Corporate Church or Corporate Body?

I live in Houston Texas, the fourth largest city in America. Not a lot of people are aware of that fact, as our cousin cities of Austin and Dallas get more notoriety: Austin for its music and liberal weirdness, and Dallas for some 80s television show.

I’ve lived here most my life except for a sixteen year period spent on the mission field. I’m not complaining about the lack of notoriety, it is quite understandable. We are not known for our aesthetics, while we do possess a lot of trees, Houston was basically settled on a lot of swampy ground; hence we are known as the Bayou City. If it was not for the invention of air conditioning and mosquito repellent this town would have never grown to the size it is. Again, I’m not complaining, this is my home, this is where I am called. However, understanding the culture which surrounds you and not allowing it to alter your standing in Christ, goes a long way in God having a people in a city like this. One thing we do have here, is opportunity: Houston has always been a boom town, an oil town, a corporate town. While the refineries refine on the outskirts of the city, the corporate offices in the city keep defining more of those opportunities.

I’m not against opportunity and I most certainly am not against hard work. I myself come from an immigrant family, a third-generation Italian. While other kids played sports and went to the beach my brothers and I worked in the family business all day every day; I understand business. I also understand the important part that stewardship plays in the kingdom. Nevertheless we have a real problem today in the church in America: the lines between corporation and corporate body have been blurred, in some cases completely wiped out, and Houston is an example of this.

Let me begin by clarifying what I mean by corporate body. You see the church is a living organism made up of the different parts of the body, and these parts are the individual members who love Jesus and long to function in His body, with Him as the head. The word corporate means a group, a gathering, the body. When we speak of corporate prayer, or corporate worship, we’re speaking of people coming together in the simplicity of Christ. They fit together, labor together, with a common purpose, a common love. Psalm 122 states: “Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together,” meaning people brought together, are then put together like the walls of the city. They become fitted together in reality, in relationship with Jesus and each other, as a reflection of the city we are all headed for. Contrast this with much of modern Christianity: instead of adhering to the corporate meaning as stated in scripture we seem to have taken the corporation meaning from the world. Someone recently told me that all you need to start a church are the three B’s: band, building, and a budget. Really?

The church is not started, it is birthed. A corporation on the other hand is started with lawyers and accountants. A corporation must have bylaws, the church has the Spirit of God. A corporation must have a building, which is a convenience for a church, but is in no way a necessity. The early church met in Solomon’s courtyard and each other’s houses. Corporations must have a budget, while the church must be a steward over its funds, if there indeed are some to watch over, they are not a necessity, faith is all that is really required. As far as music is concerned the praise and worship, the songs of adoration, the shouts, the hallelujahs, and the amens all start in the heart. If there are musicians to accompany the music that is all for the better, if every heart joins in holy worship there will be corporate expression under God.

Corporation music, on the other hand, where Christian music companies vie for listenership and churches pay to sing copyrighted worship songs, is not necessary. The Psalms encourage us to play skillfully upon our instruments and to make a joyful noise. I would rather listen to a brother who sings slightly out of tune, on a three string guitar, who has a burning passion for Jesus and a broken heart, then to listen to much of our overproduced music today. Many congregations sit in the dark while the spotlight shines on the talented ones.

A corporate body in corporate prayer will be praying for God to bring the broken sinner, and praying that they will see Jesus. The corporation will bring in the PR man, the accountant, and the lawyer to ascertain how to get people in the door and how to keep them there. We’ve become addicted to activities and entertainment. A corporate people possess the cross as their bottom line. The corporation sees success as it’s bottom line.The corporate people look for fruit; the corporation only growth. Could it be that we have become so infiltrated by the ideas of the world, by it’s philosophies even, that we have traded real healing at the hands of Jesus for psychology? Success for true growth. Do we now seek victory without the cross?Conversions without repentance? Power without purity and worship without vision? I’ve had the privilege of ministering in different countries in which the different cultures are a part of the church bodies. In these countries the believers are keenly aware that the surrounding culture must not influence or take precedence over what God wants in their midst. Here in America we seem unaware of these cultural influences. There is no denying that America’s foundations had Judeo-Christian values and that God has bestowed many blessings upon this country. There are those, however, who believe American culture is Christian. We cannot see how the corporation mentality has infiltrated the church through this country’s culture of success and ease. How much more should we weep, pray, and believe God for the zeal to drive the moneychangers from our hearts? This is where it begins: in our hearts, not through criticism, but in brokenness and prayer.

May God begin with me, separate me from the philosophies of the world and the corrupt culture that is all around me. Deliver me from the deluge of the doubt and sin. Let me join in corporate prayer with my brothers and sisters. Oh Lord Jesus, let it be so.