Credo
20 Oct 2025

I grew up in a church where the pastor made a special effort to drum into his flock that “the church is an organism, not an organization.” The idea persists to this day among many modern Christians. They seem to have a deep aversion to the institutional church. They prefer the church as a “spiritual” gathering focused on such concerns as prayer, preaching and mission.

The New Testament evidence, however, shows that Jesus Christ himself instituted the church. He founded the church in four institutional acts.

The first act was the calling of the twelve disciples.  Why did Jesus have this special group of twelve disciples with whom he spent a great deal more time compared to the crowds? Why did he reveal the secrets of the kingdom to the twelve, whereas to the crowds he spoke in parables (Matt 13)? Jesus was preparing the church patterned after the twelve tribes of Israel. Just as the twelve tribes are the foundation of the nation of Israel, the twelve apostles are the foundation stones of the church (cf. Rev. 21: 14).

The second institutional act occurred at the last supper. It was a meal which anticipated the new covenant that Jesus was about to implement by his death and resurrection. In the act of eating and drinking, the disciples were bound together in a new covenant:

“This is my body broken for you…. This is the new covenant in my blood…”

Through this institutional act, Jesus intends for his disciples to become, spiritually, “blood brothers”. In this covenantal act of eating and drinking Jesus has created a new spiritual family which transcends earthly family bonds (cf. Matt 10: 34–39).

The third institutional act is found in John 20: 19-23. In a post-resurrection appearance, Jesus declared,

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (vv. 22b, 23).

Modern interpreters have given us all sorts of interpretations.

But the church fathers probably got it right. Many of them see this event as an act of instituting church officers and giving them authority.  John Chrysostom believes that the gift of the Spirit is the power given to the apostles to remit sins. Gregory the Great refers to this event as “the gift of ordination”.  Cyril of Alexandria says:

“He shows that the gift of the Spirit necessarily attends those who are ordained by him to be apostles of God.”

This third act also shows that the church as institution is both the work of Christ through the agency of the Spirit.

The final institutional act was Jesus’ giving to his apostles the Great Commission (Matt 28: 18–20). It is with his authority that the apostles and all who come after are to make disciples, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, and teaching them to observe his commands. The Commission ensures the perpetuation of the church as God’s institution. Through baptism, believers are incorporated into the institutional church (cf. 1 Cor 12:13).

Many modern churches cherish the freedom of the Spirit and downplay authority or order. But the church has a Christological foundation: Christ sets the church in order before he sends the Spirit on the day of Pentecost to indwell it. Focusing on the work of the Spirit without its Christological foundation can only result in charismatic chaos.

To correct the problem of too much “freedom of the Spirit” some have veered towards the opposite extreme by imposing authoritarian control. We see this in Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation. The history of Protestantism has been a history of fluctuation between freedom of the Spirit and authoritarianism. This is the age-old tension between institution and charisma highlighted by Max Weber.

But in the church instituted by Christ, institution and charisma are not opposed since the Spirit is as much involved in the work of Christ’s instituting the church as in distributing the charismata to members of his Body.

If we acknowledge that the institutional church is the gift of Christ through his Spirit, we need to put in greater effort to make church institutions function under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That was what happened in the early church. When the church held its first council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), the leaders were aware that their decision was not merely a political decision but a decision guided by the Spirit: “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (v. 28).

This may sound too idealistic but it is not, if we begin with the doctrine that the church as institution is the work of Christ and invigorated by the Spirit. In the words of the Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas, the church is instituted by Christ and constituted by the Spirit.

Rev Dr Simon Chan had taught theology and other related subjects such as liturgical, spiritual, and contextual theologies at Trinity Theological College.