What is “congregation”? Certainly, more than a club or a place. And yet it is a little different from “church”. A recently published paper seeks answers.
Congregation of the Future is the name of a project group comprised of the European District Apostles, which recently presented the results of its work to its international colleagues. A first part of the paper was initially published in a special issue of the Divine Service Guide (1/2025) and is now featured in community.
What counts are the inner values
“The congregation is not defined by external things” the paper emphasises: that is, its building, the number of its members, the presence of supplementary services such as a choir or orchestra, or the diversity of its events and congregational celebrations.
Rather, the congregation is
- “a community of divine service in which the reality of God is experienced through sacrament, prayer, and preaching”
- “a spiritual space in which faith is to be developed, experienced, lived and practised, and cultivated under the activity of the Holy Spirit”
- “the fellowship of life of those who believe in Christ, a living organism led by Christ”, “shaped by the service of all the believers, who contribute their gifts”.
Assembly: local, anywhere, anytime
The Greek term ekklesia sheds light on the connection between the entire church and the local congregation, the paper explains. The term translated as “assembly” refers to both equally:
- the church of Christ as the community of all believers in all places and at all times, who have been baptised in the triune name of God and who profess Jesus Christ as their Lord
- the congregation bound in terms of space and time, whether as a house church, local congregation, or the congregations of an entire region.
Already the image of the body of Christ indicates both aspects, church and congregation: individual and different members who are dependent on one another, who complement one another, and thus become something greater than the sum of their parts.
Activity of the Spirit and love of neighbour
The paper defines the task of every congregation as honouring God and professing Jesus Christ through word and deed. “An important task—not only for the ministers, but for every member of the congregation as well—is pastoral care, namely mutual support and reinforcement in faith and activity.”
And this also determines the criterion that is applied to a congregation: “The strength and credibility of a congregation are not measured by its size or structure either, but rather by the activity of the Spirit that believers can experience there and the brotherly love that characterises the coexistence of its members, irrespective of person.”