Ignoring God's word at the cost of the church

An unfortunate church conflict

There has been a very public rift between a Brisbane Priest, his congregation and the Archbishop of the local diocese. The conflict demonstrates what happens when social agendas and concerns become the priority within a church, rather than the proclamation of Christ and worship of the living God.

Miranda Divine in the Sydney Morning Herald (26.2.09) offers an interesting perspective on the problems of St Mary's Catholic Church. For overseas readers and those who have missed the media reports in Australia, Father Peter Kennedy has been the priest at the church for 28 years and has a strong local following. Trouble is, Father Kennedy has become a law unto himself and has refused to conform to Catholic teaching. As a result, Archbishop John Bathersby has asked him to leave. Father Kennedy has refused and many parishioners have backed him rather than the archbishop.

The media have had a lovely time portraying the Catholic Church hierarchy as unfair in seeking to remove a man loved by his flock. In turn, it has portrayed the Archbishop as out of touch with contemporary needs. The supporters of Father Kennedy point to their raft of key social agendas, many of which seem to frame what is said in the pulpit. None of this seems to be influenced by Scripture or even the teachings of the Catholic Church. Miranda Divine characterises, perhaps too harshly (I'm not in a position to know firsthand), the battle as one between the Church and the Socialist left. She writes:

"I take my authority from the people," Kennedy told reporters. Not God? No wonder the Socialist Alliance loves him. Socialism regards religion as a "spiritual oppressor".....the 70-year-old Catholic priest.... has turned [the church] into a green-leftist New Age drop-in centre.

But lest you think she is only being critical of Father Kennedy, Miranda Divine suggests that perhaps the Archbishop of Brisbane has himself to blame:

While you can feel pity for Bathersby, the mess is his own making. Having tolerated Kennedy's antics for years, and having presided over the transformation of Brisbane into the most progressive and least disciplined archdiocese in the country, he can hardly be surprised by the result.

The purpose of church

It seems to me that the basis of the dispute between Father Kennedy and Archbishop Bathersby is at its very foundation a discussion about the purpose of the local church. It has arisen at St Mary's because of a neglect of the Bible's clear teaching on what church is for and a failure to grasp the centrality of the cross to Christian faith as more than simply an iconic image. In October last year I wrote a post (click here) that discussed the purpose of church. In the post I presented a summary of a useful paper developed by the Doctrine Commission of the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church that is relevant for the debate that St Mary's Church is having about its priest.

Father Kennedy seems to see the local church as a forum for inspiring and marshalling others for social action. While the Bible speaks of the need to redress injustice, to feed the poor, to care for widows and so on, such action is always subordinate to the glorification of God and the need to accept God's gift of grace through faith in, and obedience to, Christ. The Christian assembly is unique amongst human gatherings and is essentially those who have been called together by the gospel of Christ, who share in the Holy Spirit and who fellowship together. What unifies is a common faith, not a common cause. Our corporate meetings (in whatever form) have a vertical dimension (Godward), and a horizontal dimension (towards one another). Some call the corporate coming together 'worship', but this of course limits our understanding that all of life is in fact worship; and all in life is to be done to the glory of God. We meet for fellowship with one another and with God. While we know that Scriptures teach that we are always in fellowship or sharing with each other and God through the Spirit (Eph 2:18), the New Testament also speaks of a particular sharing or fellowship together in Christ in the assembly here on earth (John 17:20-23; 1 John 1:2-3).

People come together at church to grow in maturity and in knowledge of Christ. The assembly must always be moving forward and be in the process of being built (edified). This involves not just numerical growth, but growing in maturity and depth of faith in Christ (Eph 4:16; Col 2:19; 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Peter 2:5). The growth of the assembly involves the growth of individuals as well as their mutual relationships; we are "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted abd built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving" (Col 2:6-7).

The Christian assembly while giving testimony to God and welcoming non-believers, in the New Testament, is characteristically the fruit of evangelism, not its agent, nor its vehicle for social action. The gospel is proclaimed everywhere, not just in the assembly (1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Col 4:2-4; 1 Peter 3:15). The Christian assembly furthers the work of the gospel by building outward-looking mission-minded Christians who will do whatever they can to win others to Christ and will take the gospel to the world (1 Thess 1:8).

None of the above should be taken to mean that I am arguing against social action; readers of this blog and followers of CASE know how we urge people to engage with their world, to make a difference to our communities, and to reach out to and care for our 'neighbours'. However, St Mary's Church demonstrates what happens when the place of social action, and a desire to celebrate pluralism, supplants the cross of Christ as the centre-point of church teaching. There will always be diversity in the way we assemble together. Even in the case of St Mary's, I doubt that the unusual way that Father Brennan has chosen to run his services and deal with the sacraments, is the key bone of contention. The Christian assembly must always be ordered around hearing Christ's word and responding to it in faith, obedience and loving fellowship with God and each other.

The most important consideration week by week in the local church is to consider what God has done, what is he doing, and what he will continue to do through Christ. It should not be about what we can do for God, let along the community. Our gatherings should do three main things. First, they must always bear testimony to Christ and the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10), which is especially displayed as followers of Christ love one another with Christ-like sacrificial love (John 13:34; Eph 4:1-3; 5:1-20). This is a love born of the Spirit (Rom 15:30; Gal 5:22) and is the proof that we know God, have been given new birth and are obedient to the truth (1 John 4:7; 1 Peter 1:22). Second, they should offer an opportunity for rich fellowship demonstrated in confession, prayer, response to the Word, giving to others and the sacraments. Third, we should meet to be building maturity in Christ. The assembly is called into being through the word of God, and the same word dwells in and builds the assembly (Acts 20:32; Eph 4:15-16; Col 3:16). Hence, if the assembly is to grow and be built up, hearing the word of God is central. The world is littered with churches, and in fact whole denominations, that have withered and died as their focus has shifted away from Christ to themselves and the needs of others. This should not be a debate about social action or no social action; plurality or non-plurality; but rather, a right concern to honour the name of the God of the universe as we gather together.

Related links

Previous post on the purpose of Christian Assembly (click here)

You can read Miranda Divine's article here

A biblical theology of Christian Assembly

1. Australian Church of England Diocese of Sydney Synod 2008

As Anglican media has reported the 48th Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia Diocese of Sydney met this past week. The first three days had many highlights including a wonderful Presidential address by Archbishop Peter Jensen (you can view it here and read a report on it here) that he framed with testimonial words to the work of former Rector of St Barnabas Church Broadway R.B.S. Hammond ("The Need of the Word was on his heart") and James 1:22 (KJV) "Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only". There were also excellent sessions each day on the Diocese's strategy for evangelism, Connect 09. On Wednesday (Day 3) one of the most interesting sessions was the presentation of the Sydney Diocese Doctrine Commission report on "A Theology of Christian Assembly" (see Anglican Media report here). I want to focus on this item in this post.


2. A theology of Christian Assembly

Dr John Woodhouse (Principal of Moore Theological College) and Dr Mark Thompson (Academic Dean of Moore College) presented the report of the Doctrine Commission. Its purpose was to examine a Biblical theology of Christian Assembly using the Bible to re-establish a coherent understanding of large gatherings typically called 'church' or 'worship' to answer three questions:

• Why Christians meet together?
• When we meet, what is our gathering for and what good comes from it?
• On the basis of why we meet and what it is for, what ought we do when we meet?

Dr Woodhouse made it clear that the paper is not meant to be comprehensive and to answer all questions about worshiping together as a church. As the Anglican Media report indicates there was healthy tension in the room as the paper was debated and a level of disagreement that was managed by all in a godly way. Some were concerned that the report failed to give due consideration to the 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, others were concerned at the deliberate use of the word 'assembly' rather than 'church' or 'worship', and a few felt that the ideas gained from the experience of "missional church plants around the Diocese" should be considered. There was also a strong push to 'receive' the report rather than 'welcome' the report. As Phillip Jensen (Dean of the Cathedral) pointed out, simply "receiving" it was a 'good' way to make sure that the church doesn't act on it; simply noting that it's there and perhaps ignoring it. He urged Synod to 'welcome' it and act on it, for there is a great need in Anglican churches to rethink biblically why we meet together as we do. Some also questioned the lack of emphasis given to some things which they felt should be acknowledged more fully (e.g. the Sacraments).

As a participant at Synod I was struck by the fact that many seemed to miss the point of the Commission's report. It is not an attempt to attack more traditional styles of meeting together (church worship as they would stress), but rather to challenge all Anglicans to consider why they do the things they do when meeting together. In fact, the Chair of the Commission expressed the view that his greatest concern was with churches where there was greater informality. The report is not an attack on traditional Anglican Prayer Book services.

3. Key points in the report

The gathering of people together is not unique to Christianity, it is universal and stems from our created nature as relational beings in the image of God. To understand why Christians should assemble together we need to understand how they fit into God's "history-wide plan of God" and examine the biblical theology of worship as revealed by the whole of Scripture. In short:

a) What is the Christian assembly?

• Christ's assembly is built as people from all nations are gathered into it by the Word and the Spirit.
• Christ's assembly is heavenly, and will be revealed in the age to come, the new creation (Col 3:1-4; Rev 21:1-4; Rom 8:33-39; Rev 7:13-17).
• Christ's assembly is seen now in the assemblies of Christians (Eph 2; 2 Cor 1:21-22; Eph 3:6; Phil 2:1-2).
• Christian assemblies are markedly different from Old Testament assemblies because of the fulfilment of God's promise in Christ (John 2:19-22; Heb 7:11) and can take place anywhere and don't require a priest and any ritual, only Christ (John 4:21-24; Heb 8:1-6; 9:11-14; 10:19-23).
• Christian assemblies are not perfect representations of the heavenly and ultimate assembly. As such we should expect unbelievers to be present (1 Cor 14:23).
• The Christian assembly is unique among human gatherings and is essentially those who have been called together by the gospel and who share in the Holy Spirit and who fellowship together. This has a vertical dimension (Godward) and a horizontal dimension (one another).

b) What are the purposes for meeting together?

• The very fact of our gathering testifies to the gracious purposes of God; and "the manifold wisdom of God" is made known to "rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" (Eph 3:10) through the assembly of those who have access to the Father in Christ (Eph 3:12).
• We meet for fellowship with one another and with God. While we know that Scriptures teach that we are always in fellowship or sharing with each other and God through the Spirit (Eph 2;18), the New Testament also speaks of a particular sharing or fellowship together in Christ in the assembly here on earth (John 17:20-23; 1 John 1:2-3).
• For building toward maturity in Christ - The Christian assembly of people must be moving forward and be in the process of being built (edified). This involves numerical growth and growing in maturity and depth of faith in Christ (Eph 4:16; Col 2:19; 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Peter 2:5). The growth of the assembly involves the growth of individuals as well as their mutual relationships; we are "built to be edified" (Col 2:6-7).
• The Christian assembly while giving testimony to God and welcoming non-believers, in the New Testament, is characteristically the fruit of evangelism, not its agent. The gospel is proclaimed everywhere, not just in the assembly (1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Col 4:2-4; 1 Peter 3:15). Proclaiming the gospel for the purpose of the conversion of others is not the primary purpose of Christian assembly, rather it will further the gospel work by building outward-looking mission-minded Christians who will whatever they can to win other to Christ and will take the gospel to the world (1 Thess 1:8).

c) What should assembled Christians do?

A key starting point for answering this question is that the Christian assembly should realise that "the most important aspect of the meeting is what God does rather than what we do"; God is not a passive observer of our assemblies, Jesus promised to be present with us when two or three are gathered in his name (Matt 18:20). Neither is he silent, his voice is heard as the words of Scripture are read (1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Cor 13:3). What we do together should flow directly from God's purposes for the gathering. Such gatherings should do many things:

First, they should be a testimony to Christ. The assembly is a testimony to the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10), which is especially displayed as followers of Christ love one another with Christ-like sacrificial love (John 13:34; Eph 4:1-3; 5:1-20). Such love is born of the Spirit (Rom 15:30; Gal 5:22) and is the proof that we know God, have been given new birth and are obedient to the truth (1 John 4:7; 1 Peter 1:22). This is also achieved through the Sacraments; for example, the sharing of the Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11:20) is a testimony to fellowship in Christ (1 Cor 11:26).

Second, we meet for fellowship. As Christians meet together much of what we do will be a sharing together in the fundamental Christian response to God in Christ. For example, we will:

• share in confession (Rom 10:9-10; 1 Cor 12:3; 1 John 4:2)
• pray for each other (James 5;15; Acts 4:23-31), for the progress of the gospel (2 Thess 3:1) and for all people (1 Tim 2;1) in the light of the coming kingdom (Matt 6:9-13).
• respond in praise and thanksgiving (Eph 1:3-14; 5:19-20; 1 Cor 14:16; Phil 3:1; 4:10) and in practical ways, for example sharing news with one another, commissioning and sending members out for the gospel (Acts 4:23ff; 14:27ff; 21:17ff; Acts 13:3; 15:4; 18:27-28; 20:1-3; 17ff; 21:5-6).
• demonstrate generosity of all kinds individually and collectively (1 Cor 16:2; 2 Cor 8:9), including supporting those who bring the word of God to us (1 Cor 9:1-12; 1 Tim 5:17-8).

Third, we meet to be build maturity in Christ. The assembly is called into being through the word of God, and the same word dwells in and builds the assembly (Acts 20:32; Eph 4:15-16; Col 3:16). Hence, if the assembly is to grow and be built up, hearing the word of God is central. The early Christians "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching" (Acts 2:42), to the "public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching" (1 Tim 4:13; Col 4:16; 1 Thess 5:27). As we meet together we also speak the word of God to one another (1 Thes 4:18; Heb 3:13), and we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15-16). Paul also commends the fellowship in Eph 5:19 to sing "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" (speaking God's words melodically). All these things are for building the church (1 Cor 14:26). Assembled Christians "..build the assembly by prayerfully proclaiming God's word, and by encouraging and exhorting one another to respond to the word in repentance and faith, to persevere in the hope to which we are called, to love and serve one another, and grow in godliness as we wait for the coming Day of the Lord" (Heb 3:13).

The Commission report ends by affirming that there will be diversity in the way we assemble together, and that the purpose and theology of the Book of Common Prayer should be retained. In spite of diversity, the Commission calls on every Christian assembly to be ordered around hearing Christ's word and responding to it in faith, obedience and loving fellowship with God and each other. Every assembly it urges should include the speaking and hearing of the word of God, and a shared response to it of prayer and thanksgiving. The assembly should be shaped by "theologically-driven care and thought" and should not be designed to interest, entertain, attract or intrigue non-Christians. This is not their purpose. The purpose is to be intelligible for Christians attending and authentic to the realities of human life in this sufferieng world. If it does this it will be the kind of assembly that welcomes outsiders, and is intelligible and edifying for all.


Previous posts on the purpose of the Christian assembly

I have written previously about the purpose of worship in the Christian assembly here and here.

The purpose of Corporate Worship - Part 2

In a recent post provocatively titled "Preaching the Word, Not Presenting Entertainment" I pointed readers to an interview with R.C. Sproul about the problems with 'seeker services'. Sproul suggests that such services are based on a wrong understanding of the purposes of corporate worship, as well as the motives of unbelievers in coming to church. In commenting on this I suggested that:

Church services are events where believers come together corporately as part of their all of life worship of God. These events will include instruction from God's word, edification of God, the Lord's Supper, sharing our lives, confessing our sins, praising God, prayer, singing etc. The core and foundation of this worship together will be the preaching of the word! The hope is that, as 'strangers' share in this, they will be convicted by the Holy Spirit and place their faith in Christ.

I want to follow up this topic as one post hardly does it justice. In the process I also want to point to some other resources that people might find helpful in thinking through the topic, including one that a reader of this Blog suggested in response to the last post.

In a helpful article on Evangelistic Worship Tim Keller (Senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan) suggests that while there are at least 9 models of corporate worship in Protestantism alone, most fall into two dominant categories - historic (HW) and contemporary (CW). He suggests that advocates of CW are guided by the Bible and contemporary culture, while advocates of HW advocates look to the Bible and historic tradition. Instead, he suggests we would do better if we gave consideration to the Bible, the cultural context of our community and the historic tradition of our church.

What Keller seems to be suggesting (although not explicitly), is that in arguing about the best way for churches to engage in corporate worship, it is just as easy for HW advocates to be driven by tradition as it is for CW advocates to be driven by contemporary culture. In each case, corporate worship is impoverished.

Keller argues that church evangelism relies on believers seeking to encourage unbelievers with whom they have a relationship to attend church activities, including services. Our hope is obviously that we will see unbelievers commit to Christ either during the services through varied forms of invitation and response (e.g. as part of the Lord’s Supper) or after the service through other meetings, small groups and follow-up of various forms.

For this to happen, Keller argues that we need to make corporate worship comprehensible to unbelievers while not losing sight of the ultimate purpose of our coming together. The purpose of the church service he argues from the Scriptures is NOT to make the unbeliever "comfortable"; in fact, in I Cor. 14:24-25 or Acts 2:12 and 37 we see that they are cut to the heart! As I argued in my last post, services are primarily opportunities for the corporate worship of Christians; but as Christians we should expect (and want strangers) to attend. Hence church services need to be intelligible to unbelieving hearts (1 Cor 14:25). Keller suggests that we can achieve this in a number of ways. His points follow with a number of qualifiers from me.

a) Worshiping and preaching in the "vernacular" – avoiding “ghetto-ized” language that can shut unbelievers out. Avoiding sub-cultural jargon and showing respect and sympathy for unbelievers.

b) Explaining the service as you go along - while not wanting a running commentary Keller suggests that it is helpful to give 1 or 2 sentence, non-jargon filled explanations of each new part of the service. This he suggests is how we instruct newcomers to corporate worship.

c) Directly addressing and welcoming unbelievers – Keller suggests we should talk directly at times to unbelievers, for example "those of you who aren't sure you believe this, or who aren't sure just what you believe."

d) Considering quality aesthetics – While the ‘art’ must never be the focus, Keller suggests that the power of art draws people to behold it. He argues that the quality of music and speech in worship will have a major impact on its evangelistic power.

e) Celebrating deeds of mercy and justice – Keller suggests that effective churches will be so involved in deeds of mercy and justice that outsiders will say, "we cannot do without churches like this” and hence they will want to be involved. Again, social justice is not the focus of church, but for many unbelievers, this is their focus. So to make them aware that the church is concerned with justice, and that the Bible teaches about a God of justice who expects justice from and for his people, is important.

f) Presenting the sacraments so as to make the gospel clear – Keller believes that baptism, especially adult baptism, should be made a much more significant event if worship is to be evangelistic. As well the Lord’s Supper should confront every person with the question "are you right with God today? Now?"

g) Preaching grace - the message that both believers and unbelievers need to hear is that salvation and adoption are by grace alone. The teaching of God’s word must always come back to this central message centred on Christ.

There are many other helpful places to go if you'd like to explore this topic further. Tony Payne conducted a helpful interview with Don Carson for the Briefing some seven years ago in which Carson shares his perspective of the way he sees corporate worship. Some of Carson's thoughts in this interview as well as those of Tim Keller, Mark Ashton and Kent Hughes were subsequently published in a book titled Worship by the Book. The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship also has a number of helpful practical pieces on various topics and aspects of corporate worship. While I'm not prepared to recommend all the material on these links there is some very good and practical material for people who lead church services, for example:

hospitality as part of worship;
justice and worship;
evangelism and worship.


As the Westminster Shorter Catechism prompts - What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever - our corporate meeting together at church, like our worship in all parts of our life, needs to glorify God and demonstrate our thankfulness and praise of him. As in the rest of life, the focus is on glorifying God, not the wooing of seekers or our own needs. Such meetings together should be inspired by, shaped and based on God's truth taught in the Scriptures, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and centred on the possibility of salvation through faith in Christ and by God's grace.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:7-9

Such grace, mercy and love should inspire believers to be lost in wonder, love and praise. Our hope is that as strangers gather with us, that through the power of the Holy Spirit they might be convicted of their need of salvation as they share in Christian corporate worship.

Postscript

See other posts on worship and Christian assembly here and here

Preaching the Word, not presenting entertainment

I took this photo when I returned to Indiana (USA) in 2005 where I lived with my family in 1984 while doing postdoctoral research at Indiana University. This small Mennonite Church had at least one thing right. Churches are to expect strangers. But I also want to suggest in this post that their task is not to transform themselves so that strangers will feel immediately at home.

As someone who writes a Blog devoted to apologetics and the presentation of Christian truth to others, I'm keen to discuss how the church can do this better. I have always felt that transforming church services into events that non-Christians would be happy with is not the way to go and have argued against this approach in every church I have attended. Even though, I visited one of these churches as an atheist at age 31 and in just 3 weeks believed in the claims of Jesus.

I'm grateful to Puritan Lad for pointing to this YouTube exchange between RC Sproul and Al Mohler on the problems with the Seeker Sensitive service. It supports my view on the matter (and we all like to have our views supported!) but there is wisdom here. RC argues that the thinking behind such services is fundamentally wrong as the concept misses the point of the purpose of the church service, as well as the purpose for which 'seekers' come to church. He argues that seekers don't come to church seeking Christ but rather trying to escape pain, looking for peace, happiness, wanting voids in their lives filled etc. Sproul is not suggesting that we lose interest in evangelism. Rather he suggests that the priority is not providing services that cater to what seekers see as their needs. Instead, church services are events where believers come together corporately as part of our all of life worship of God. These events will include instruction, edification of God, the Lord's Supper, sharing our lives, confessing our sins, praising God, prayer, singing etc. The core and foundation of this worship together will be the preaching of the word! The hope is that as 'strangers' share in this they will be convicted by the Holy Spirit and place their faith in Christ.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12).

Trusting in the power of God's word rather than human techniques and strategies is the answer. As Al Mohler says in the video, churches that miss this point will have much bigger back doors than front doors. Hopefully when strangers visit our churches the preaching of the Word of God in the power of the Spirit will make them feel uncomfortable enough to seek God's truth and accept Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Postscript

See later posts on worship and Christian assembly here and here