One of our pastors, Jonathan Welch, recently came across this intriguing little quote by Abraham Kuyper in some of his PhD research. (Kuyper was a Dutch theologian, political theorist, journalist, and all-around Renaissance man of the 19th and early 20th centuries.) It looks like Kuyper scooped us—by about 100 years—regarding a biblical perspective on multi-site:
“It is only because of the large number of members that in larger cities they gather in more than one building at the same hour. That is not necessary in a village or small city. There the whole congregation can gather in one building and hence constitutes only one assembly.”
“But gathering in one or more buildings does not change the character of the assembly, for these earmarks remain: (1) there is a corporate body known as the congregation or the local church; (2) the rolls will indicate who belongs to this corporate body; (3) this corporate body has at its head a lawful council; (4) this corporate body and this council are governed by established rules or church order; (5) the summons for the assembly of the congregation is issued by the council; and (6) the assembly meets publicly so that nonmembers can also attend as audience, but in such a way that only the members obtain what is properly due to the members, as, for example, the sacrament of baptism and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.”
-Abraham Kuyper, Our Worship (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies), Chapter 2.
