The Ordinary Christian Church

Throughout its history, the church has tended to view itself as extraordinary. For example, in the medieval period, the church was an extraordinary place apart from the world, the sacred separated from the profane, the place of salvation, the holder of the mysteries of heaven.

The church contained extraordinary people—monks and nuns, priests and bishops, and above all the pope as Christ’s representative on earth. These extraordinary people were the ones who had callings to do ministry; everyone else simply did work. Even more, the church had extraordinary means—sacraments that conveyed grace through the working of the rituals themselves. As monks and mystics did mighty deeds and fed the laity with heavenly food, some of the extraordinary received sainthood while the ordinary longed for final release from sin and a glimpse of God in heaven.

To heighten the extraordinary aspect of the church and its most holy servants, church buildings themselves were constructed with the extraordinary altar at the far end of the sanctuary separated from the ordinary people by a fence, screen, or rail. The line was drawn again at the Eucharist, in which the laity was denied the chance to partake of the wine (as the blood of Christ) for fear of what would happen if it was spilled. The Christian church was filled with reminders of the extraordinary.

One of the key contributions of the Reformation—and of Protestantism generally—has been its emphasis upon the ordinariness of the church. To be sure, John Calvin would approve of Cyprian’s observation that the church is our mother and “away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation,” or as the Westminster Confession of Faith teaches, “The visible church … is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (25.2). The church is God’s normal place of grace. However, God’s grace does not come through an extraordinary display; rather, God uses His ordinary church to sustain and nourish believers through ordinary ministry, people, and means. Keep reading

Also see
Disciple-Making is Ordinary Christianity