The Church as Christ’s Body

If the Church isn't conservative or liberal, what is it?

Feb 03, 2025

Last month, I wrote an essay titled Your Church Isn’t Liberal or Conservative: Reclaiming the Church’s True Identity Beyond Labels and Ideologies. In it, I tried to make the point that the Church is not primarily defined by political or cultural categories but by its identity as the Body of Christ. While labels such as liberal, conservative, or even Bible-believing might offer some insight into a congregation’s character, they ultimately fail to capture the Church’s true nature. The Church is not an ideological community; it is the continuing presence of Jesus Christ in the world.

The Church is not merely a human institution. It is not a voluntary gathering of like-minded individuals, a support group for the spiritually inclined, or a social movement with religious trappings. The Church is the Body of Christ, formed and sustained by Jesus's living presence. This is not a metaphor or a theological abstraction but an ontological reality. The Church is the continuation of Christ’s life in the world—his presence made visible, tangible, and active through Word, Sacrament, and community.

Yet, in every generation, the temptation arises to redefine the Church in ways that make it more palatable to our sensibilities. Some see the Church primarily as a moral influence or a social justice organization. Others imagine the Church as a cultural fortress, safeguarding a particular way of life. But as Quaker historian and theologian Rufus Jones reminds us:

“The primary function of a church, if it is to be the continuing body of Christ in the world, is to raise human life out of its secular drift and to give reality to the eternal here in the midst of time. When it ceases to bear witness to the real presence of an eternal reality operating in and upon our lives, its race is run; it has missed its mission. But just as certainly, the church is commissioned as an organ of the Spirit to bring health and healing to our human lives and to the social order in which our lives are formed and molded.”[i]

The Church is not incidental to Christ’s work; it is His work, His presence extended across time. The Church exists not only to address human needs or shape society but to bear witness to the eternal reality of God’s kingdom breaking into the world. If it fails in this, it ceases to be the Church in any meaningful sense.

The Church as Christ’s Living Presence

The Church exists because of Christ calling to His disciples. The gathering of believers is not first a human decision but a divine act. It is Christ himself who constitutes the Church by calling people into a community formed by his Word. As Robert Jenson observes:

“When Christ calls disciples, he creates the ultimate context in which they faithfully engage their text. As Bonhoeffer demonstrates, this call constitutes the church as a unique structural entity that is grounded in God’s grace, resists empirical explanation, and yet remains a visible social reality that corresponds to Christ’s ongoing movement as the risen Lord.”[ii]

This week’s Gospel reading from The Revised Common Lectionary, Luke 5:5-11, makes this point. Standing along the banks of the Sea of Galilee, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John were tending to their fishing nets, immersed in the daily rhythms of their work. They were not searching for a new vocation or seeking divine revelation. And yet, when Jesus approached them with a simple but disruptive call—"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men"—they immediately left everything behind.

The Gospel writers give us no long explanation as to why these first disciples responded so quickly. We aren’t told what moved them to abandon their nets, their families, and their livelihoods to follow an unknown rabbi. What we do know is that Jesus’ call carried an authority beyond anything they had ever encountered. As those in the synagogue at Capernaum would later say, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him”.[iii]

Jesus did not invite these disciples into a mere religious movement. He did not give them a set of ideas to ponder or a system of ethics to adopt. He called them into a life of discipleship—into a visible, communal reality that would become his Body in the world. Will Willimon captures this well:

“Discipleship is the way Christ rescues you from vain attempts to make something of your life. God gives you a job that’s more important than you. Faced with a broken world, creation out of kilter, God doesn’t ‘send in the Marines.’ God casts forth the meek, foolish, and weak. Us.”[iv]

The Church is the gathered community of those who have heard and responded to Christ’s call. It is not a club for the pious or a haven for the morally pure. It is the visible embodiment of Christ’s presence in the world, a community formed not by shared interests but by divine appointment.

Our vocations as disciples vary, but each is part of the same kingdom-building work that began on the shores of Galilee. Through our calling, God is—again in Willimon’s words—“turning the world upside down so that God can put the world back together.” This is not merely an individual journey but the life of the Church itself.

A Church that Corresponds to Christ

Because the Church is the Body of Christ, it cannot be defined by its usefulness, relevance, or political alignment. It is not an institution with a shifting mission depending on cultural trends but a community shaped by the reality of Christ himself. It exists to proclaim, embody, and extend his presence into the world. This means the Church is not just a place where Christ is discussed or admired but where he is encountered.

To be the Church is to be drawn into Christ’s ongoing movement. It is to be the place where heaven and earth meet, where eternity interrupts time, and where Christ himself is made present through Word and sacrament. It is to resist the secular drift that Jones warns against and to insist that the eternal is not an abstract hope but a present reality.

A Visible and Faithful Body

The Church is not invisible. It is not merely an idea or an inward spiritual reality. It is the tangible presence of Christ in the world. It is where sinners are baptized into his death and raised into his life. It is where bread and wine become his body and blood, making him known in the breaking of the bread. It is where his Word is proclaimed, not as ancient wisdom but as the living voice of God. It is where his Spirit works, not in abstraction but in the gathered community of the faithful.

This is the Church’s calling—to be the real presence of Christ in a world that longs for something more than what it can see. It is to be, as Jenson says, a community that corresponds to Christ’s ongoing movement as the risen Lord. This is not a passive identity but an active vocation. The Church is sent into the world not to conform to it but to bear witness to the eternal breaking in, to bring healing and restoration, and to call all people into the life of the risen Christ.

The Church is not liberal or conservative. It is not simply a community of values or a refuge for the religious. It is the Body of Christ, living and active, grounded in grace and called into mission. If the Church forgets this, it ceases to be the Church. But when it remembers when it truly lives as the Body of Christ, the world encounters something beyond itself—the real, tangible, and eternal presence of the risen Lord.

This is the hope we find in discipleship: that even when we fail, when our love falters, or when we turn to the ways of the world, Christ’s faithfulness remains. The same Jesus who called Peter and Andrew from their boats calls us still. The same Spirit that formed the Church at Pentecost is forming us now. The same God who began a good work in his people will bring it to completion.

The Church as Christ’s Body

If the Church isn't conservative or liberal, what is it?

Discussion about this post