Think Universally, Act Locally
Nov. 28 2007.jpg)
Do you remember the bumper stickers with the slogan “think globally, act locally”?
I used to see them everywhere. And from time to time I’d hear on TV or at a campus event an advocate for this or that cause touting the importance of this maxim. “Think globally, act locally.”
I suppose the slogan aimed at countering two problems. On the one hand, “think globally” suggested that many people live in disconnected from or in relative ignorance of things happening around the world. They fail to see the relevance of circumstances half a planet away.
On the other hand, apathy and passivity have crippled many important and much needed social, political, or cultural agendas. So, “act locally” connected the smaller spheres in which we live with the larger world around us. “Act locally” prompted some positive effort, some work for the common good.
“Think globally, act locally” was about as good a slogan as one could find when it came to helping people keep in mind a bigger picture while acting in their sphere of influence.
I’m often asked by Christians if membership in a local church is really necessary or really taught in the Bible. Often these are Christians who are at home “thinking globally,” that is, thinking about the “universal church” and their spiritual membership in Christ’s body. But for one reason or another, these Christians are not comfortable acting locally by joining a particular body of believers.
When we speak of the “universal church,” we’re speaking of an invisible spiritual reality—the inclusion of all God’s elect from all of time into the body of Christ and the family of God. So, it is true that every regenerate person is included in Christ’s body.
But before we conclude that church membership is unnecessary, one might ask, “How is that spiritual reality to be communicated?” Is it best communicated simply by asserting that we are in Christ spiritually? Or, does God have a particular method in mind?
The following are a number of reasons a person should not just think globally but seriously consider acting locally by joining a local church.
When we act locally by joining a church…
We visibly identify with Christ
From the promise to make Abraham a nation (Gen. 12) to the partial fulfillment of that promise in Israel to the new Israel of God which is the local church (Gal. 6:16), God has been pleased to leave in the earth a visible representation of His redeeming work in the form of His elect people. Local church membership is the easiest and clearest way to project to the world our membership in the universal church. There is no consistent and effective way of representing that spiritual reality apart from constant and committed association with the visible body of Christ. And that is how God intends it to be. If we would identify ourselves with the redeeming work of God through Christ, we must do so by becoming an identifiable part of His body, the church. Local church membership does not save us, but if we have no evident desire to commit to God’s people there is reason to suspect we have not understood God’s work in redemption.
Christ identifies with us
If we would have Christ identify with us, we should join His church. Christ identifies with His church so closely that He calls the church His body and feels her pain. Paul’s Damascus road experience illustrates for us how close and strong this identification is (Acts 9). Membership in the local church is one way of being known by Christ’s name, having Christ identify himself with us. After all, it is not merely our profession of faith that matters but Christ knowing and owning us before the Father in heaven (Matt. 7:21-23; 1 Cor. 8:3; and Gal. 4:9). When a local church accepts a person into membership, that church is in effect giving testimony that they believe us to be people of saving faith.
We give and receive Christian love
“A new command I give to you, to love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34-35). Here, the Lord is discussing something more than the love we have for others like us (Matt. 5:46-47). He is commending the supernatural love that crosses boundaries, inconveniences itself, demonstrates the authenticity of our discipleship, and makes it known to unbelieving men that we follow Christ. Joining a local church—particularly a church with people of diverse backgrounds—and loving the Christians there provides tremendous affirmation for our inclusion in the universal church. But failing to love our brothers and sisters calls into doubt our claim to love God and His Christ (1 John 3:14).
We uphold the truth
In 1 Tim. 3:15, the apostle Paul describes the church as “the pillar and foundation of the truth.” In the context, Paul is referring to the local church, “God’s household,” where he wants Timothy to “know how people ought to conduct themselves.” Neglecting membership in the local church is neglecting our Christian responsibility to uphold the truth of God. Abandoning the local church is abandoning the one place where God intends His truth to be established, clarified, proclaimed, and protected.
On the other hand, if we think globally but fail to act locally…
Christian unity is impossible
Sometimes people avoid local church membership because they think that identifying with one body or denomination weakens the unity of Christians. They prefer an ecumenical approach that downplays the importance of local congregational life. The irony, of course, is that such people do much to weaken the visible unity of the church by their very resistance to church membership. Disassociation is not the solution for disunity. Association or membership is the solution. Without some meaningful idea of local church membership, not only will the universal church not have local representation, the frequent New Testament exhortation to unity become meaningless (Rom. 12:16; 15:5-6; 1 Cor. 1:10; Eph. 4:3). In fact, it is our union with Christ in the universal church that becomes the grounds for our unity in the local body (Phil. 2:1-2).
Reconciliation will be impoverished and hindered
Writing to the church at Ephesus, Paul reminds the Jewish and Gentile Christians there that by His death on the cross Jesus has made them on new man, a new spiritual ethnicity (Eph. 2:11-16). What Christ achieved on the cross in reconciling the redeemed to God and to one another (2:16) provides the resources for reconciliation across former ethnic (Eph. 2:19-22) and class lines (James 2:1-9). Not joining a local church at least impoverishes our experience of reconciliation and at worst hinders it.
Support and correction will be weakened
It’s in the local church that organized support (for widows, for example, 1 Tim. 5 and James 1:27) and spiritual correction (Matt. 18:15-17; 1 Cor. 5) are to happen. Christianity is not a solo sport. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation, even voluntary isolation. We need one another, as the Bible’s body imagery makes clear (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12-14; Eph. 4). I think there is an implicit admission to this each time we hear of a Christian hurt by a local church’s failure to minister to them when they were sick, for example. In that failure and that voiced grievance is evidence for the essentialness of meaningful membership.
Conclusion
I suppose the easiest way to summarize all this is to say that if we think universally and fail to act locally we do a pretty good job of obscuring the gospel. But if we join and involve ourselves in God’s household we contribute to the brilliance and compelling nature of the good news that Christ died for sinners and all who are in Him are raised to new life.
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Thabiti Anyabwile is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman.
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