A three-word answer should be sufficient: pray about it. That should be enough, but God did give us minds for the purpose of decision-making. Still three words apply: pray and think. So, what are the data points to consider when looking for a place to call home in the body of Christ. You might want to read my post, “What is the Church?” as background to this question. I ended that post with the very ungrammatical statement that “church” is a verb. The point is that the true church is believers in action. What I want to develop here is a list of biblical actions we should look for in a potential church. I am also going to use the word “church” to refer to a local body of believers.
The first thing on my list is an absolute: the Word of God
must be preached and taught in its fullness. There is room for some disagreement
as to what “fullness” means. For example, churches that use the term “full
gospel” usually go over-full by requiring speaking in tongues as a necessary
sign of salvation. That’s not gospel; that’s extra-biblical. The rest of the
“full gospel” program falls into an area of opinion: miracles, healing and
other supernatural activities may or may not be part of your expectations. In
my mind they neither qualify nor disqualify a church.
Another common difference between churches that preach the
Word of God consistently relates to their interpretation of the New Covenant.
Churches that preach so-called covenant theology generally compare the new
birth in Christ to the Old Covenant practice of marking God’s chosen through
circumcision. Because of this, they baptize infant children of believers to identify
them with the family of God. Most follow this some years later with a
confirmation that establishes the validity of the infant baptism.
This practice differs dramatically from the beliefs of those
who hold to adult, believer’s baptism. That practice traces back to the time of
the Reformation when certain groups broke away from the other reformers by
requiring adults to be baptized. They were called “anabaptists” which means
re-baptizers since they were generally baptizing adults who had been baptized
as infants. The name became shortened over the years to what we now know as
Baptists.
The Word of God can be preached faithfully in both covenant
and Baptist-type churches. My search of the Scriptures has led me to conclude
that adult, believer baptism by immersion is the purest biblical practice. However,
I believe that there will be myriads of brothers and sisters in Heaven who were
baptized as infants. There are some groups who believe one cannot be saved
without water baptism. This takes the issue too far in my opinion. Baptism is
an essential step of obedience not an essential part of salvation. The only
essential baptism is that of the Spirit, and that may or may not involve water.
In any case, the issue of baptism is one that we can agree to disagree on.
Once you are satisfied that a church is preaching the Word,
you need to learn what they are doing about it. After all, if church is a verb,
actions reveal the true nature of the body in question. There are two main
reasons for a church to exists: one is to nurture its members and the other is
to reach the lost. Several years ago God prompted me to write a book called Lead
a Horse to Water in which I lamented the lack of community outreach in
many otherwise healthy churches. You should find vital nurturing and intentional
outreach programs in the church you choose.
Preaching, teaching, and reaching are three essentials. You
may be blessed to find several candidate churches that meet these criteria. In
that case, you look at non-essential matters. Are the location and times of
services convenient? Do you feel welcomed when you first attend? Does the
worship style suit your taste? Whether they sing hymns accompanied by an organ
or feature a contemporary worship band, the clincher is whether people are
encouraged to worship God. It will be important to find a church with an active
prayer life and a strong sense of community. These things are mentioned as distinctives
of the very first church in the book
of Acts. Keep in mind that no church can be all things to all people. We are called to unity
not uniformity. Scripture leaves room for diversity.
Another matter which leaves room for disagreement regards
the government of the church. In Protestant churches there are two basic types
of government with variations in each type. I am going to simplify the
categories by inventing my own names for each. I call them democratic and
dogmatic. Neither term is perfect, but I will explain what I mean. The Greek
word “demos” means people; democratic government is government by the people. A
democratic church allows members to vote on important issues facing the body.
There are very few purely democratic bodies because most
have a leadership structure that oversees the workings of the church. The
leaders define the issues that the church votes on. I chose the word “oversees”
purposely. The word the Apostle Paul often uses for church leaders is overseer.
In democratic type churches, the overseers are often elected by the body, or if
not democratically chosen, the leaders themselves choose the overseers creating
a self-perpetuating board.
The type of church government I am calling dogmatic also
comes from a Greek word: dogma. A dogma is a teaching; to be dogmatic is to
stick to the teaching. The dogma or teaching of Scripture lends two different names
to a type of government that is led by specially chosen individuals. Paul uses
both names interchangeably. They are episcopal and presbyterian. The common
English translation of the Greek word for overseer is where we get the name for
the episcopal type of government. In Greek, a presbyter is an elder, a name we
also use for church leaders.
One other leadership term from the Greek has come to us as
well: deacon. Some churches combine the deacons and elders to form a
hierarchical form of government. Often, pastors, another biblical term, serve
as elders with deacons as advisors. Frustrating though it may be, there is no
clear outline in Scripture for church government. The dogma I have mentioned
lends itself to several possible interpretations.
The key for me is this: the New Testament does not mention
congregational voting. The reason for this is clear to me. Throughout the New
Testament, church leaders are specially gifted and chosen because they have the
correct qualities: they are to be full of the spirit and wisdom, as well as
several other qualifications Paul lists in his letters. It is highly unlikely
that every voting member of a congregation would meet the biblical
qualifications for leadership. To suggest that a group of people with
questionable attributes should pass judgment on God’s will for a church is
ludicrous. As I said in “Wise Up,
America,” our culture has become infected with a desire for independence
and individualism that has crept into our thinking about the church and our
relationship to God.
The next thing on my list should be with the essentials, but
I list it here because all the non-essential matters should be satisfactory or
this last, but most important item won’t be comfortable. I assume you know what
your spiritual gift is; everyone has one; read 1 Corinthians 12. This is where
prayer becomes a necessity. You must ask God (and perhaps the leadership of the
candidate church) if your gift is needed, or perhaps whether it is even
recognized by the church. Needless to say, if your question is met with a blank
stare, this is not the church for you. Any church that does not recognize and
utilize the spiritual gifts of its members as a regular course of action is not
worth consideration.
Because I am married, I have one more essential criterion:
my wife must agree with the choice. I covet her input because she has an
extremely sensitive spirit. She can pick up on things that slide right past my
radar, probably because I am too intellectually concerned for my own good. The
Apostle Paul would describe me as being soulish (that’s the intellect) rather
than spiritual in some things.
He told the Romans that those who are in the flesh (soulish) are not able to
please God. It goes without saying that I want our choice of a church home to
be pleasing to God.
I have already said that no one church can meet everyone’s
expectations; I must also say that there is no perfect church. Why? Because
churches are made of people and people are imperfect. When choosing a church,
find one that comes closest to meeting the biblical criteria, and then pitch
in. Do church to the best of your ability. Remember: you are the church.
Related posts: What is the Church? Bringing the Kingdom
No comments:
Post a Comment