The Foundation of the Local Church is Jesus Christ

 As I briefly stated in the May 3, 2023 blog, the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ.  As Paul is talking about the foundation he is laying at Corinth, he reminds them "No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 3:11). 

Let us be clear, the foundation for any church is Jesus.  There is more, but if that is not the case then everything will fail and fall.

I remember being taught in the 80s and 90s the most effective way to build a church was with the "homogeneous unit principle."  The idea was things alike grow faster.  This principle was taught by Donald McGavern and C. Peter Wagner in a book entitled "The Bridges of God." They wrote: "people like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic or class barriers."  

In other words, we like to go to churches that are like us.

So, if persons do not have to cross barriers to come into your church, then it will grow faster.  Thus, we have today churches of greater and greater specificity:  latte-drinking urbanites, hip-hop loving millennials, cowboy churches, just to name a few. 

I get it.  But what I have seen is the "likeness" of the group becomes the glue that holds them together to the point it is the focus and purpose then of the group.  That is all fine unless it is a church, a Bible study class, or a discipleship group.  There the focus MUST be Jesus.  It is His church.  His blood was shed to purchase it.  His name is on it.  He is coming for THE CHURCH.

So, our church cannot be built on the same skin color, political preference, style of music, economic status, or section of the county (let alone the world). 

But you push back, but David then we might have disagreements.  RIGHT - the New Testament was written mainly around the disagreements between the Jews and Gentiles building on the one, true, solid foundation of Jesus Christ.  There are no political, cultural, economic, or social differences in our world today that could rival the Jew-Gentile hatred.  So in the midst of the worst set of differences, Jesus built His church.

Samuel J. Stone understood it well in 1866 when he wrote: "The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord; she is his new creation by water and the Word. From heav'n he came and sought her to be his holy bride; with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died."