September 2018 Article – If We Can Just… The Worship of our own efforts to be church
Perhaps you have heard it stated: “The Church is one generation from ending”. The idea is that unless we teach our children the faith, unless we are active in mission and outreach and see to it that the church is growing, then the church can perish within the next generation.
Though we certainly are commanded by our Lord to instruct our children in the faith, and we are always to see that the Word of God is proclaimed faithfully, this statement/belief shows not only an amazing amount of arrogance and trust in our abilities, but far more an incredible lack of faith in our Lord Who has promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church! In the next section we are looking at in Pastor Jonathan Fisk’s book “Broken” he points out the very common, and very foolish efforts by many well-meaning Christians and denominations to try and “fix” the church, or make it more successful, survive and thrive, etc.
The thought is that the church is no longer the way Jesus intended it to be, and so it is up to “us” (whichever group of Christians that is in a certain place, time, setting, etc.) to try and start over, to get it right so it can be the church that God wants and He will bless it, etc. Fisk notes that this has been a long-standing practice in America:
It is the only real tradition of American Christianity: the perpetual quest for pure and perfect Church, the hunt for the truly Spirit-filled assembly of people that we can point to and say, "See! That is God's people." And we believe more firmly than any doctrine that this "Church" can be found only on the other side of our renovations to whatever the current church is.
Pastor Fisk does a pretty good job in this section of looking at several attempts over history to “get it right” – of how groups have thought that if they only got the right kind of structure for church government (hierarchy of apostolic succession; or congregational independence; or voters assembly; or everyone a minister; or having a mission statement; or it’s having small groups; or policy based, etc. etc.) or had the right kind of worship (sacrifice of the mass; or get rid of instruments; or maybe IfWeCan make the music more uplifting; IfWeCanJust get everyone to participate in worship, etc. etc.) or had the right kind of leader (IfWeCanJust get a charismatic leader; a good preacher; a good administrator, etc. etc.) THEN the mission could be accomplished.
Structure, liturgy, and person. When you break down the myriad of churchologies panhandling their mission of starting over and over again and again, they always come back to this same pattern of man-centered blunder. IfWeCanJust find the right way to organize. IfWeCanJust find the right way to worship. IfWeCanJust find the right person to bring the two together, to stand in front and convince us that our way is the authentic way, then we will be God's assembly. Then we will be the real Church!
IfWeCanJust
Fisk sums up this philosophy: IfWeCanJust: The belief that God's blessings for the Church can be received by us only after we have first done (you fill in the blank). IfWeCanJust, then, is nothing more than worship of ecclesiology, that is, the worship of our efforts to be Church. Or really – our “helping God” to “save His Church”.
BUT:
What if the Church isn't an organization at all? What if she isn't about human rituals so much as divine promises? What if she doesn't need a leader so much as pure preaching? If the churches are not gatherings of people in whom you find God, but the people gathered together because God has found them, called them, elected them, is gathering them with the spiritual working of His Word alone? What if the congregating of the saints happens only because God sends His Gospel and gifts to be rightly preached and given in that place? What if the true unity of the Church only needs this doctrine of the Gospel and giving of the Sacraments? What if all human traditions, all rites, all ceremonies, and institutions of men cannot add or detract from this reality? What if salvation is Jesus' work? What if His one Holy Church will continue forever, no matter what we do or don't do? Does the fact that there will always be many hypocrites and liars within the Church(es) in this life mean it isn't really the Church anymore? Or is it possible God's Word is God's Word and is not affected by reason or the institutions or commandments of men? What if God sent twelve men into the world with one command: If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. Baptize them into My name. Teach them My words. Trust Me on
this one. In this, I am with you always, especially when it doesn't look like it (John 20:23; Matthew 28:16—20; Colossians 3:3). Well said!
Yes, our Risen and Living Lord Jesus is with us. We need not ever fear little flock and members of the Church, the Body of Christ. Pastor Fisk puts it very well when he writes:
With all that's being said about the future of the Church, all the fear and mad attempts to stave off the apparent collapse of American Christianity, remember the Church's future has never been nor ever will be in the hands of men. This is the great riddle of the Church's history from day one: she lives! And she lives because He lives. "He is risen!" In Him, in simple childlike faith in Him, she has outlived the demise of ancient worlds, global transmigrations, and industrial revolutions. Are we so narcissistic as to believe that our age is so very different? The Church will live on… because that is the will of God. If God desires the Gospel to be preached among our children, then it WILL happen as surely the sun will rise tomorrow. So let us pray for it! We show a flabbergasting lack of faith in Jesus' ability to be our Savior when we laud visionary leaders who proclaim that without our adoption of this or that new technology, this or that strategy, this or that plan or opinion, then the Church shall surely perish.
What a comfort it is for us to know that our Lord is truly the Lord of His Church and that the gates of hell (and our own efforts) cannot prevail against the Church! The Lord is Lord of His Church, His Body, and He will always be with it and sustain it no matter what we do or don’t do. What comfort and assurance there is IfWeJust – trust.
Pastor
