The Corporate Church

Why We Need to Get Our House in Order

By: Mark Barnard

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

From the Introduction:

The Corporate Church explores God's relationship with Israel and how it shapes His relationship with the Body of Christ. On the surface, that objective seems mundane. Yet rediscovering how God views His people corporately radically changes how we view our church, denomination, or Christian organization. Seeing God's people from God's perspective completely shifts popular notions of church health and revival. It recalibrates the balance between our individualistic culture and the Church’s collective identity. A corporate perspective fosters a fundamental transformation in the way we think about and “do” church.

I hope that rediscovering God’s corporate relationship with His people will strike Christians as it did when King Josiah discovered a long-lost copy of the scriptures. During Josiah's reign in Judah, no one had seen a copy for eighteen years or more. Josiah did his best to honor God without one. But, one day, like a homeowner discovering a stash of gold coins during a remodel, Hilkiah the priest found a copy of the Law during temple repairs (2 Kgs. 22-23; 2 Chron. 34). The discovery had a direct and immediate impact on the king.

Josiah exclaimed, "Our fathers have not listened to the words of this book." Considering the land's condition, his observation sounds understated. Yet he recognized that he faced a situation rooted in Israel's history. The nation's waywardness was not a recent development. The trouble started with “our fathers.” It went back generations. But those earlier sinful behaviors continued in Josiah's day. Therefore, Israel fell short of upholding the covenant as an intergenerational body.

The thought that God holds His people accountable as a body, should grip us as it did Josiah. Instead, it slides off us as if we were coated with Teflon. We have become that blind to how God views the Church corporately. We rarely acknowledge His collective perspective toward His people in our studies of the Old Testament and are oblivious to it in the New Testament.

But ponder the implications for the Church for a moment. If God holds churches, denominations, and Christian organizations accountable for their condition as bodies, just as He did Israel, we should tear our clothes in grief! Have you read about the latest moral failure by a pastor? There is a new one every day, maybe more than one! Church splits, rebellions, embezzlements, pride, reactive board meetings, abusive leadership, incidents of racial or economic prejudice, doctrinal heresies, and disdain for authority inundate churches. (Is this qualitatively any different than the idolatry that permeated Israel in Josiah's day?)

This book will only hit its mark if it generates a Spirit-inspired epiphany, helping readers rediscover the Church’s corporate identity and the implications that flow from it. I aim to demonstrate that God's collective relationship with His people runs through the Bible with all the potential blessings and curses that flow from it. I pray that it will lead to the grief and brokenness Josiah displayed. The Church is long overdue for fresh insight into our condition. Instead, we have become accustomed to sin in the church like Israel grew comfortable with rampant idolatry. Perhaps an epiphany like Josiah's will move us one step closer to repentance and delay God's chastisement. It is time to get our house in order.