Weird Ideas: Holy Spirit. Holy Church.Sýnishorn

This is interesting. Notice how directly on the heels of saying “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” the Apostles’ Creed says, “[I believe in] the holy catholic church.” The Nicene Creed does the same thing. For these early Christians, the Spirit and the Church are intimately related.

The Spirit is not the Church, and the Church is not the Spirit, but what Christians have long known and the Bible itself teaches is that the Spirit works through the Church. It is His vehicle for coming to a world loved by God and desperately in need.

The Apostles’ Creed calls the church “holy” and “catholic” (some modern translations will render “catholic” as “Christian”). The Nicene Creed expands to four descriptors: “one,” “holy,” “catholic,” and “apostolic.” We’ll get to all four of these in future reading plans. For now, it’s enough to know that the church is something God set up for His Spirit to work through. It has a vital role to play.

At our church, we say this: “We believe the Church is God’s agent of bringing His restoration to a broken world. His call is not for us alone and Fellowship of Faith [substitute any local congregation] exists for something bigger than itself. While the mission is universal, our vision is unique…. Discipleship means pouring ourselves into this unique call.”

In the same way each person has a common call to be an image bearer of God by virtue of being human, yet with a unique call and vocation tailored by God to the individual, so every church has a common call to be God’s agent in bringing His gospel to the world, yet with a unique vision God tailors to that local congregation.

The church is God’s agent. The Old Testament has a word for this: priest. The church is a priesthood in its broadest sense. It is people in whom God has worked and in whom God will work through as well. God is at work. And there’s more work He wants to do in bringing a lost world to Himself. It’s through the church that He primarily does it. The church is at its best when it anchors itself in this. Want the Holy Spirit? Seek the church.