The Church
(a) Its nature and mission
The church is the community (ekklesia) of followers of Jesus who live in reconciled fellowship with God and each other. The church is the community that remembers, retells, and embodies the salvation story.
The primary mission of the church is to worship the Triune God (Rev. 4:11). The church exists primarily to encounter and live in communion with God. The encounter is most fully actualized through communal worship. The church assembles to proclaim, remember, embody, and give thanks for God and God’s work (Rom. 16:27; Rev. 4:11).
The secondary mission of the church follows the missio dei, or the mission of God. God’s mission encounters the world through Jesus Christ to make right what is wrong. God is reconciling the world back to Godself (2 Cor. 5:19). Therefore, because we participate in God’s communal life we participate in mission. The church is ontologically missional. The church reaches out to care for the world, promote justice, witness to Christ, and reveal an alternative community. The church is called out to reach out.
(b) The significance of the ordinances
The church has two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which remembers, retells, and enacts the death and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism is the rite of initiation into the community through public profession of faith and immersion in water. The burden of baptism is upon the church, because baptism was given by Jesus to the church to administer (Mt. 3:13, 28:19). The church is the principle actor to ensure that the baptismal candidate confesses Jesus and is serious about his/her belief. The candidate is to be at such an age that he/she can willfully confess Jesus as Lord. The candidate is then to be immersed in water to convey the rich symbolism of death and resurrection.
The Lord’s Supper is the other ordinance instituted by Jesus (Mk. 14:22). It is a corporate meal that nurtures faith, retells the story of Jesus’ death, and points to the future resurrection hope. It also demonstrates God’s providential care for God’s people.
The Lord’s Supper was originally a full meal (agape meal/love feast) (1 Cor. 12), and it would benefit the contemporary church to regain this practice. It would build community, strengthen one’s faith, and provide physical and spiritual sustenance.
Any confessing Christian can administer the ordinances, although special privilege should be given to the local church community for the sake of order.
(c) The meaning of the ministry
Ministry is the task of all believers. It is not reserved for a certain group or person, but is the duty of all who profess faith in Jesus. Jesus commissioned his followers to “make disciples” (Mt. 28:19) and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39). The task of ministry is to reach out genuine love to serve the world and witness to Jesus. Ministry should concern itself with “reaching out to the least of these” (Mt. 25:40) and “loving one another” (Jn. 13:34-35).
The task of the ordained, local church minister is to empower the local congregation to fulfill this mission. The minister is the servant of the congregation.
Authenticity is the mark of any minister (ordained or otherwise). Ministry should naturally flow from one who is authentic in his/her own walk.
(d) Apologetic for local church membership
Church membership consists of regenerate baptized Christians. This type of membership is most evident in the New Testament witness of Acts 2:41. There we see that those who repented and were baptized were “added to their [the church’s] number.” Those “added” to a local church’s “number” are those who repent, are baptized, and confess that Jesus is Lord. Membership into a local church community is a serious matter that should not be taken lightly.
(e) The church & society
The church does not exist in a vacuum, it exits in the world (society). Therefore, the church must respond to the world. Some contend that Christian’s must retreat from the world for fear of being badly influenced (e.g. the Amish), while others see little distinction between the church and culture (e.g. German Christian leaders during the Third Reich). Jesus teaches that neither extreme is good (Mt. 15:11; Lk. 12:30; Jn. 15:19). In line with Jesus Paul says that the church is to be “in the world, but not of the world” (Rom. 12:2). The church must exist somehow in the world. But how?
The church is an alternative and pioneering community that embodies the kingdom message that witnesses to the world of new life in Christ. As John Howard Yoder said, “Not only are there lessons for the outside world from the inner life of the Christian church as a society; a comparable creative impulse should radiate from the church’s service to the larger community. The most obvious examples would be the institutions of the school and the hospital, both of which began in Christian history as services rendered by the church … to the entire society. The witness of the church to the state much be consistent with her own behavior…” (Christian Witness to the State, 19-21). The church is to embody its own message, because it is itself a polis. The church does not coerce society to faith in Jesus, nor it does not exist to establish a theocracy or to make the gospel credible to the world, although it should translate its message, but it is itself the alternative community (society) whose witness should work for the common good. The church witnesses to what is (or should be!).
(Matt. 16:18; Acts 1:18; John 6; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23-27; 1 Thess. 2:14)
Eschatology
History is the canvas on which God paints the salvation narrative. However, history, as we know it, will end and the narrative will reach fulfillment and God’s people and God shall live in full community.
I believe that Christ will return, this current earth will pass away, the new Jerusalem will descend from heaven (Rev. 21:1-3), God’s people will be raised from the dead, and they and God will live in community for all eternity. I believe “The time is near” (Rev. 22:10), but make no prediction from when this happens. The church is to be ready for Christ’s return at any moment.
Christ’s bodily resurrection was the first fruit of our resurrection. The bodily resurrection is the Christian’s hope for life after death. Our current bodies will be changed into a “spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44).
God’s judgment already rests upon those who have rebelled against God (2 Peter 2:4), but there will be a final judgment (Mt. 25:41) in which the church will participate (1 Cor. 6:3). The judgment will vindicate God’s authority and the believer’s faith.
Those who confess Jesus is Lord and live an obedient life will live in the new creation where God is the ruler de facto, and all who dwell there will live in the fullness of a reconciled community among each other and God.
