Bethany poses an interesting question and one I have thought and prayed about myself. I also like the Augustine quote “He that does not have the Church as His mother cannot have God as his father”. But I have a deep seated problem with this kind of mentality. The Church is not our mother and the idea of hierarchy not only scares but terrifies me. To say that it is only within the local church that we can experience the fullness of salvation is dangerous. It seems to me to place the keys of heaven into the hands of flawed persons who for the most part I see damaging this world rather than saving it. Hopefully I can make my points a little more coherent or maybe it will just be rambling but here we go.

First the Church is not the mother to Christians we and the rest of the world are the bride of the Son. Who by the Holy Spirit was made flesh and has paid the dowry of for mankind to be ever joined in union with the Godhead. By calling the Church our mother or giving it the keys to fulfill salvation we lose the humbleness that is supposed to come with being the bride to the beloved. Inevitably we will create standards and view membership of the local congregation as membership in the kingdom. Salvation can be experienced in fullness anywhere because the Kingdom of Heaven is breaking through more and more with each passing moment. To put such an emphasis on the local congregations in formal sense is to cling a dying form of ecclesiology that for the most part is self serving and out dated. I believe that we are on the brink of a massive change in the church where we leave our cloisters of brick buildings and store fronts and return to society. Salvation is to be experienced in the gutters of life in the day to day.

Second this idea disturbs me because salvation is found and comes from naught but the cross on Calvary. It has already happened and is done; no building, gathering, or magical experiences necessary. We have already been saved the fullness of that is found in submission to the reality of that truth. I wish it was more complicated there would be lots of money to be made off of herding people into churches so that they can experience the cross and how it has saved us all. To claim that church or local congregation holds the keys to salvation or in the very least the fullness of salvation creates a power structure that is likely to be riddle with both abuse and monetary gains. We like to think that we would not send out Tetzel to sell indulgences but the truth is people suck and church people a lot of times suck harder. The Church is good because it allows us to meet together and worship our God, I love the church but it is Christ who bore my sin not the church.