The second post in this series on the intersection of the principles of the Emerging Church movement and impacting Capitol Hill is the Ecclesia. If American Christians desire to impact the Capitol Hill community, especially for Jesus Christ, it must reunderstand the purpose and identity of the Bride of Jesus Christ, the Church (Ecclesia). Unfortunately, I believe the American Ecclesia is in the midst of a severe identity crisis. Recapturing Her identity as a universal, local, missional, collection of Agents of Restoration is necessary to restore individuals within the Hill community, and thus American society as a whole. As I have studied and contemplated EC thinkers, I have appreciated the emphasis on “deep ecclesiology” as an understanding of the Ecclesia, and it is that understanding that should guide American Christian efforts on the Hill.

As Scot McKnight says, “the emerging movement is pro-Church.” The EC has a deep, profound respect for the Ecclesia, and it desires to reunderstand the originality of Her design. Scot goes on to say, “The EM is pro-Church more than it is critical of the Church, and it is plenty critical. The EM is both (at some say it is) post-Evangelical and post-Liberal churches but that critical stance over against the way ‘Church as it has been done’ is not left dangling.” One of the foundational understandings of EC thinkers is that the Church is the Kingdom community of Jesusly restored individuals through which God “produces” release, healing, freedom, peace, justice, mercy, and love within the lives of individuals and society, not simply a building or institution or collection of programs.

While it may seem petty or inconsequential, I cannot emphasis this point more strongly: the Emerging Church movement has strongly reacted to the institutionalization, mechanization, consumerization, and organization of the precious Bride of Jesus Christ. In its most basic form, the EC is about recapturing the Bride’s identity as the agent through which God desires to restore individuals and society to the way they were originally intended to be through Her Groom, Jesus Christ. In reacting to the Modern manifestation of the Bride of Christ, the EC Ecclesia generally looks like this: independent of institution (though there are EC rumblings within denominations like the SBC, PCA, and Episcopal/Anglican church); fiercely ecumenical, recognizing the richness and deepness of the Ecclesia; promotes and revels in the spiritual practices and experiences of the catholic (way lower “c”!) Church, especially those of our ancient brothers and sisters; small and local, which allows for deep relationships and meaningful mission; recognition that the Church and local manifestations of the Church are blessed to be a blessing to their world, not to exist as a club unto themselves; tour guides for the lost; and finally the Ecclesia is viewed as a collection of agents of restoration. While I am certainly no expert of the nuances of the EC, this is a general picture of the way the EC views and understand the Ecclesia

In my own novus lumen journey to reunderstand the Ecclesia, one particular book has probably impacted my thinking more than any other: Chuck Colson’s Being The Body. This version is a revision to his watershed The Body, a punctuated prophetic analysis of the problems dogging the Church with striking models of what the Body must be in order to shine Christ’s light in darkness and serve as a beacon of truth. Without regurgitating the entire tome, I wish to recount one example that stands as a model for why the Church must be the Body within the sandstone Halls of Congress.

The example comes to us from the cinderblock walls of a prison. Colson recounts a story involving Bruce Wilkinson, author of the Prayer of Jabez. Bruce was invited by Colson’s Prison Fellowship to help with a worship service at the 1,100 person Sussex Correctional Institution in Delaware for Easter 2000. The service was held outside in the main court yard, with the main Prison Fellowship group separated by a thick chain-linked fence and the rest of the prisoners heavily segregated by level of security. After Franklin Graham preached the Word and walked the prisoners through the gospel, Bruce was given the opportunity to say a few words to the men and offer a prayer. This is when things took a turn for the interesting!

When he got up to the mic, he instructed the men to move back 10-12 paces away from the front fence. In perfect macho defiance, the prisoners stood still and balked at several more requests to make room at the front. Apparently, this was a major no-no and Colson, the prison commissioner, and chaplain were mortified. The prisoners eventually relented and then Bruce said something amazing: “Now I want all of the Christians, those of you who gave your lives to Christ today, those of you who have been believers for a while–I want all of you to walk forward.” Apparently this was another major problem and Colson cringed in anticipation of what might occur next. But to his amazement, he looked up to see half a dozen guys walk to the front without hesitation. Then five or six more until they just poured forward, about 200 in all walked to the fence and waited with a kind of quiet confidence.

With the Body of Christ as it existed within that prison in front of him, Bruce continued: “Alright, good. Now all you men who stepped forward…you have stepped forward as the people of God in this prison. You are the Church here. And now I want you to turn around, with your backs to me. I want you to do an about-face and look at the rest of the prison population standing there.” Colson and the rest became nervous at the prospect of setting up a situation with two sets of inmates in confrontation, a situation that could easily get out of hand. But what happened was unbelievable. The Christian guys who had walked to the fence, paused and turned as one, standing looking straight into the eyes of the rest of the men.

Bruce continued, “Now, I want you believers to get down on your knees. You’re the Church in here. I’m going to pray for you. I’ve asked you to turn so you’re facing the rest of these guys because they are your mission field. Your job as Christians is to share the gospel with them. Love them. Serve them.” The Christian men got down on their knees and, without instruction, put their hands on one another’s shoulders. Colson said it was such a beautiful, powerful paradox–a kneeling army of believers, arms around one another, in a posture of service before the rest of the tough, skeptical men in that institution. “You’re the Church,” Bruce ended. “You are one in Jesus Christ. Let me pray.”

Bruce prayed, and a holy hush came over the prison yard. He prayed that the church might continue to be one in unity in that prison, that these men might boldly witness to the love of Christ, that they might be filled with the grace of God, and that He would use them to build His Church, extend His kingdom, so that more and more inmates in that prison community would turn their hearts to give glory to God.

I dream the same thing for the Ecclesia as it exists within the sandstone walls of the United States Congress. I pray that the people of God within the Hill community would boldly bear witness to the restoring power of Jesus Christ, actively and deliberately incarnationally live out their relationship with Him, the unity of the Ecclesia in the bond of peace would bear witness to their restoration, that the grace of God would permeate their lives, and that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords would build them into His Bride and use them to extend His Kingdom throughout the Capitol Hill community, to the kings of America, and ultimately to the American society. I pray that God would unite the disciples of Jesus Christ into a powerful Kingdom movement, a force that would restore the individual lives of congressional staffers and Members of Congress to relationship with God through Jesus, while restoring the society of this nation to the way God intended it to be.

In light of this example of the Church being the Body within the cinderblock walls of a prison and Ecclesial principles of the Emerging Church, what would it look like for the Church as it exists on Capitol Hill to be the Body? First, She needs to be in regular community. Imagine if 1,000 disciples of Jesus Christ regularly came together for fellowship and God-encounter moments in 100 small group communities? Imagine the impact of the Ecclesia if it regularly bonded, prayed, and dined over the Supper of Christ? Secondly, the Hill-Body must come together regularly to encounter and worship God. Last year, I tried to begin a movement to establish a weekly worship service on Capitol Hill. For various reasons, this vision has not yet transpired. But imagine if the Church as it exists within the Capitol Hill community came together each week for an hour or two of worship, communion, and lectio divina (sacred reading of Scripture)? Imagine if 700 staffers gathered together to adore and summon the Lord of Hosts right on Capitol Hill, if they invited the Breath of God to dance within their community, to invade the community that writes the laws of this land? Finally, individuals within the Capitol Hill Ecclesia must get serious about being individual Agents of Restoration, while partnering as a community to prophetically speak words of restoration into the lives of individuals and society. Imagine if 5,000 Christians deliberately lived out their ambassadorship within the Hill community? Imagine if they reached just one person and that 5,000 became 10,000 eternally breathing beings who swore their allegiance to the Lion of Judah?

Imagine the power that would be unleashed in the Halls of Congress if the Body got serious about being the Body?

Jesus Christ said the very forces that march out of the gates of Hell will never prove stronger than the Ecclesia. No matter how ghoulish, fierce, or evil the power of the forces of Hades, the Church will not be overcome nor will She be defeated! The time is now for the Church to recapture Her identity and realize the power She has through the Spirit. She must lay down the butter-knives of the world and re-embrace the Excalibur of Jesus Christ! Only by unifying the forces of the Ecclesia as it exists within the Capitol Hill community and forsaking Might and Power will She ever hope to to restore individuals within the Hill and American society.

As I eluded to in my previous post on community, history provides two beautiful examples of Ecclesial community: Iona of Scotland and William Wilberforce’s Clapham Circle in London, England. Both actively and deliberately lived out these ideas of community and deep ecclesiology, examples which should inspire similar manifestations in the Capitol Hill community. My next post will be on these Ecclesial inspirations, which I hope will complete the picture of how the Hill Church community should look.