It is interesting to reflect on Emil Brunner’s analysis of how the church moved from an egalitarian fellowship under the control of the Holy Spirit who distributed spiritual gifts and ministerial responsibility to a professional organization. He saw the ecclesia of the New Testament as “nothing other than the fellowship of persons sharing in Christ and the Holy Spirit…As the Body of Christ, it is neither organization nor institution, but persons who are members of one another under the headship of its living Lord…it is a visible fellowship which binds men (sic) not only to Christ but also to one another.” (Emil Brunner, pp. 14-15)
This happened because the church became the protector of the tradition, the administrator of the sacraments and the official religious organization of the state. Brunner may have a rather romantic view of the early church, yet he does recognize the importance of the institutional church as a development of what he calls the necessary instrument or shell by which the ecclesia was preserved as it moved through time. But he also raises the question of whether the church may have lost a critical feature through making that change.
Next week we will look at what might be called “the professionalization of the church.”
