Community of Faith & Household of Faith

Is the use of "Community" for the assembled congregation of Christians/the church a right and good use of this word?

Let us look at the RSV & NRSV to see how they use "community."

1.The RSV does not use the word ( as does not the KJV & RV & ASV). 2. The NRSV uses it 21 times (9 times in Deuteronomy; 2 times in Amos; 5 times in the Apocrypha; and 5 times in the NT). The NT references are John 21:23; Acts 6:2, 5 & 25:24; Ephesians 6:23.

If we examine the N T use we find the following:

John 21:23; the Greek word is adelphoi (literally brethren) and this is an example of inclusivism and bad translation. RSV has brethren.

Acts 6:2 & 5; the Greek word is plethos (literally multitude) and refers to the whole body of the disciples whom the12 called together. RSV uses first "body" and then "multitude." Community is hardly the best translation. The REB has "whole company" and the NJB has "whole assembly."

Acts 25:24; the Greek word is again plethos and refers to the local Jewish people. RSV has "whole Jewish people."

Ephesians 6:23; the Greek word is adelphoi (literally brethren) and the RSV has brethren. Again as with John 21:23 the NRSV is into inclusivism and seeking not to upset feminists.

Of these five only the use at Acts 25:24 is in line with the common usage in standard English (British and American) where a community is a recognizable people living in an area with their own structures and organizations (e.g., a village, or the Jewish part of a city, or the Irish part/descendants of Chicago, or the Mexican areas of San Antonio, or the Cuban parts of Miami etc etc).

Yet there has developed in modern liturgy and modern theology the very strong habit of referring to the gathered Christian congregation for worship as "community." As so used it is difficult to distinguish the gathered church as being in the world, but not of the world and yet for the world from the various communities from where its members come.

And when we follow another modern habit and speak of "community/communities of faith" then we enter into subjectivism. We are saying that what unites this people is something that is within them and which they recognize as all of them having in some degree or another.

In the NT the Church is described in many ways, one of which is Household of God (not Household of Faith). This image of the Church, along with such others as Temple of the Holy Ghost, Body of Christ, People of God and so on, takes us out of subjectivism into talk that gives objective status in true reality to the Church.

The constant talk of the Church as community and the equating of the N T supernatural reality of "koinonia" (fellowship or communion) with community are assisted by a variety of factors which include:

1. translations into English from German where community is preferred when the meaning has also reference to communion 2. usage within medieval Catholicism and since of community to describe monasteries etc where there is territory involved 3. the desire to combat modern individualism and bring people together as a working whole with structures (this also leads to the use of "we" in creeds) 4. the general dumbing down of the supernatural aspects of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of God to make the church as one group alongside other groups in this world.

If the Church is not OF this world but is IN this world and exists for mission TO and FOR this world then to use the word of it that is already used of local groups, ethnicities, and the like is to confuse people.

Further, to speak of the Church as the Community of faith is to make it merely and only a group whose experiential an subjective experiences mark it out from others!

There are in all 90 or so images/metaphors/pictures of the Church in the NT and community as understood in standard English is not one of them! We need to be able as the people of God to pray for the communities from which our people come and we need to be able to evangelise these communities so that the converts can enter into the fellowship of Christ's Body, the Church & Household of God the Father.


The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America