Is Unity Part of the Church?

This question begs another question, and that is, what is meant by the church?   

This week we discussed three words for church. Glimpses in Truth by Dr. Tom Shepherd states, “New Testament authors chose two words to describe their community of faith:  ekklesia…and koinonia.”  Glimpses goes on to say: 1.)  ekklesia  is a root word meaning clergyperson, or assembly, or gathering of those called to serve, and 2.) koinonia is a term that describes the fellowship of Christians, used in NT to refer to a “peculiar kind of communion Christians have with God and with one another in Christ.” Koinonia also referred “to the kind of community that should characterize the churches, suggesting what the fellowship of believers ought to be” e.g., exemplifying “selfless love, disciplined study, sharing and commitment to truth.” And then there’s the third word for church, basilica, which refers to a building in which people gather.

Historically, there were no church buildings where the early Christians gathered. When the Apostle Paul wrote his letters to the churches, the letters were carried and read aloud to the assemblies, wherever the people designated as their gathering spot. In essence, the church was the people. But as centuries scrolled by, there was a move to organize and institutionalize religion. With the emperor Constantine legalizing Christianity, Christians could come out their home meetings gradually and meet out in public. By the Middle Ages, the masses of the population were not educated, and oftentimes the church building (cathedral) was a pictorial symbol of all things holy.

Fast forwarding several centuries, this pattern continued and the great cathedrals all over the world illustrate a reverent attachment to the church building. The Catholic Church was THE church, as in, only church-- the ekklesia, the koinonia (supposedly), and the basilica all rolled up into one idea of church. By the time the Protestant Reformation rolled around, the pattern was well established, still placing a great amount of emphasis on the building…the church building was the central hub around which people with similar religious ideas gathered (not that this was a new idea; gathering for religious practices goes back before the word church even, but for the purposes of this blog, we’re talking about the term church with respect to Christianity). But at least the idea of the church being the people came back around.

Regardless of the number of brands of Christianity, Unity is still considered a Christian movement.  The co-founders of Unity had Christian backgrounds and they worked with Christian principles and other principles until they assimilated spiritual ideas that worked for them. Not that they were trying to start a church, but the principles began to work for others. They, too, like the early New Testament churches started meetings in their homes.  However, it was the people who lived the spiritual ideas of the Christ within wanting to meet for further study, fellowship, etc., that spawned it into a movement, and yes, church buildings and meeting places sprang up.

A well-circulated quote of Charles Fillmore says, “Unity is a link in the great educational movement inaugurated by Jesus Christ; our objective is to discern the truth in Christianity and prove it.  The truth that we teach is not new, neither do we claim special revelations or discovery of new religious principles. Our purpose is to help and teach mankind to use and prove the eternal Truth taught by the Master.” (from the book, Prosperity, by Charles Fillmore)

In many respects, this was the result of the koinonia that was activated within the people associating with Unity wherever there was “selfless love, disciplined study, sharing and commitment to truth.”  Unity seems to fit well with the koinonia idea of the word church. Unity is part of that church, the world-wide koinonia, if it wants to be.  It’s up to the people in Unity, as to whether they want to live up to and speak up for spiritual ideas centered in Christ-consciousness, or whether they want to worry about getting labeled and branded as in or out of the Christian church. After all, who’s going to kick them out?

Oh yeah, and that name thing, i.e., what to call the building? The faith charismatic churches already tried calling themselves centers, fellowships, and “new testament” churches in the 70s.  I'm not sure how that worked out for them. But, remember, once someone gets inside a church, they can see what’s going on and they will decide to stay or leave no matter what the sign says outside on the building.