Sometimes, I wonder what has happened to the church. Not that I am saying that my grandparent's church had it all going on, but when I read the New Testament, I see something drastically different from what is being championed in America as "biblical Christianity." For those of you that know me, please understand... Resurgence is not perfect by a long shot. But the goal of biblical ecclesiology is always before me and the rest of the elders at Resurgence and the desire is to see disciples made and the Christ exalted in the lives of everyone who attends. I was asked to write a paper dealing with contemporary church issues, and in my research, here is what I uncovered. Anyone that would like to discuss these matters, feel free to e-mail me at resurgencechurch@gmail.com
BIBLICAL ECCLESIOLOGY
IN A POST-MODERN AGE
I. Introduction
Is the landscape
of the American Evangelical church biblical? Trends, fads, and buzz words will come
and go, but the biblical structure of the church should be unwavering,
regardless of the direction of the times. When this structure is altered, an
influx of worldly thinking permeates the local church and slowly begins to
erode the guidelines of Scripture. This seems to be the problem plaguing many
of America ’s
churches today. Biblical content has been watered down so as not to offend
anyone. The mention of sin, death, Hell, judgment, and even blood atonement has
been frowned upon for the sake of “reaching people.” Sunday worship gatherings
have become entertaining performances with motivational speeches that have left
the attendants feeling warm, and yet more ignorant for having been there. Truth
has been compromised and the church has made the mistake of inviting the world
into the worship of the Creator, rather than taking the message of the Creator
to the world. While many of today’s churches are looking for “seeker sensitive”
approaches that will attract the lost to their church building, the biblical
church is not to be concerned with catering to the lost within their walls, but
rather the equipping and mobilizing of the saints “for the work of the
ministry” (Eph. 4:12 )
through constant discipleship and evangelism opportunities. This is the only
model that the Bible affirms. To substantiate the case of this claim, a few
examples must be considered.
II. Houston, We Have A Problem!
Joel Osteen is
considered to be one of America ’s
premier preachers. Osteen pastors Lakewood
Church in Houston ,
Texas ; a church that broadcasts Lakewood ’s services to 200 million homes in the United States
alone.[1] In
perusing Osteen’s personal website and examining his “What We Believe” section,[2]
one would walk away with confidence that they would be attending Lakewood Church Lakewood Church Lakewood averaged a weekly
attendance of 32,000 people,[4]
but most recently, those numbers have skyrocketed to 44,800 in 2010.[5] A
lack of Gospel clarity and a refusal to acknowledge Christ as the only way of salvation
is found to be desirable by the masses.
The study shows that while Willow has been successfully
meeting the spiritual needs of those who describe themselves as "exploring
Christianity" or "growing in Christ," it has been less
successful at doing so with those who self-report as being "close to
Christ" or "Christ-centered." In fact, one-fourth of the last
two groups say that they are either "stalled" in their spiritual
growth and/or "dissatisfied" with the church.[6]
A simple phrase like “exploring Christianity” reveals that
the lost are actively participating at Willow Creek Church and are even being
catered to, while those who are considered “Christ-centered” (maturing
believers) have “stalled” and become “dissatisfied.” The neglect of the meat of
the Word being regularly taught in this local body is starving the mature, all
while some attending the church (“exploring Christianity”) are lost and are
either not coming to Christ, or not leaving the church, both being due to the lack
of conviction in the messages being preached. This pandering to the lost within
the walls of Willow Creek has caused a sermonic “ceiling” to be installed which
limits the exposition of the whole counsel of God’s Word and keeps the content
at the “milk” level. The focus of this ministry has been spread to unbiblical
proportions, inverting the biblical pyramid for church growth and evangelism,
and the results are self-evident.
While Lakewood Church
and Willow Creek
Church are not the full culmination of
the American Evangelical landscape, they certainly rank among the largest
evangelical congregations that America
In regards to music, some churches have
even promoted themselves as having a “multisensory experience” for their time
of singing praises to the Lord, or that your personal “spiritual perceptions”
are what is most important, which turns the emphasis on finding “truth” that
fits one’s current theology, rather than having one’s theology shaped by the
truths of God as found in the Scriptures.[7]
In advocating a “seeker-sensitive” approach to worship, Ed Dobson writes, “We
wanted a musical style that would elicit a response. Unchurched people come to
a service hesitantly. Their mind-set is ‘you’re not going to get me.’ Their
defenses are up. We felt that a style of music that would get them moving in a
physical way (nodding heads and tapping feet) would help break down their
defenses.”[8]
It is clear from
Scripture (Ps. 150:3-5 )
that the instruments used and the styles preferred are not the issue, but it is
the motivation behind such a statement that should sound a blaring alarm.
Church music that is molded for the purpose of reaching the lost ultimately
puts the emphasis on the lost person, when the rectitude of motivation should
be that of praising Yahweh, the Creator. Such reasons serve to manipulate the
work of the Holy Spirit. In response to Dobson’s “seeker-sensitive” musical philosophy,
David M. Doran writes “This is precisely the type of argument that Paul would
have rejected categorically. We must stop trusting in our ingenuity and begin
to trust once again in the power of God in the gospel. We should have every
confidence that it is fully sufficient and capable of ‘constantly bearing fruit
and increasing’ (Col
This dangerous
musical manipulation has found a welcome mat at New Spring Church in South
Carolina, whose worship band recently opened one of its church services with
the 70’s classic party song “Rock and Roll All Night” by the band Kiss.[10]
As the band played, the screens in the sanctuary flashed pictures of the rock
band Kiss in full makeup, even at one point showing a member of the band
spitting “blood” and fire, while another smashed guitars. As a Christian, how
could one not be confused in trying to find the connection between worshiping
the Creator of the universe and praising the Son of God, and a party song that
wants to “drive you crazy?” How is the Lord worshiped, much less pleased in
this act? “What accord has Christ with Belial” (2 Cor. 6:15 )? But this behavior
and atmosphere is craved, seeing as how New Spring’s attendance has grown 60%
in the past year.[11]
With passionate pen, John MacArthur writes, “There is simply no warrant in
Scripture for adapting weekly church services to the preference of unbelievers.
Indeed, the practice seems to be contrary to the spirit of everything Scripture
says about the assembly of believers. When the church comes together on the
Lord’s Day, that is no time to entertain the lost, amuse the brethren, or
otherwise cater to the ‘felt needs’ of those in attendance. This is when we
should bow before our God as a congregation and honor Him with our worship”[12]
Such acceptance
among today’s evangelicals should be of no surprise because of the example
being set in the pulpit of these churches. For instance, in his book Leadershift, Pastor Doug Murren recounts
a situation where he had invited Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein to preach before his 4,000
member congregation. Murren attributes his reason for handing his pulpit over
to a lost teacher as this: “I had him here to illustrate the paradigm of love.”[13]
And such is the many cases where truth has been tucked away for the sake of
“unity” and “love.” It is such an all-inclusive projection from the pulpit that
has escalated much of today’s church attendance numbers and has accepted the
concept of the church as being a place were the lost can be found in growing
numbers.
“Pastoral
responsibility, which includes fidelity to Scripture alone, was never meant to
be a popularity contest,” writes Scott Newman. “If the line is drawn in any
manner that is permanent, it will be done in the local church by pastors
committed to the orthodox understanding of theology and Biblical
interpretation. Resolved to resist the call of the church growth experts, or
seeker sensitive professionals, the pastor-teacher must give himself over to a
thorough study of the Bible that is sound exegetically and orthodox
hermeneutically.”[14] If Murren
had held to such convictions, this error would have not only been avoided, but
would have been considered all together unthinkable.
III.
Disdain for Disicpleship
What effect could
the church’s efforts to cater to the lost within the church walls have on the
local body of Christ? Is their involvement one that strengthens the church, or
is it something that has come to strangle the church? One area of church life
that comes under immediate neglect is that of discipleship for the growing
believer. Evidence for a decline in discipleship has shown up in the research
of George Barna. The expectation for growth and discipleship that has been
portrayed in today’s churches is low, if not non-existent. Barna notes that “less than one out of every five self-identified
Christians (18%) claims to be totally committed to investing in their own
spiritual development.”[15]
With a command to “make disciples” (Matt.
28:19 ), this statistic is despairing. A lack of devotion to
growing in sound biblical doctrine helps to identify the roots of where evangelical
thinking has gone wrong.
Discipleship serves as a foundational pillar to the
health of the local church. In growing believers with an understanding and application
of the Scriptures, a biblical worldview develops which serves to address the
paganism of the current day, and to also mold the next generation in truth; a
preparation that is few and far between in recent decades. “The
fundamental condition for effective ministry is a commitment to a life of
discipleship on the part of individual members and the church as a whole,”
writes Brenda Colijn. “We must be sensitive to the brokenness of everyone who
responds to the gospel; many people need to fully grasp the message of God’s
grace before they can hear God’s demands. Yet in the face of our culture, which
encourages lack of commitment, the church must proclaim Jesus as Lord and
ourselves as his disciples (Rom. 2 Cor. 4:5 ;
Phil. 2:5–11 ).”[16] It is precisely
this commitment that is missing from the evangelical church, and has caused
Judeo-Christian views to be discarded to the back of the line when addressing
politics, art, music, economic policy, etc.
Many times, the
contemporary disillusionment of commitment to the local church has been blamed
on the church itself. This follows the trend of alleviating oneself from
personal responsibility and allows for an acceptable “scapegoat” so that one’s
conscious will remain clear. Walter Chantry writes, “There is no perfect church
in doctrine or graciousness. It is easy to blame our indecision, lack of
discipline and lack of commitment on the local church. But spiritual weakness
and a sense of alienation from God’s people are quite often traceable to a very
elementary failure in those who criticize the church. If we do not devote
ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship and if we do not
continue to meet together, the most aggressive nomadic search for inner
satisfaction is destined to failure.”[17]
The proper solution would be to devote one’s self to the betterment of the
church they are attending and enduring through the trying times for the sake of
the potential growth at hand. Sadly, escape often wins out, and the opportunity
for discipleship is shipwrecked upon the first shore of difficulty. With the
introduction of the lost into the worship process of the church, praise becomes
performance, Scripture becomes storytelling, and the proclamation of truth
turns into a prescription for appeasement.
IV. Misunderstanding the Makeup of the Church
The church is the
assembly of the saved to worship the Savior. It is not for the lost to be
accommodated and socially engaged. Daniel Akin writes, “The membership of the
local church is made up of those who confess Christ as Savior and Lord, and
whose lives give evidence of conversion. Baptist commitment to this principle
set them apart from the magisterial Reformers, but they did so because of their
commitment to the witness of the New Testament. There is no hint whatsoever of
unregenerate church membership in the Bible.”[18]
This should not be
a surprising fact. The Bible shows clearly that the gift of tongues was a
“sign” to unbelievers (1 Cor.
14:22 ), but Paul continues forward in saying “If, therefore, the
whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or
unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?” Why?
Because tongues was something that was understood by the first century church (1 Cor. 14:27 ); it was not
something that was ministering to unbelievers. It was a sign to them of God’s
presence.[19] An
unbeliever who would have come to church in the first century and witnessed
something like speaking in tongues would quickly decide against Christianity
due to this “strange” practice and leave the assembly. Paul continues by
stating that it is prophesy (speaking forth God’s truth) that brings them to
conviction because it is something that can be readily understood (1 Cor. 14:24-25 ). This
first century practice of speaking in tongues was a familiar occurrence in the
early church for their edification (1 Cor. 14:26 ). This is something that unbelievers would not
understand, nor be privy to.
The separation of
the idea that the lost belong in church is further understood when reading
about Paul’s interaction with the “unbelievers in Judea ”
in Romans 15:31 .
Paul is delivering a monetary gift to the church in Jerusalem
(Rom.
15:25Judea ”
(Rom. 15:31 ). It is
obvious here (and in Acts
21:27-36 ) that first century unbelievers were not fond of
Christians and their ministry endeavors.
This concept can
also be seen in Acts 5
after the incident with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11 ). The message
about their sudden deaths had spread throughout and beyond the fellowship of
the church (Acts 1:11 )
and “many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hand of
the apostles” (Acts 1:12 ).
Luke writes in verses 13 and 14 that “none of the rest dared join them, but the
people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the
Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” The natural question is who are “they”
that dared not to join them? Tom Constable writes, “The ‘rest’ (Gr. hoi loipoi), probably the unbelieving
Jews, steered clear of the Christians because of the Jewish leaders’ opposition
(4:18) and the apostles’ power (vv. 1–10). The ‘people’ (Gr. ho laos Acts 5:14 ).
This implies that the believers in the church assembly were out among the
unbelieving people, living life in light of the gospel, and sharing the good
news of Jesus Christ with those around them, giving the opportunity for the
unbelievers to hear the Word and be saved (Rom. James 1:18 ).
It was not the invitation, catering, pandering, or language manipulation that
brought them to faith in Christ. It was Christians being edified (even through
the discipline of Ananias and Sapphaira) that cultivated a holy character and
harmonious fellowship among the brothers and sisters in the Jerusalem Church
which overflowed outside of their assembly to bring the unbelievers to eternal
life!
Pastorally, this
should not be an issue. Paul commands in Colossians 1:28 , “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and
teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in
Christ.” This is the mission statement of every pastor or church that has been
called by God to assemble. This is not something that finds its fulfillment in
a congregation that has allowed unbelievers into the local fellowship.
This invitation to
the lost to enter the church has helped serve the purpose of stifling
discipleship, and thus rendered the effectiveness, and even the responsibility,
for evangelism as only that of the pastor, instead of the congregation as a
whole. Ephesians 4:11-16
serves as a classic passage in understanding the biblical roles of the
pastor/teacher, as well as the body that makes up the local church. Paul writes
that the reason that pastor/teachers have been supplied by God to the church is
to “equip the saints for the work of ministry (which includes evangelism), for
building up the body of Christ (which consists of mutual edification and
discipleship).” Earl Radmacher explains, “To each individual member of the body
‘is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph. 4:7 ).’ Because of the sovereign
distribution of the gifts, every member is absolutely indispensible to the
function of the whole. Then, to the church are given specially gifted men (cf. Eph. 4:11 ) as a provision for
its spiritual increase. They are to equip the members, and the members are to
be actively engaged in carrying out the work of the ministry.”[21] Some
churches have hired their pastor for the purpose of evangelism, and have
forfeited the call to be equipped and to minister. This is shameful considering
that the potential of the church is limitless when she is walking in obedience
to the Lord! Sermons have been forced to pander to the lost in attendance,
hindering those who are saved and/or maturing from striving forward and working
out their salvation (Ph. 2:12). The end result is an ignorant church body who
attends church on Sunday, but the truth serves very little to guide their lives
on Monday.
The opportunities
for growing Christians to engage the culture with truth, love, and intelligence
could be limitless, and by having a biblical worldview, could help to serve the
Lord’s purposes in more effective ways. Nancy Pearcey writes, “Apologetics
involves not only defending the Christian faith but also critiquing other
faiths or worldviews. Part of the task of evangelism is to free people from the
power of false worldviews by diagnosing the points where they fail to stack up
against reality.”[22]
Imagining the
impact that a well-equipped, committed, prayerful church could have in taking
the gospel to their circles of influence creates a vision of effective,
servant-oriented ministry that is worth striving for! “Christ’s ministry sets
the pattern for the church’s mission,” writes Edward Hayes. “Jesus the
Sovereign came to serve (Matt.
20:28 ). The style of church mission is thus set firmly in a
servant mold. A servant church is in contrast to a church obsessed with its own
power. Following the explicit words of our Lord, the church is to be a
preaching, witnessing, caring, discipling church. There is no avoiding it:
Evangelism is the mission of the church. Sinners are not commanded to go to
church; the church is commanded to go to sinners.”[23]
It is not that the lost are not welcome in the church building; it is that they
are completely unrelated to the purposes at hand, and are unaffiliated with the
teachings being promoted. This is the reason that the gospel must go out in
those who are believers, so that the lost can be won to faith in Christ and
they can be brought in for the encouragement and nurturing of their faith,
being equipped to now take the gospel message to their circles of influence. Mal
Couch echoes these sentiments when he writes, “Going into homes with the
message of Christ may be the most effective way of witnessing. House evangelism
is personal, intimate, and probably more productive than simply passing out
tracts on the street corner. Paul practiced home evangelism. He told the
Ephesian elders that he was ‘teaching [them] publicly from house to house,
solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Acts
20:20-21 ).”[24] This
is the Bible’s church growth strategy.
V.
Why Does This Matter to the Free Grace Believer?
The
responsibility for sound discipleship has an even greater weight among those in
the Free Grace camp. While Calvinism and Reformed/Covenant Theology is really
Roman Catholicism in a “new dress,” and Arminianism has robbed the believer of
their assurance and essentially denied the finished work of Christ, those
holding to the Free Grace perspective are the only ones upholding the Truth of
the Scriptures and keeping the gospel unadulterated by works. With the
spreading influence of Lordship Salvation and the Reformed/Covenant ideology
taking over the Christian book publishers, faithfulness to sound discipleship
and the equipping of the saints is dire, not just to the survival of one’s
local church, but to the gospel as communicated in Scripture! Robert Wilkin
writes, “If a person holds to Lordship Salvation, then he doesn’t believe that
Jesus is the Guarantor of eternal life to everyone who simply believes in Him
for it. He believes that other things, such as commitment, obedience, and
perseverance, must also occur. Hence a person who believes in Lordship
Salvation, no matter how moral, does not believe the gospel.”[25] The issue
is crucial and the Free Grace camp has been given this privileged understanding
of God’s Truth for the purpose of equipping and edifying those around us for
the sake of reaching the lost within our circles of influence! We can not, in
clear conscience, with the understanding that has been granted by the Lord,
neglect this duty.
VI.
Conclusion
The
church is not an assembly that includes the unbeliever. It is a body of
regenerate people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. To postulate the
church as a place that accommodates the desires of lost people is to discredit
the very core of biblical doctrine regarding ecclesiology. By allowing for the church to capitulate in
this way, the truth has been compromised, the pulpit has become shallow,
commitment is down, entertainment is up, discipleship is lacking and numbers
are growing. The gospel gets lost in the mix, but the weekly antidotes of
clever public speakers bring a subjective sense that mars an objective truth.
The church was not meant for this abuse.
Instead, believers
are called to be equipped (Eph.
4:12 ), to go out (Matt.
28:19-20 ), and to live the Christian truth among a pagan world,
prepared to give an answer for the hope held by every believer in Christ (1 Peter 3:14-16 ). This is
the essence of the church’s mission. Bruce Metzger summarizes this
understanding succinctly: “The concept of ‘church’ belongs primarily to a
religious and not merely to a sociological or institutional dimension. As the
body of Christ and as the Messianic bride invited to participate in the gifts
of the Kingdom, the church is not merely a fellowship of persons of good will,
a purely voluntary association, a social club.”[26]
The church is the body of Christ, to be presented to Him “without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27 ).
[1] Lakewood Church
[2] Joel
Osteen, “What We Believe,” [on-line]; accessed 26 November 2012, available from
http://ww2.joelosteen.com/About/Pages/WhatWeBelieve.aspx.
[3]
IITim316, “Joel Osteen Says Jesus Christ is Not the Only Way,” YouTube Video,
1:03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwL1DThtxYg
(accessed November 26, 2012).
[4]
Apologetics Index, “Joel Osteen, Lakewood
Church : Largest, Fastest-Growing Megachurch
[5] Kate
Shellnutt, “Megachurches Getting Bigger; Lakewood Quadruples in Size Since
2000,” [on-line]; accessed 29 November 2012, available from http://blog.chron.com/believeitornot/2011/03/megachurches-getting-bigger-lakewood-quadruples-in-size-since-2000/.
[6] Philip
Yancey, “What Reveal Reveals:
Criticisms of Willow’s Latest Self-Study Do Not Undermine Its Value,”
[on-line]; accessed 27 November 2012, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/11.27.html.
[7] For an
excellent article regarding these trends and shifts, see Mal Couch, “The
Contemporary Music Scene,” Conservative
Theological Journal Vol. 8, (2004), 293-301.
[10] Ken
Silva, “Perry Noble’s New Spring Worship Band Rocks with Kiss,” [on-line];
accessed 10 December 2012, available from http://apprising.org/2012/08/29/perry-nobles-newspring-worship-band-rocks-with-kiss/.
[11] Perry
Noble, “A Letter From Pastor P to New
Spring Church
[12] John F. MacArthur, The Coming Evangelical Crisis. Ed. John H. Armstrong (Chicago:
Moody Press, 1996), 185.
[13] Doug
Murren, Leadershift. (Ventura, CA:
Regal Books, 1994), 48.
[14] Scott Newman, “The Scandal of Reason- Part II: A
Response to Post-Modern Evangelicalism,” Conservative
Theological Journal Vol. 2, (1998), 64.
[15] Barna
Group, “Self Described Christians Dominate America but Wrestle with Four
Aspects of Spiritual Depth,” [on-line]; accessed 27 November 2012, available
from http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/524-self-described-christians-dominate-america-but-wrestle-with-four-aspects-of-spiritual-depth.
[16] Brenda B. Colijn, “A Biblical and Contemporary Model
of Ministry,” Ashland Local Church
[19] This
author holds that the reason for tongues serving as a sign is because there was
no New Testament canon to aid in understanding the work of God, therefore God
used tongues as a sign to authenticate His work.
[20] Tom Constable, Tom
Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ac 5:13 .
[21] Earl D.
Radmacher, The Nature of the Church
(Hayesville, NC: Schoettle Publishing Company, 1996), 275-276.
[22] Nancy
Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Chrisitianity
from its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton ,
Illinois
[23] Edward L. Hayes, Understanding
Christian Theology. ed. Charles R. Swindoll and Roy B. Zuck (Nashville , TN
[24] Mal
Couch, A Pastor’s Manual on Doing Church
(Springfield , Missouri
[25] Robert N. Wilkin, Confident
in Christ: Living by Faith Really Works (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical
Society, 1999), 185.
[26] Bruce M. Metzger, “The Development of Institutional
Organization in the Early Church,” Ashland
