Our Number One Need…

No sooner had I posted my first reflection on what a church should be than I received a comment that powerfully reveals our need for systematic and faithful teaching of Scripture. Somewhere out there is a soul possessed of a hundred questions, who apparently thinks that s/he knows Christ. And yet they appear clueless about the reasons for His coming and the purpose of His life on earth. From the sound of it, s/he might be a refugee from the contemporary church; at the least they harbor a great deal of cynicism towards it.

The possibility that this possessor of questions might well have been in regular attendance at a church is a powerful indictment against contemporary protestantism. The fact that someone could think that they know Christ and yet be so pointedly ignorant of the reasons for redemption demonstrates that the church has abdicated her responsibilities to teach the Word. This commentator apparently envisions Christ as a Robert Heinlein character, some powerful, mystical embodiment of human divinity, calling out the goodness lying dormant within human consciousness. No doubt s/he believes that humanity suffers under an accretion of layers of toxic sediment disgorged by the machinery of western, capitalistic culture, which has buried the divinity within our hearts. For this possessor of questions, humanity is in a state of unconscious ignorance, imprisoned to materialistic desires and awaiting a cryptic key to release our hidden potential.

Make no mistake: in the beginning Almighty God created humanity good and declared him very good indeed (Gen 1:31). Humanity at the first walked in fellowship with God (Gen 3:8). Now imagine that for a moment: what kind of being must Adam have been before the fall, that he had the faculties to fellowship with the Creator of the Universe? I love my children, and there was nothing like coming home when they were young and walking with them in the late afternoon light. They might tell me a story or share a dream, but more often than not, their attention would wander after a bug or a rock or a swing set. It was a joyous connection for me, but it was not fellowship. For fellowship, I needed someone who could converse with me with a measure of comprehension, understanding and empathy. Think of it… what kind of man was man before the Fall?

But Adam sinned: he rejected God by disobeying His commands. The devil said that God didn’t want Adam and Eve to be “like God” (Gen. 3:5), but that was a lie, because they already were like God! God had invested them with the authority to rule over all the works of His hands (Gen. 1:28; Ps. 8:5–7). All Adam needed to do in order to exercise that lordship was to submit himself to God, and allow God to rule through him. But Adam—like the devil himself—rejected this place of submission and dependency. He wanted to be like God on his own, without having to bow his knee to God. And so he fell. And great was the fall of human kind.

Humanity repeats this fall again and again, and those today who seek to fan the flames of some so-called divine spark inside of us, who see in Christ Jesus a mystical purveyor of esoteric knowledge that will enable humanity to reach its full potential, fall in the same fashion as Adam again. Man is not God and never can be nor will be God. But my question is, how could someone hold such beliefs in a church? That could only be because the church has abandoned the teaching of the Word.

Sadly, what my commentator accurately divines is that the church too often is about the inappropriate exercise of power. Much of the contemporary church is nothing more than a business enterprise marketing compassion and religion. Their focus is on their income statement; they keep score by the square footage of their “campuses” and the numbers of their outreaches. They design ministry in response to consumer surveys in the hope that they will increase their market share and proportionately raise their income. However, where my commentator misses the mark is in accusing those who accurately teach the Scripture of an abuse of power. Those who hold to Scripture are not building an enterprise based on guilt or fear, but instead are leading people to God by teaching them the Truth.

If anyone wishes to see religious abuse, to witness church malpractice, they need only look to the seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, or emergent church paradigms. Leaders in those ecclesiologies gather disciples after themselves; they abandon Scripture and preach whatever their people want to hear. These are the ultimate abusers, for they willingly allow people to slip into an eternal destiny in hell, all so that they may build a bigger church, elevate their personal profile, and obtain a seat at the place of power in the community. They choose to dispense comfort for the here and now, rather than point to our need of redemption, holiness and sacrifice. They reject Scripture as the source of authority for all things concerning life and faith and instead turn to human wisdom and the literature of human potential and pop-psychology. They corrupt the worship of God in spirit and truth with a panoply of neo-pagan emotional, inarticulate, and irrational rituals.

If humanity is ever to achieve its design as capable of fellowship with God; if we are ever to regain the good, divine aspects of our original being, it will only be as we fully and completely surrender ourselves to God in absolute dependence upon Him and His teaching. His ways of redemption are articulated by Christ in the Word. Therefore we must commit to immerse ourselves in the Word, and to allow His Word and Spirit to completely inhabit, indwell, and impel us. If there is, or ever was, a divine aspect to humanity, it was the presence of God within us. There is nothing divine in us alone. Once, long ago, human beings bore the imago dei—the image of God—without measure. But that was lost and marred through the fall. Jesus Christ came to restore that image. And when we receive the Word and are born again from above; when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell our hearts anew, then God begins the process of restoring His unblemished image in us. It is through the Word and the Spirit that humanity can be transformed and conformed to the image of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore be a church that elevates the teaching of the Word and the doctrines of the faith. Let us so love the world that we refuse to allow them to live with fatal misconceptions of God, Christ and humanity, and instead be willing to proclaim the Truth, even if it makes us unpopular. Let us be passionately hungry for God’s Word, esteeming the words of His mouth more than our necessary food. And let us cry out to God to be a church—and for all our churches to be—a place where the Word is faithfully proclaimed and taught. May God have mercy on us all.

A Vision of the church—part 1

If you have listened to many of my teachings or read any of my rants, you will note with, I hope, a bemused smile, that I am something of a critic of the contemporary church. However, recently I have sensed a prompting to do more than just offer criticism, but to put forth an alternative. And it seems good to me to share these thoughts with you. So in what I believe is an act of obedience, let me begin to outline a vision for a local community of believers. What is its primary work? How should it be described?

Three characteristics come immediately to my mind in thinking of what a local church should be. First and foremost, the church must be a learning community. Second, it must be a compassionate community, attentively seeing to the needs of its own members. Then—and only then—it must lift its vision upward to become a serving community—ministering to the needs of its surrounding community.

I will explore each of these characteristics of a local church on its own. Let us begin then with a consideration of what I believe is a church’s first call—to be a learning community.

A Learning Community

From the beginning, the church of Jesus Christ was a learning community:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  —Acts 2:42

The church is based on God’s self-revelation. We would not know God had He not revealed Himself to us. As fallen beings, under the authority of sin and separated from God, our hearts and minds are darkened and we are unable to know or even recognize God. Thankfully, the Almighty chose to reveal Himself to us through the Word—both the written word (Scripture) and the living word, Jesus Christ. To know God requires that we know His Word. Therefore the people of God are—and have always been—a people of the Word. To know God involves applying one’s self to the study of His ways revealed through His Word.

This is particularly true for Christians. Christianity is not simply an emotional experience or a system of ethical behavior. It is a committed embrace of a rich theological tradition. We begin the Christian life with an experience: a personal encounter with the resurrected Christ. But thereafter, we are called to follow Him, to become His disciple. Jesus revealed that a disciple’s life is a life of learning when He left these instructions:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  —Matt. 28:19,20

Disciples study the teachings of Christ in order to learn to observe and to do all that He commanded. Christianity is not an emotional experience devoid of theological content. Christianity is a conversion of both the heart and the mind. Christians commit to knowing God, because to know God is to experience eternal life:

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  —John 17:3

Christians have always been attentive to the “apostles’ doctrine.” Church history reveals the high value placed upon personal access to the Scripture and the teachings of Jesus. The church encourages believers to immerse themselves in Scripture, because the Holy Spirit uses the Word to effect a transformation of the believer’s life:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed….  —Rom. 6:17

Every human being has a world-view (epistemology) shaped by this fallen world system. A world-view is simply a mental framework through which we interpret reality; it is the means by which we understand life and define what is right and wrong, good and evil. That world-view shapes our ethics and morals; it governs our behavior and it moulds the decisions we make in every area of life. However, that world-view, it should go without saying, is from the world, and the world’s view of reality, right, wrong, good, and evil, is not God’s view:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  —Is. 55:9

God’s ways stand high above the world’s ways. The world is ignorant of God’s righteousness and opposes His revelation (Jn. 1:5). Each of us who comes to God comes with a defective and corrupt worldview, formulated by a world ignorant of ultimate Truth. Therefore the first work of a church must be to teach God’s word and His ways. Surely this is why Paul encouraged an early pastor he trained to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

The first work of a church—its primary purpose—is to teach and preach the Word of God. Obviously, this is not its only work, but apart from this, the church has no voice or power in this world. The world already has its hospitals, food banks, psychologists, entertainment centers and social clubs. Over time a church may absorb some of the tasks of those enterprises as it ministers to its members and their community. Yet none of these works is a church’s first mission. Its mission is to preach the Word and teach the doctrines of the faith. For it is the Word that is the source of Christian life, strength, healing, sustenance and fellowship. It is my firm conviction that a local church must be a place where the word of God is systematically and faithfully expounded week by week. It is the mission of God that holds out the Word of God and shows the world the ways of God.

This then is the first characteristic that makes a local church recognizable as an authentic church of Jesus Christ—it is a learning community.

Light blogging…

As more than a few of you have remarked, I have fallen into one of my light blogging spells again. No need to worry, all is well—or at least, getting better. Right after I returned from my unauthorized summer’s end sabbatical, I came down with the flu, which laid me out of mind longer than I care to admit. And I have been occupied with applying for a teaching pastor position in a church. The position sounds perfect, although some of the language they use in describing their aspirations gives me pause. I have to wonder if I’m the guy they will actually want. Time will tell; it is in God’s hands.

Employment has been a worrying challenge for some time. I have applied to numerous churches to no avail. Usually I’m told that I don’t have the “right” experience. When I apply for teaching positions, I am told I don’t have the right qualifications (i.e., PhD). So all I could do yesterday was laugh when I interviewed for a desk clerk’s position in a small hotel. The owner told me I was over-qualified, even though I didn’t know his DOS-based reservations and accounting program!

So I am in an unenviable position: I am unqualified to do what I have trained for, love, and have some measure of proficiency in, and overqualified for hourly work! It is a conundrum. Am I under the Curse? I must review Deuteronomy 27–28 to see if Moses described my situation! That’s probably  just my (ex-) Catholic-guilt talking!

Nonetheless, hope springs eternal. My wife recommended I go to McDonald’s or Chick-fil-a; she figures I could end up in management in a few months with good benefits. But—whether its pride or an overweening sense of self—I just can’t bring myself there yet. Instead, I will obtain a credential that will open a door—a CDL—learning to drive “the big rigs.” Don’t laugh; over-the-road drivers can make some serious money. Besides, I love to drive and being on the road for days at a time intrigues me. If I can have time to write, and still be able to gather with others sometime for worship, then it will be fine. And if a ministry opportunity presents, well, I’ll drive the moving truck! But seriously, if a church or ministry position opens up, then it’s a no-brainer. Or, if God reveals that we are to plant a church, then I will have the means to support both it and my family. So on Monday, I will launch into my fourth, and hopefully final, career; if you think of it, say a prayer for me!

As to the blogging, a friend suggested that I mustn’t be mad at anything; otherwise I would have something to write! I had to laugh; she was right. I had been in a comfortably calm and peaceful state for a few weeks. But I find myself becoming more exercised of late—especially as I encounter evidence that we are in the time of the apostate church. You read that right. I fear that the contemporary protestant/evangelical church has apostasized—they have abandoned historic orthodox faith and its biblical principles and embraced a practical paganism. When we have churches that read The Shack from their pulpit instead of the Bible, then friends, we are in the time of deception’s triumph. When I hear church elders and employees argue for The Shack on the basis that it “helped their relationship with God,” a cold chill runs down my spine. For it is overwhelmingly obvious that the chickens of “culturally relevant ministry” have come home to roost. The abandonment of systematic expositions of the Word and inspired teachings of orthodox theology by pastors has left the church of God—the saints themselves—incapable of discerning truth and error. Like sheep without a shepherd, they muddle on ignorantly, only to feast on poisonous weeds.

Pity the poor saints throughout the centuries who died knowing nothing of God but what He revealed through His Word. Think what their faith might have been had only someone penned a heretical book to warm their hearts! Pity those who gave their bodies to be burned so that we could have the Bible in our own language(s). We have no need for the Bible today—our proof of truth is in how it makes us feel! Silly rationalists! We wasted over 600 years learning about God when apparently, all we needed to do is feel Him!

And pity poor God, who so misunderstood the needs and emotions of modern humanity as to choose to reveal Himself through such a stuffy, irrelevant text as the Bible! But thankfully, he has William Young to do a good work for Him—or is it Her?—or It?

So yes, I have discovered a lot to say, motivated by my increasing anger at the rejection of God’s Word in our time. This land has been experiencing a famine of the Word since the summer of 1995. That was the beginning of God’s judgments released on His people in this nation. But rather than returning with desperate hunger and thirst for His Word and righteousness, the American church has turned to new and novel management techniques and pagan political communitarianism to stir up their spirits. The judgment soon to be released on this will be breath-taking!

My friends, my prayer is that we will see, recognize and be part of the Remnant that will survive in the days ahead. That is a courageous prayer, for the Remnant of those who cling to the Bible will endure tremendous persecution from the dominant apostasized church. But no pain of persecution can outweigh the tender grace, mercy and compassion of our Lord. It is time to make some serious decisions. It is time to stop halting between two opinions. As God called Abram, and as He called Lot, He calls to His own today: “Come ye out from the midst of them, and be ye separate!” That time is now.

It is a time for prayer, a time for fasting, and a time for waiting on the Lord. Let us comfort and encourage one another. But most of all, let us purpose that we will rely on God’s Word and serve the Lord. May God have mercy on us all.

An Introduction to Isaiah 40–66

I was honored to preach an introduction to Isaiah 40–66 in a large bible study last week. The group follows Kay Arthur’s inductive Bible study techniques, using her Precept materials. They were preparing to examine the closing chapters of Isaiah, having spent many months covering the first thirty-nine chapters back in the spring.

I joked about the difficulty of the task; to introduce these 27 chapters and provide a summary of the first 39 chapters all in 45 minutes is impossible. After all, these are some of the most theologically dense, poetically compelling, and prophetically significant chapters  in the entire canon of Hebrew scripture. And given their significance to the New Testament, it is nothing but arrogance to think that anyone could unpack all their truth in a day, a week, a month or even a year—let alone in a morning.

Nevertheless I tried. Although I exceeded my forty-five minute window (I ended up at an hour and five minutes!), I don’t think I lost anyone’s attention. It was a wonderful experience to share the Word with so many hungry souls.

A couple of people asked if they could have a copy of my teaching. I thought I’d experiment and upload it here to the blog. Then, if anyone wanted a copy, they could download it from here. So, here it is. Do let me know if you have any difficulties with the download.

Remember, this is only a brief, thumbnail sketch of a few points communicated in Isaiah 40–66. It comes from my study, and is in no way affiliated with Kay Arthur or her teaching materials. May God’s mercy be upon us.

Click Here to Download the Teaching in a PDF File

Click Here to Download the Teaching in a Word File

A Syllabus for preaching…

I heard a sermon recently on the wrath of God. I had joked with the pastor earlier that I was having a bad week and wasn’t sure I could endure such a message. But inwardly I wanted to congratulate him for his courage; most people coming to church these days are not expecting to hear about the wrath of God! It takes faith to preach what people don’t want to hear—faith, courage, and a healthy dose of obedience.

My response to that sermon was quite different from what I expected. I was expecting to feel guilt, fear and shame. Yet to my surprise I felt great love and compassion even as the intensity of God’s wrath was spelled out. An understanding of Jesus and his work on the Cross exploded in my mind. As the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice became apparent, wave after wave of the peace of God swept over me.

Needless to say, I was genuinely amazed—amazed that a message on God’s wrath could produce such feelings of peace, love and comfort in my spirit. How many messages have I heard on God’s blessings that had the effect of making me feel inadequate or somehow separated from God? Yet in one simple teaching of God’s wrath I came to know and experience God’s love in a way I had not sensed in years.

This brought me back to a question that constantly preoccupies my thoughts: what exactly should we preach in the church? Obviously, we need different types of messages for different types of services, yet there must be a core curriculum that serves as the basis for all church ministry. I have not yet exhausted my thinking on this matter, but I am persuaded that we should focus on at least these three doctrines: the knowledge of God; the holiness of God; and the righteousness of God.

One of the most serious deficits we suffer from in the contemporary church is a lack of knowledge of God. We are ignorant of His transcendence, oblivious to His greatness, and indifferent to His character and ways. I cannot help but wonder if the boredom many claim to feel in church might be traced to a lack of knowledge about God. Without the knowledge of God, church is nothing more than a lifeless “Sunday-morning-go-to-church” ritual. Church is but a foolish and meaningless waste of time when one’s experience of the world and its problems dwarf their conception of God. But when we know Him—know of His eternal power, sagacious will and inexhaustible compassion—we are never bored in His presence! If we know Him, we look forward to coming to church to worship Him. But if we are not taught about God in church, where else will we learn of Him? Therefore we must focus our preaching on the nature, character and attributes of God.

We must also preach the holiness and righteousness of God. A quick survey of the contemporary church reveals a dangerous accommodation with the world and a tolerance of sin. This can only be the result of a profound ignorance of God’s purity and holiness. When holiness is not regularly preached, there is little understanding of our need for serious commitment to discipleship and sanctification. But there is an even more important reason for preaching the holiness of God. Without knowledge of God’s purity and holiness, there is absolutely no way for anyone to grasp the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary. The entire passion narrative becomes nothing more than a strange, horrible tale when it is divorced from the teaching of God’s holiness and sin.

Mega-church marketers might tell us that this syllabus of preaching will actually empty our churches. And yet I wonder. Might not the preaching of holiness actually heighten our desire to live separate from sin and closer to Christ? Wouldn’t consistent teaching of the character of God—including His wrath against sin and unrighteousness—produce an increase in repentance and the subsequent experience of joy, peace, and love from God? The faithful preaching of these truths might actually propel believers to share the love and salvation of God with their communities in ways no other program could ever stimulate.

I know that this is all just one man’s experience, but hearing a message on the wrath of God woke me up to a new appreciation of God’s love and His work of redemption in Christ. It encouraged me to pay more attention to my words and deeds, and to seek the help of the Holy Spirit more passionately in my life. I pray that more and more pastors across the land will be arrested by the Spirit and exhibit the courageous obedience that it takes to preach the hard messages from the Word of God. May God bless and strengthen them as they do. May God have mercy on us all.

Vacation is over…

As you may have noticed, I took a short break from writing over the last two weeks. Sometimes you need to clear your mind and think of things of less import and consequence. I read a horrible novel (a critique of which will be forthcoming!), lazed at the beach, and watched hours of re-runs of the television program Monk. None of which contributed to the development of my reasoning faculties…! But they all helped me restore a sense of peace and quiet to my mind.

But September has dawned, which for me is always the start of a new year. I love the autumn, and while it hardly feels like fall here in Virginia Beach, there are ever so many subtle hints that it is coming soon. As temperatures drop with the leaves, my mind accelerates. I’m sure I’ll have lots to say soon.

Thanks for your patience, and for visiting the sight even when I hadn’t posted in a while. All is well. So let us begin….

If for no other reason…

I have always had a love for the politics of the United States. That love was intensified during my years out of the country. I became much more of a patriot as I looked back across the miles between the land of my birth and both Johannesburg and Vancouver. Yet when I returned ‘home,’ I felt more distant and disinterested. In fact, in many ways, I have felt as though I was once again a missionary, an ambassador to yet another “foreign” land.

Missionaries don’t have a political standing in the country to which the Lord sends them. They genuinely are ambassadors to that place, there to support the people, aid their development and otherwise be a blessing. They are not called to enter into political or social life in any way other than the sphere of influence God has appointed for them. It is a blessing for most missionaries not to be involved in the political issues of their host country. It reminds them that indeed their citizenship is in heaven, and that life here in this earth is but a temporary assignment.

That missionary consciousness has rendered me a somewhat disinterested bystander in the current national election process here in the U.S. Of course, I stay informed: I voted in the primaries and am preparing to vote in November. But I genuinely feel that I have no dog in this hunt, as the saying goes. Yet there are issues of monumental importance in this election, some of which have a direct bearing on our lives as Christians. So while I honestly do not want to advocate for any one candidate over another in this blog, I do want to share this video that speaks to one of those important issues for us as Christians.

There may be room for some disagreement within discussions surrounding abortion. Yet surely, there can be no room for tolerance or support of the practice of infanticide. The President of the United States is not a lawmaker, but he can exert enormous influence on the making of laws through his appointment of judges, particularly to the Supreme Court. There are many issues of import to consider in this election; it is not unrealistic fear-mongering to say that the United States stands on a precipice. But how can we as Christians entertain any other issue, if a candidate before us has advocated, supported or otherwise empowered something as heinous as the practice of infanticide?

If for no other reason, this issue should decide the election for us. It should motivate Christians across the land to do everything in their power to insure that no one is ever entrusted with the highest office of our land who would be part of infanticide. May God have mercy on the United States! May God forgive us for all the blood shed. And may God have mercy on us all.

Summer Daze…

My apologies for my light blogging these last few weeks. Life never remains constant in our house, but recently our schedules have changed so dramatically that we may soon have to resort to evening planner synchronizations! At any rate, it is the end of summer and I find it hard to focus. However school is starting, and my biological clock will soon notify my brain to return to full function. Yet, even as I took a break from my usual thoughts, I did observe something that provoked a reflection.

We went to my first-born’s new school for a ‘new family orientation dinner’ last week. Call me old fashioned, but I donned a jacket and tie and forced the boys into khakis and collared shirts. It was a dinner after all, not a cookout or a picnic. Boy, were we overdressed! My sons weren’t that overdressed; most of the children were dressed appropriately for school. But the parents were another issue. Only one other man was dressed in a jacket and tie; that he was quite a few years older than me was a bitter consolation! Needless to say, we shed the jackets quickly to avoid discomfort. Some men were dressed in business casual, yet by far the majority of the parents looked like they had just left the beach.

Which prompted me to ask myself: what’s happened to adults in our culture? Are there any left? When I looked around that full dining hall the other night, I swear there weren’t many adults in attendance! It may be a failing, but I confess that I judge people by the way they’re dressed. It’s not about the clothing per se, its more an issue of the suitably of the outfit for the occasion. And I couldn’t help but wonder, isn’t there supposed to be a difference between the way kids dress and adults dress?

I have teenagers, and there are times when we surrender and let them out of the house looking like… well… like teenagers! However, a time should come when kids mature into adults able to navigate the social responsibilities of life on their own. I always thought that that time came sometime after college, but at the latest it must come by the time of professional employment and/or marriage. By then, shouldn’t guys have learned to tuck shirts in, abandon the flip-flops and put on a decent shirt? Shouldn’t a mom have put away the midriff-exposing shirts? Or am I being just too old-fashioned?

I can’t help but wonder if there is a correlation between these relaxed dress standards and our declining standards in academics and public and private morality. We seem possessed of an anything goes mentality, where rules of personal responsibility and appropriate behavior no longer apply. We’ve even reached the point where individuals and institutions need suffer no consequence to their gluttonous accumulation of debt. How long can we continue as a people when we’ve removed all standards of civil behavior? The nation is beginning to stagger under the cost of this moral amnesia.

Where are the adults in our society? Where are the ones ready to make hard decisions, to put off gratification for the benefit of the future? Where are those who will bear the burdens of life and teach the next generation that while life is unfair, sacrifice, discipline and honor can assure success? When I see a room full of parents—parents of middle and high school aged students—looking like monied refugees from Spring Break, well, I wonder: have we so delayed the onset of adulthood that these folks are still waiting for the call? What standards are being instilled in the next generation? Perhaps this next generation’s adolescent rebellion will take the form of dressing appropriately and adopting manners. But what is the real chance of that happening?

For now I count it all of a piece with the overall decline and fall of the West. It is certainly provides evidence that I am no longer as young as I feel! Selah!

Calvin on the church…

Many in the church think we need new ways of “doing church;” that we need to adapt the church to contemporary Western culture. This thinking has led to the seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven and emergent church models that are flooding North America today. No one would dispute that methods would change over time; technological advancements as simple as electronic sound reinforcement or as sophisticated as PowerPoint™ presentations are welcomed innovations in the church.

Yet while we recognize that technology has changed, we understand that the purpose of the church has not changed. The church continues to be God’s plan for His people. Today’s ‘pastors’ seek help from church management literature, written by consultants who possess an entrepreneurial, technical view of ministry. However, these leaders would do well to incline an ear to the thoughts of theologians of the past. As an old teacher of mine used to say, ‘its not what’s new that saves us, but what’s true.’ Contemporary church management literature may promise new techniques, but true success is found in the purposes of God.

John Calvin spoke on the work of the church in his treatise, The Institutes of Christian Religion. He wrote, “the Church [is] the gathering of God’s children, where they … helped and fed like babies and guided by her motherly care, grow up into manhood in the maturity of faith” (231-32). Unlike most church-growth proponents, Calvin saw the church’s primary responsibility as the care of the saints, not the work of evangelism. For him, Christian sanctification was a life-long process, requiring the church’s constant assistance:

Our ignorance, laziness and vanity are such that we need a great deal of help to bring us to living faith. We also need to grow in that faith. So God has made sure we have enough encouragement by entrusting his Gospel to the Church. He has appointed pastors and teachers to build up his people and has given them authority. (231)

God’s plan for pastors is to teach the Word of God. Calvin recognized the significance of this, for he knew that Christianity was taught, not caught:

The phrases used of the Church by Paul in 1 Timothy 3:15 have real meaning: ‘God’s household’ and ‘the pillar and foundation of the truth.’ In these words Paul shows how the Church is the guardian of the truth, so that the world does not extinguish it. God has chosen to use her to preach his Word in all its purity and so he reveals himself to us as a parent, feeding us with spiritual nourishment and whatever we need for salvation. (235)

It is in the teaching of the Word of God that Christians are transformed into fully devoted followers of Jesus. Sadly, the systematic exposition of the Word is becoming a rarity in many churches as they pursue a seeker-sensitive agenda for church growth. Seeker-sensitive ‘pastors’ rely on the words of man, gathering the substance of their sermons from the self-help literature of pop-psychology. They might use the Bible to prove a point found in a book, but they do not present the Bible as the authoritative source for Christian life and conduct. This has serious implications. It is literally a rejection of the Word of God. And as such, it distances that church from the company of the true church of God:

Wherever the Word of God is sincerely preached and listened to and wherever the sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, we can be sure the Church of God exists… (234).

The true Church of God magnifies the preaching of scripture. The Word of God is its full and final authority. Today’s leaders oppose this form of preaching using varied vocabulary, yet that opposition is always rooted in one source:

We must recognize the marks of God’s Church, and see them through his eyes. Satan would love nothing better than to get rid of these characteristics, bring them into contempt and urge us into open revolt against the Church. His wiles ensured that for centuries the preaching of the Word disappeared, and now, with the same evil purpose, he is working to overthrow the ministry. Christ has so structured his Church, that if this is removed, the whole building will collapse. (235)

No church can hope to succeed if it rejects the preaching of the Word. It may grow and become prosperous in this world, but it will no longer be a church of God. Calvin suggests that true success comes from the preaching of the Word and the right administration of ordinances:

The preaching of the Word and the observance of the sacraments cannot happen anywhere without producing fruit and prospering because of God’s blessing. I am not saying that wherever the Word is preached, there are immediate results, but that everywhere it is received and accepted there is always blessing. When the preaching of the Gospel is listened to reverently and the sacraments are observed, the Church is seen in truth and clarity; no one can with impunity reject her authority, ignore her rebuke, go against her advice or ridicule her judgment—far less revolt openly and destroy her unity. (234)

What can we conclude from these thoughts? First, the church is where the people of God learn of God. The church is where God’s Word—His revelation of His will for humanity and His character—is proclaimed and explained. The church is the place where the Word of God transforms converts into fully devoted followers of Christ. The church is where the children of God are equipped to walk in the Spirit. The church is a place of the Word.

We need to pray that today’s pastors recognize that God’s design of the church for His children has not changed since its beginnings. Technologies and settings change, but purpose does not. The church needs to be a learning community; therefore, pastors must teach and preach the Word of God. Let us pray that we may find true churches in which to fellowship and learn.

John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion, ed. Tony Lane and Hilary Osborne (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996, 1986).

What then is the church…?

One of the issues I have with seeker-sensitive / purpose-driven ecclesiology is that it transforms the local church into primarily a center of evangelism. The institutional church has a role to play in evangelism, yet it is individual Christians that have been charged with the Great Commission. As the old saw accounts, sheep beget sheep. The pastor’s work must always be flavored with the evangelistic, even as it seasoned with teaching, governance and the prophetic. Yet he is not an evangelist, but a pastor. His work then is to be primarily directed toward the care and feeding of the sheep, not enlarging the flock.

What does this mean for the local church? The local church should be the place where the needs of Christ’s people who are called to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature are met. The local church is not for the lost but for the saved, and while the nourishment it stores and distributes is for the feeding of all, it is intentionally designed to house sheep, not lodge goats. In the local church, Christ’s disciples are refreshed, renewed and reinvigorated to return to life in the world. Seeker-sensitive /purpose-driven ecclesiology reverses this order. The apostle of seeker-sensitivity aims to turn mature Christians into “self-feeding individuals,” while remodeling the church into a space for the lost to feel comfortable.

What should the church be—sheep pen or evangelistic center? While the New Testament is silent about church organization, it does speak loudly to the church’s work. From the beginning, the church was a place for Christian fellowship and the learning of apostolic doctrine:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.   —Acts 2:42

The founding apostles recognized that God’s will for salvation was intimately linked to doctrinal teaching:

This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.   —1 Tim. 2:3-4

Teaching the Word was important, because it was seen as the means by which the lost would be transformed into fully devoted followers of Christ:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed…   —Rom. 6:17

Disciples were encouraged to remain faithful to church teaching:

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.   —Heb. 2:1

To drift away from the teaching was to drift away from the Word. The early church recognized that such movement held dire consequences:

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.   —1 John 2:24

Therefore, the apostles warned Christians to protect the teaching they had received:

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.   —1 Tim. 6:20

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.   —2 Tim. 1:14

The first apostles were not so far removed from Judaism that they forgot the necessity of the systematic teaching of the Word of God. They placed a high value on the teaching of the doctrines of God, Christ, man, sin, redemption and eschatology. The early church emphasized teaching as the antidote to the ways of the world:

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine…   —1 Tim. 1:8–10

What can we conclude from this? From the beginning, the church was a learning center, a place where the Word and the apostles’ doctrine was systematically expounded. The church was a place where people learned of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. They learned about the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and the meaning, import and cause of Calvary.

When the church is a place of teaching, those seeking God will come to learn. The church does not need to redefine or reinvent itself to reach the world, it needs to return to its historic roots and teach God’s people to reach the world. Let us pray for pastors to depart from the strategies of men and return to God and His ways. Let us pray that the church will once again become a place where the sheep of God’s pasture can be fed and cared for with His Word. May God have mercy on us….