends the saints into the likeness of his Son. The congre-

         gation is the armory where believers are equipped and sent forth to do

         battle with the evil one and to spread the good news that Jesus is Lord.

         Each of us is attached to some congregation where we are responsible to

         carry our share of the corporate work God has given us. To pray for

         each other, comfort each other, exhort and encourage each other. The

         congregation is our home, our base of operation. We thank God that he

         has set us in the midst of these brothers and sisters.

         The City

             But as the Lord looks down upon the city,  (or village, or country-

         side), where we live, and sees it as a place that needs to hear his word---

         sees it as another Sodom or Gomorrah or Nineveh or Jerusalem -- he also

         sees his church in this place as one. The Lord sees not so many congre—

         gations with so many members each. He sees his church, his Body in our

         city. If the metropolitan area or rural valley where we live and work

         is really going to hear the gospel, the sound of the gospel will have to

         go forth from the church in this place. Not from a certain dynamic

         congregation over here or a certain forceful preacher over there, but from

         the Body which the Spirit of God has raised up and unified in the city

         where we dwell. Until there is such a Body and until it actually has

         such unity, until every division of flesh, self, pride, fear, doctrine,

         bigotry has been removed, and the church in our city is one, there

         will be no clear witness to the death, resurrection and lordship of

         Jesus Christ in this place.

             Observe the situation as it exists in every metropolitan area in

         this land. Hundreds of congregations of believers that, regardless of

         the lip service they pay to the universal church, actually exist as

         churches unto themselves. They all claim to serve the same Jesus.

         Yet this congregation goes this way and that congregation goes that way.

         Their paths never come together. Their hands never join in common work.

         They experience no fellowship. And each group excuses itself by point-

         ing to the differences. “What do we have in common with those noisy

         holy rollers?” Or, “It feels like the North Pole when those gloom and

         doom super disciples come into the meeting!” Or, “Those people are

         too institutional!” So the evil one has things pretty much his way.

         Congregations of believers, each doing its own thing. Often highly

         critical of each other, suspicious of each other, or openly competing

         with each other. And we aren’t even ashamed before God! It doesn’t

         even trouble us.

             God does not measure the church in our city by the kinds of crowds

         that come to fellowship. God measures the church in our city by the

         kind of witness that goes forth. And on that basis there are few

         places indeed that can describe the church in their city in any other

         way than sick.

             The church in our city is sick because it is satisfied with things

         as they are. “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need

         nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and

         naked.” We seem to be satisfied if our particular congregation pros-

         pers even though hundreds of flocks across the town are blighted.

         Can we believe that Jesus is satisfied? We are satisfied to go on our

         way as if everything is fine in spite of the fact that there is almost

         no unity between black believers and white believers in our town.

         We’re satisfied to enjoy our meetings and Bible studies in spite of

         the fact that there is almost no witness to Jesus Christ out there on

         those streets. We seem to be satisfied even though healings and other

         signs of the Kingdom are few and far between.

             If it is really the Holy Spirit who descends on our meetings it

         would seem reasonable to expect him to move hearts to see those things

         the way our Lord sees them. Would it not seem likely that he would

         make us dissatisfied with things as they are? Is it not almost a

         certainty that the Holy Spirit would trouble us until we repent of the

         pride, the self—righteousness, envy, competition in us which have

         worked against the purposes of God in our city?

             It is the conviction of the writer that the time has come when the

         Spirit of God is forcing assemblies of believers to decide whether they

         will fit in with the rest of the church in their city to get the job done,

         or whether they will go their own way and rot. Nor is it a matter of

         certain “apostles” coming in from Los Angeles, New York or Hong Kong to

         pull the church in Cleveland together. It is rather a matter of be-

         lievers in every congregation in Cleveland answering the voice of the

         Spirit of God as he calls them to wake up, open their eyes, put away

         childish things and start doing what needs doing at this hour.

         The Vision

             God is giving his people in every city on earth at this hour a

         vision of the unity around the cross of his Son we must have, We need

         to see that vision. Look beyond your own spiritual life. Look beyond

         your own fellowship. And see the church that God is bringing together

         in your city and every other city on earth. The world will believe

         that Jesus was God—sent when it sees unity in his church in your city.

         When it sees believers letting go of their favorite doctrines, putting

         their fleshly loyalties behind them, renouncing their bigotry and

         coming together around the cross of Jesus Christ.

             Picture saints from every part of town, every doctrinal position,

         every race and tongue, every economic level, every alley and lane

         made one at the wounded side of the Lamb. This must come to pass before

         your city can be told with any authority that Jesus is the Christ.

               Picture brothers and sisters weeping in repentance for their hardness

         of heart toward each other, coming together in the name of Jesus and

         getting things right, forgiving each other, loving each other, taking

         off their masks and laying aside their grudges.

             We need to pray for the vision’s fulfillment and expect an answer.

         Our Lord prayed, “that they all may be one.” Now we join our prayer

         to his before the Father. For the fulfillment of the vision is

         directly tied to the prayers of God’s people. The vision will not be

         fulfilled until we are dissatisfied enough with things as they are to

         start pounding on the Father’s door for unity in his church in our

         city.

                     “0 God, bring your people together. Father

                     God, break down the walls we have raised and

                     can’t seem to dismantle! 0 Spirit, gather

                     the saints to Calvary. Deal with those things

                     in us that are blocking unity with brothers

                     and sisters!”

             We need to fit into the vision in our daily life. Once we have

         seen the vision of one church in our city, we can no longer be innocent

         about working only for our own group. Many things that seemed right and

         good in the past will be seen as sin, because they ignore other brothers

         and sisters. Our conversation about believers on the other side of

         town, the conclusions we jump to concerning their motives, our hesitancy

         to join them in spreading the word....all this will begin to change as

         we fit into the vision God has given us.

             And as we all fit into the vision, the sound of the Shepherd’s voice

         will begin to be heard from his Body in our city as never before. This

         city will hear Jesus speaking through his church, his one church....his

         living church. And this will be one more sign that the hour is late and

         that the Lord is coming soon.