The Great Commission: Corporate or Personal?

Jay: Does corporate worship get in the way of Big W Worship? Does it impede The Great Commission Jesus gave the disciples after his resurrection:

[T]he eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

We often fail to relate verses 19 and 20. We read the Great Commission in verse 19 (“Go… and make disciples of all the nations”) as giving corporate Christianity (denominations and churches) the goal of expanding the kingdom of God by expanding the denominations and churches. But does verse 20 (teach those disciples “to observe all that I commanded you”) modify that interpretation?

Jesus gathered 12 disciples together early in his ministry. In the order of their recruitment, they were:

1. Andrew, previously a disciple of John the Baptist; a fisherman; brother to Simon Peter.
2. Bartholomew, aka Nathaniel, praised by Jesus as “a Jew without guile” (John 1:47). Initially somewhat cautious, he quickly came to accept Jesus as the Son of God. After Christ’s death, he is thought to have undertaken the Great Commission by spreading the gospel in India and Armenia.
3. James the Elder, aka James the Great, a son of Zebedee, brother to John and Peter; together, these three so-called “sons of thunder” were probably closest to Jesus—it was they who accompanied Jesus at the Transfiguration. He and John are almost invariably together in the scriptures. He was eventually beheaded by King Herod.
4. James the Younger, aka James the Lesser, son of Alphaeus and brother of the apostle Jude, a Galilean. May have been related to Matthew. Is probably the author of what we now call the Book of James.
5. John, brother of James the Elder. The Book of John and the book of Revelation are ascribed to him. He was the longest-surviving of the disciples.
6. Judas, the disciples’ treasurer and of course the man who betrayed Jesus. While most of the disciples came from Galilee, Judas came from Judaea.
7. Jude, aka Judas (not to be confused with 6 above) younger brother of James the Younger, author of the Book of Jude.
8. Matthew: A “publican” or tax collector—the only white-collar worker among the working-class majority of disciples.
9. Peter aka Simon Peter, brother of Andrew (1 above). The most outspoken and flamboyant of the disciples. Author of several books of the Bible. The Book of Acts shows him to be the leader of the nascent church.
10. Philip, another fisherman; missionary-minded—is recorded as having preached to large crowds.
11. Simon, aka Peter, aka Simon the Zealot. Zealots were Jewish anti-Roman activists.
12. Thomas, aka Doubting Thomas, who needed proof that the resurrected Jesus was the real Jesus.

He brought these 12 together for the specific purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission. But did they constitute a like-minded corporation, organized to fulfill a mission and meet goals and objectives?

Donald: We generally find growth—as, for example, in church membership—to be encouraging, and shrinkage to be discouraging. Whether the attractions of being a disciple of Jesus equate to the attractions of being a church member is not clear, but certain things draw people (and most of which probably helped draw the disciples) together:

1. Being born into the church.
2. Geographical proximity.
3. Occupational similarity.
4. Temperament.
5. Ethnicity.
6. Worship style.

It seems to me that the unstructured non-denominational community church, as opposed to the structured denominational corporate church, is where the growth is in America today.

Jay: Most of your list of attributes are not matters of choice or intention. The Great Commission, in contrast, is purely intentional.

David: The origin of the early Christian church (that is, Jesus and the disciples) was relatively random, community-based, and for the most part reflects Donald’s list. Jesus above all carried the Great Commission, yet he had no plan of incorporation and none of the organizational and governance structure implied by incorporation. But the minute he was gone, out came the need for organization, for a leadership structure, for a priesthood. It seems to me Jesus fulfilled his Great Commission as the sower fulfilled his in the Parable of the Seed: Simply spread the word around you and have faith. This meets the requirements of both verse 19 and 20.

Jay: There was no hierarchy among the disciples.

David: And no plan, no dividing up of the territory, etc., until Jesus left and had us (once again!) thinking God could use a few human smarts when it comes to spreading his Word.

Jay: The Book of Acts says much about the organization of the church following Pentecost. The financing, care for the elderly, how to accomplish the goal of the Great Commission, and the target market—Jews, Gentiles, or both?—are among the organizational elements hotly debated. Did Christ focus more on the second part of the Great Commission (teach future disciples to observe all that Jesus commanded his own disciples), while we focus more on the first part (make disciples of all nations)?

Chris: If Oakwood SDA Church is a corporate church, is it capable of doing what Christ commanded? Do the verses of the Great Commission depend upon each individual’s role and capacity—as eyes, ears, arms, or legs? Surely there is value in gathering these body parts together in order to fulfill the Great Commission—to form a church, for example. Christ surely knew when he gathered his 12 disciples that each would bring his own individual background and biases to the mix. He knows our nature! So the focus should perhaps be on the outcome of the corporate structure, rather than on the structure itself. I think the corporate structure can have good outcomes and bad.

Jay: Chris was referring to this passage:

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)

Donald: That endorses all perspectives, but doesn’t bring everyone together. There are bounds to our willingness to gather together. The notion that the disciples had a treasurer introduces a strong corporate element into the early church, it seems to me. We may feel assurance and endorsement when our class is filled, and apprehension when few people show up. That’s normal.

David: It boils down to our human foibles, as Chris said. Jesus knew we would degenerate from simply spreading his word, which was all he asked, to forming a corporate body to do it for us. Unfortunately it was not the type of corporate body defined by the scripture Jay quoted. That body has no leader, no organization chart. All its members are equal. It’s a commune, not a corporation as we think of a corporation. The church has leaders and servants and followers—unequal people. Jesus surely knew these things were going to happen, but none of it happened under his watch while he was with us in the flesh. The seed—his word—was being sown notwithstanding the absence of a corporate church. I think all he wanted was for us to continue to do that: Simply live life and spread the word to whomever one meets. We do that—which amounts to the Great Commission—when we focus on the mission and the message of Jesus by living life the way Jesus lived his, rather than on some corporate goal. The divine farmer in the Parable of the Seed had no goal, no plan, for sowing. A human farmer would do the opposite and restrict his sowing to fertile ground.

Jay: Does “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you” require worship? Is worship something the Great Commission called for?

Donald: The SDA founders started a movement—something of the heart—rather than a corporate structure. When the church pivoted toward the exclusivity inherent to structure and away from the inclusivity inherent to unstructured “us” then the dynamics change.

Jay: Does worship change at the pivot point? If so, does it change instantly or does it take time?

David: It changes from Big W Worship—living as Jesus lived, with a loose group of friends trying to do the same—to small w worship, setting corporate goals and objectives and trying as a corporate body to meet them.

Donald: The SDA began as a movement, but the leaders of the movement recognized that corporate structure was needed to carry it forward.

Jay: Why was it needed? This might be the crux of the matter. The things described in the Book of Acts seem to constitute a pivot away from the ministry of Christ and towards the ministry of the church. Why was it necessary to pivot?

David: To me, it’s not necessary. It’s a human condition driven by a combination of human arrogance and lack of faith that God can take care of his creation and doesn’t need our help. We arrogate to ourselves the responsibility for organizing God’s creation and completing his mission for him.

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