Last month, my elementary-school aged daughter had an assignment to do a “Heritage Report,” in which she had to research and then present to her class information on the country from which her ancestors emigrated. Since her maternal grandfather’s grandfather came to America from Luxembourg, she chose to do the report on Luxembourg (unsurprisingly, I think she was the only student to talk about this small country!). She shared some information about her family connection to the country, facts about the country, and whether or not there were certain cultural customs or practices that she sees in our family.
While I love history, and church history in particular, I know not everyone does (though I would concur with the saying I once heard that history is not boring…certain history teachers might be boring, but not history itself!). However, I think it is vitally important that we understand church history as our family heritage. We each have an ethnic and national heritage that we should know and reflect upon as it influences us (and often have to do so at some point in school, as I remember having to share something similar at some point), but we also have a heavenly citizenship (Philippians 3:20) and should reflect at times upon this heritage as well. It is less about learning names and dates and more about understanding our family history, being inspired by the examples of our ancestors in faith. We need to reflect on our own potential shortcomings and look for places for the church to grow as we also recognize their flaws and mistakes, and see how their life and faith may be impacting us today.
Therefore, in the coming year, one of the things that I hope to do on the blog is highlight important people and events in church history, offering something of a heritage report for us as Christians. What could make it extra complicated, however, is that this history is so vast, as the Christian faith is one that really spans the whole globe. I know the church history that is taught is often focused on American and European church history (and Protestant churches have a tendency to jump from the early church to the Reformation), so I will do my best to also highlight and explore aspects of faith from various parts of the world as this family heritage is really an international one.
Where Does Church History Start?
An interesting question to ponder before even moving forward is the question of when church history begins — it is something that historians have discussed and debated (no shocker there!). Some say it begins with Jesus, as his coming really marks the beginning of the Christian movement. Others may note that it is the calling of the first disciples, as they were the first “Christ-followers” and thus Christians. Others may point to a particular moment, perhaps Peter’s confession of Christ in Matthew 16 (where Jesus talks about building his church). Some schools of thought might highlight the arrival of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost in Acts 2, as that is when the message of the Christian faith began to be proclaimed. Others may point to Acts 11:20-21, when people were first called “Christians” in Antioch. Still others may point to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 as the time in which the Christianity officially started carving a different path from Judaism, as Gentiles could be followers of Jesus without having to follow the Jewish law.
However, it seems to make the most sense to go back further than any of those proposals. The Reformed Church tradition highlights that the church is really the community of believers in God in all times and places. Therefore, you could really say that church history begins in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve worshipping God. In a sense, their family was the first “church,” the first community of people coming together to worship God. The patriarchs — figures like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and so on — continue this story and thus are really part of church history; they are part of our family heritage.
The Apostle Paul recognized that our family history begins in the Old Testament in a couple of ways. First of all, he notes that what is written in the Old Testament is an example for us (1 Corinthians 10:7; Romans 15:4) — it is our family history that should instruct us. Moreover, Paul also talks about how we are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), showing that we are related (by faith) to these individuals. This is why Christians have the Old Testament as part of their Bibles…this is part of our history and heritage. There are different stages in this history – just as there are different stages in our own family histories, but all these are still part of our heritage as worshippers of God.
My Approach to Church History
While in the truest sense you could say that the Old Testament and the New Testament are the first books of “church history” talking about God’s people (and also showing how God has been at work in His people in real time and space), for simplicity sake I like to start the focus on church history on what happened after the ministry of the Apostles that we read about in the New Testament. Functionally, it is answering the question, “what happened between the Bible and us”- – as many of these people and events can be forgotten.
As we journey through the last 2,000 years of our faith family history, we need to remember that church history is really the ongoing story of God’s people. It begins at the beginning of time, includes us today, and will extend until Christ’s return. Let us continue to study our family history as it is recorded in the Bible even as we journey into more recent elements of our family heritage in the posts this year.
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