One Assembly, One Worship Service?

Last updated on: May 11, 2020 at 10:56 am by John Ehrett

One Assembly, One Worship Service? 2020-05-11T10:56:04-05:00 John Ehrett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of my criteria for discerning a truly good book is whether it forces me to think deeply about a topic I’ve long taken for granted—and in particular, whether it outlines a challenging argument that forces me to revise some of my unquestioned assumptions. Jonathan Leeman’s new book One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite ad Multiservice Church Models is such a book.

This isn’t the sort of volume that’d usually show up on my radar—perhaps to my detriment, I don’t really keep abreast of ecclesiology books emerging from the broadly Reformed Baptist tradition—but thanks to a friend who works at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, I was lucky enough to land an invite to the livestreamed 2020 “Together for the Gospel” (T4G) conference, where Leeman’s book was compellingly blurbed. I couldn’t resist buying a copy—and I’m glad I did, because I must admit that Leeman successfully changed my views.

Leeman’s central argument, undoubtedly, will land in American Christianity with all the force of a hand grenade: churches offering multiple service times, or conducting services across multiple physical campuses, are substantially deviating from the Church’s proper model. The supporting premise is as elegantly simple as it is provocative: the Greek word ekklesia, or assembly, consistently refers to a unitary physical gathering within which communion, discipleship, and discipline must necessarily occur. Splitting a single church into multiple separate services—or, more egregiously, multiple physical sites—prevents that kind of community from developing. Simply put, on a multisite/multiservice model, the members of Christ’s Body no longer know the members of the instance of the Body to which they are supposedly united, and that situation will be unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. And so accordingly, when questions of pastoral practice emerge that require the action of the whole ekklesia, a large percentage of the church will simply have no frame of reference.

The heart of One Assembly, naturally, is a word study of the New Testament’s use of ekklesia. Having little expertise in Greek, I am largely unqualified to critique the details of Leeman’s reasoning—though, speaking as a layperson, his case seems to me convincing. Most of the rest of the book traces out the implications of a revised concept of ekklesia, in particular the insight that overflowing churches, on Leeman’s account, have a responsibility to either (1) promptly plant new churches, or (2) send out contingents of members to revitalize dwindling congregations.

All of this strikes me as essentially sound, both exegetically and pragmatically. Indeed, I couldn’t help thinking that Leeman might’ve pressed his case even more aggressively. With all due respect to my friends who think differently, the multisite model in particular strikes me as almost unavoidably bound up with a tendency towards a “celebrity pastor” mentality. I find it difficult to imagine that the leaders of such churches can truly avoid a sort of imperial sensibility, a persistent temptation toward cultivating a micro-denomination rather than a unified community capable of worshiping as one. And that, of course, is not really consonant with the New Testament’s vision of ekklesia.

Leeman is well aware that his proposals, if taken seriously, will require dramatic changes in countless congregations across the nation. And to his credit, he never shies away from the consequences of his vision: otherwise-comfortable congregations will have to formulate plans for orderly reconstitution, church planting, or something else entirely. As a non-pastor, I assuredly have the luxury of not having to face these hard choices—but that’s not to say that they’re not worth making., especially given the importance of building a genuinely cohesive church community—that is, an ekklesia in the fullest sense.

When all’s said and done, this is a book that all Christians—whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant—should read and seriously contemplate. Those not persuaded by Leeman’s exegesis have, at the very least, an obligation to rebut his case. For my part, I can’t help thinking his book has the ring of truth to it, and that is something that should leave all of us—those Americans who’ve enjoyed church services scheduled according to our personal convenience—suitably chastened.

Ecclesiology

Previous Post

May 6, 2020

The Rothko Tragedy

Next Post

May 17, 2020 “Liberalism” Is No Longer a Useful Term

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Culture Ecclesiology Education Imagination Movies Political Theory Scripture Uncategorized Worship

Select a Month December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 April 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God change Abram’s name to?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaac Moses Jacob Abraham