Catholicity and the Congregation

Inspiring words to consider about your own mundane-seeming congregation from Rev. Rick Stuckwisch:

The catholicity of the Church comprises two aspects:

(1.) It is the unity of doctrine and fellowship, of teaching and practice, which is shared by all the congregations of the whole Church in every time and place; and,

(2.) It is the fullness of the one Church in each congregation, in each time and each place, wherever the apostolic doctrine of Christ is faithfully received and handed over in teaching and practice.

To say it simply, the whole Church is manifested in each congregation, and each congregation belongs to that same one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. . . .

The catholicity of any given congregation is therefore both inward and outward. Each congregation of the Church is fully the Church in that place, whole and complete in the means of grace; yet, no congregation of the Church is independent of the rest, but belongs to the whole, to the one Body of Christ, past, present and future. Congregational autonomy does not mean that a congregation is free and clear to go its own way and do its own thing. Rather, congregational autonomy means that the Church in each place is fully self-contained and self-sufficient in the local Ministry of the Gospel; because it is Christ Himself who speaks and acts in that Ministry. But the Ministry of the Gospel does not belong exclusively to any one congregation; because it is the sacred tradition of the one Lord Jesus Christ, handed over to His holy Apostles and to each succeeding generation of His Church on earth. Because a congregation lives from that Ministry, and is the Church because of that Ministry of the Gospel, it belongs to the fellowship of every other congregation that lives from that same Holy Ministry.