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6. Christ' Corporate Body 
Christ's Corporate Body is the Church Disrobed! The institutional church is not so much a part of the Body of Christ as a heavy coat wrapped around that Body. Like a garment, it has both good and bad qualities. It protects the Body and keeps it warm in Winter but it also restricts the Body in its movements because of its weight.
Authorized Religion
The current model of "church" was developed several centuries after Christ when Christianity became an authorized religion in the Roman Empire. As an institution in society, a congregation was developed in each neighbourhood modeled on the Jewish synagogue system. There, ten households gathered as a local worshipping group meeting in their own purpose-built worship places and serving their local community. The Christian church lost its household roots, probably in the fourth century, moving out of homes to become more focused on a worship building as in the synagogue model.
Christian Meaning of Names
The New Testament Greek word for "church" is "ecclesia." It translates the Hebrew "kahal" meaning "assembly." "Ecclesia" has two parts, "ek" meaning "out of", and "klesis" meaning "a calling". These combine to make "Church" an assembly "called apart to the Lord." In the New Testament writings, church is invariably a local small worshipping group of Christians rather than a building. In New Testament terms, it is simply a group of people who are "called apart" to worship the Lord.
The basic purpose of this chapter is to show that the Corporate Body of Christ though largely absent from the New Testament church still has a place in the organization of our church at the close of the Twentieth Century. By scaling back on the institution of the church, we will discover a new freshness and vigour in ministry.
A Called-Apart Body
From the dawning of time, God had been calling apart a people for himself. Adam and Eve as the founding family lived in community with God in the Garden of Eden. They were the prime "called-apart ones." When Joshua led the nation of Israel across the Jordan River even though "called apart" it still did not flourish. God warned the people, time and time again, through the prophets but they refused to hear him. All this time, God was planning a new thing!
New Era
God decided to come down in the person of Jesus and shepherd his people back to himself. From the root of Israel, the Body of Christ blossomed as a community chosen to venerate and obey the living God. The early apostles and disciples were transformed into "called-out ones."
Question for Discussion
1. Can one be a Christian without going to church?
"We are living members of his mystical body"
