APC-05 The Church

In the modern world, when most people hear the word “church,” they think of a building where Christians meet to worship God. Sometimes these buildings are huge and ornate cathedrals, beautifully adorned with art. Sometimes they are small chapels with simple furnishings. Sometimes they are converted warehouses or storefronts. Sometimes they are homes, tiny shacks, or mud huts, or even caves, where worshipers hide from danger. But in the Apostles’ Creed, just like in the Bible, the word “church” refers first and foremost to the people of God, the holy community formed by those who profess faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This is the fifth lesson in our series on The Apostles’ Creed. And we have entitled it “The Church.” In this lesson, we’ll look at the statements in the Apostles’ Creed that confess belief in this sacred institution. The Apostles’ Creed explicitly speaks of the church with these words:

The communion of saints.

These lines in the creed appear in the larger section dedicated to the Holy Spirit and his ministries. This is because the Spirit is the person of the Trinity most directly involved with the church on a daily basis. So, we could have discussed the church in our lesson on the Holy Spirit. But we have chosen to spend a full lesson on the church because it is so fundamental to Christianity and to our experience of life as followers of Christ.

As we mentioned in an earlier lesson, many Protestants find it odd to confess belief in the church, as if our faith in the church were somehow similar to our faith in God. When the creed says that we believe in the church, it does not mean that we trust the church for salvation. Saving faith is in Christ and Christ alone. But we do believe in the church in the sense that we believe the Bible when it teaches us about the church, and when it tells us that the church is important to Christians. And the same thing is true about believing in the communion of saints. We don’t trust other believers for our salvation. But we do believe the biblical teaching that God uses other believers to evangelize us, to minister to us, and to strengthen our faith.