Church is contextual and there is little debate about that. While you may think you’re doing church the way they did it in the 1st century more than likely you’re not. That’s not a knock on you or your church but simply to say the way the church expresses itself changes and morphs depending on the host culture. Yes, the Gospel is changeless as well as numerous core facets of the church are universal but there’s a lot that is adapted to culture. Let me give you an example:
Do you think the church in Corinth had electric guitars, coffee shops, Powerpoint, and tight jeans in the 1st century? More than likely not …. maybe a tight toga but that’s it. What happened? Did the church compromise? No, it simply adapted to culture.
We know that the term “ekklesia” in ancient Greece was derived from ek-kaleo which was used to summon the army to assemble (kaleo means “to call”). In the 5th century the term was used for the assembly of citizens of a polis (city). Even in the book of Acts (19:24-25) that term was to describe an assembly called by Demetrius who was an idol worshipper. So when the new followers of Jesus hit the scene this common termed was used to describe them. They were a called out assembly of people gathering to worship Jesus, proclaim the Gospel, and be outposts of the Kingdom of God living out Jesus’ words in John 20:21-22.
So Christians in the city are called out to assemble together to worship Jesus and proclaim the Gospel. Does urban environments affect the way the gathering is done? Some advocate that the way church is done does not change from rural to suburban to urban. Even advocates of urban church planting stop at some point back in church history when they talk about their expression of church with such terms as a Reformed ecclesiology, Orthodox ecclesiology, or other terms like “centrality of the pulpit” and so on. These are not bad but simply adaptations to the times and cultures the church expressed itself in. New churches being planting in urban environments have a great opportunity to lean on the wisdom of church history, apply biblical principles of the way church was found in the NT, and leave the rest to contextualizing church to the host culture. If that sounds nuts then realize that that’s what the church has been doing since it’s birth in the 1st century.
Proof? You’re probably not wearing a toga today.
