One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite and Multiservice Church Models (9Marks)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Many churches are switching to the multisite or multiservice models to manage crowded sanctuaries due to growing attendance. This solution seems sensible in the short term, but too often churches adopt this model without taking into consideration what the Bible says about it. Illuminating the importance of physical togetherness as a way to protect the gospel, this book argues that maintaining a single assembly best embodies the unity the church possesses in Jesus Christ. Jonathan Leeman considers a series of biblical, theological, and pastoral arguments that ask us to stop and examine intuitions or assumptions about what a church is. He reorients our minds to a biblical definition of church, offering examples of churches that have thrived with a single service at a single site and compelling alternatives for those looking to solve the complications that come with a growing church.
- Examines the importance of physical togetherness as a way to protect the gospel
- Proposes that maintaining a single assembly best embodies the unity the church possesses in Jesus Christ
- Considers a series of biblical, theological, and pastoral arguments
- Introduction
- A Church Is the Geography of Christ’s Kingdom
- A Church Is an Assembly
- A Church Should Be Catholic
- Appendix 1: New Testament Uses of “Ekklesia/Assembly”
- Appendix 2: Does Acts 9:31 Refer to a Regional “Church”?
Top Highlights
“There is no explicit ‘moral principle’ in the Bible saying churches should stick to one site or service. I’m not starting with that kind of moral claim. I am starting with an ontological or a descriptive claim, as in: no matter what you call it, the Bible would say you have actually started another church with that second site or service. The second gathering, whether separated by time or by space, simply is its own church.” (Page 19)
“You want the argument of this book in a nutshell? I’ll give it to you in three r’s: Multisite and multiservice churches repudiate the Bible’s definition of a church, redefine what a church is, and so reshape the church morally. And all that means these models pick a fight with Jesus. The fight involves abdication by the members and usurpation by the leaders, even if unintended.” (Pages 35–36)
“In the same way, the good desire for conversions shouldn’t lead us to compromise other biblical principles. It will hurt those numbers and the church’s mission in the long run. ‘A growing number of people is not a number of growing people,’ Mark Dever has said.” (Page 16)
|
“All of this is to say, when we hear ‘church’ with our English ears, we hear a lot more than early Greeks heard whenever someone said ekklēsia.” (Page 20) |
“It talks about it as a people who gather together.” (Page 25)