Article 7: Worship by the Church

This article states that we need to pay attention to our worship. It affirms Word and Sacrament as the activities in which the people of God most profoundly encounter and are confronted with the risen Christ. Worship is not just something people do for God, but an encounter with God. This article speaks against a kind of "consumer" type of worship (worship that fills up our spiritual gas tank), or a worship built on attraction and pragmatism.


VII. Worship by the Church


"And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness." (Acts 4:31)
"'God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'" (John 4:24)


We believe the church's corporate worship joyfully binds hearts and minds together to praise, glorify, and honor the Triune God. In public worship, the Risen Christ through Word and Sacrament, the means that most profoundly reveal divine grace and truth, encounters the congregation. The centrality and substance of Word and Sacrament are the criteria by which worship is best evaluated.


We reject the assumption that the church's worship should be determined by the expectations of culture, the needs of individual worshipers, and the latest fads in religion. 

Article 6: Ministry of the Church

This article states that Word, Sacrament and Order are essential to church. Now I think there are creative ways in which these three are expressed. As the quote from Lumen Gentium suggests, the church, as a body called together by God, is a sign and instrument of the union of God and Creation. Christ's presence, in the form of both Word, Sacrament and Order, is the ministry of the church. All other practices flow from the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit in Word, Sacrament and Order.




VI. Ministry for the Church
"The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men [and women] in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." (Article XIII, Of the Church, The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church [2008]. Most churches have similar doctrinal statements.)
"The Church, in Christ, is like a sacrament -- a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity with all men [and women]." (Vatican II, Roman Catholic Church, Lumen gentium 1 [November 21, 1964])


We believe the Church is of God. The faithfulness of the church is made possible by God in Christ working through Word, Sacrament, and Order (including doctrine and morals). As shepherds who are servant leaders of the flock guided by the Holy Spirit, clergy through Word-and-Sacrament ministry serve the church in worship and life. Faithful laity, guided by the Holy Spirit, serve the Gospel in their places in the world, as well as in the church.


We reject the assumption that the ministry of the church, her leaders and people, should rely primarily on organizational, business, or political models, and that the church should preach, teach, and live in a way that seeks to remain culturally inoffensive. 

Article 5 Mission of the Church

This article is basically saying that the church's mission is to make disciples. This discipleship making is not easy and is not driven by "whatever works."  "Whatever works" begs the question of who defines what is working. Rather, the church is to not be afraid of discipline and obedience to its doctrine and teaching. Often times we think that in order to reach people we must be relevant. This article (and this pastor) is not interested in being relevant but being faithful. Now I understand that those things might not be diametrically opposed, but many times in an attempt to become relevant we forsake what makes us holy and separate from the world. In other words, maybe the whole point of church is to be not relevant to the world, but to be a kind of alternative to the world. A body of people continually calling others to be irrelevant to the world. 


V. Mission of the Church
"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.'" (Matthew 28:18-20)


We believe that the source of the Church's mission is the risen Jesus Christ. The church's mission has many dimensions (worship, evangelism, education, prophetic witness, service, and fellowship), but the mission itself is to "make disciples of all nations..." This mission requires Christian adults to lovingly lead children and youth in obeying Christ and in fulfilling His church's mission.


We reject the assumption that the church's mission is based on American pragmatism. Pragmatism in American Christianity is most often demonstrated today in the rush to offer religious goods and services, to increase institutional security, to adopt fashionable political formulas, and to bend the church's teachings to incorporate certain aspects of culture even when the Scriptures teach otherwise. 

New Baby Interlude

I figured I would take a short break from our march through the Pro Ecclesia Confession to give some details about the birth of our 3rd son.
We came into the hospital around 7am yesterday morning and had prayer with Rev. Stallsworth.  Syndi was in surgery just after 9am. Asher Bryant was born at 9:43am. He was 8lbs 3oz. 20in long.  He is doing very well along with his Mommy. We are both so happy and thanking God.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Mark

Article 4: Marks of the Church

Some context: This is article four of a confession on the nature of the church drafted by pastors and laity in our local community. 
In this article it may seem strange to reject diversity, pluralism and inclusivity, considering that this is the latest wave of church language. But the article does not out right reject this language only the idea the the church "is best defined by diversity, pluralism, and/or inclusivity." To be sure the church is diverse and inclusive but not at the expense of God's ability to transform lives. This simple means that the church does its best work, not when it flings its doors wide open, but when it seeks the transformation of humanity into the children of God. Christianity is demanding and includes discipline. This demanding discipline transforms the church into the people of God called to be in the world but not of the world. The article is trying to start a conversation that includes both God's love and justice. 


IV. Marks of the Church
"We believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church." (The Nicene Creed)
We believe the essential marks of the Church are: unity (see John 17:20-23), holiness (set apart
for God's purposes), catholicity (universality in faith, practice, and outreach), and apostolicity (message and mission traceable to the apostles). These marks, given by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-3), evidence the Church's faithful, attentive response to the gracious Headship of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:4-7).
We reject the assumption that the church is best defined by diversity, pluralism, and/or inclusivity. The radical hospitality of the church is not to be promoted by limiting or eliminating the transformative power of the Gospel that unifies and enculturates the church, and blesses the world. 

Holy Spirit

In the third article the Holy Spirit is affirmed as the sustainer of the church. As the Father calls the church into existence through the Son, the Holy Spirit sustains the life of the church. We spent some time discussing the phrase, "organic growth." What is trying to be conveyed is a sense of constant movement within the church as a whole. The church grows in many ways. All of those changes are connected with one another just as an organism grows as one being. Also we believe it is faithful to the language of Ephesians. 
While the Son builds the church the Holy Spirit guides the congregation. This article speaks implicitly against a pragmatism that suggests the program and direction of the church is guided by "whatever works." This article hopefully challenges our understanding of what works in the church. The church is always seeking guidance through prayer and worship, not through whatever new program claims results.


III. Holy Spirit: Sustainer of the Church
"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." (Acts 2:1,4a)
"...so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love." (Ephesians 4:14-16).


We believe the Holy Spirit gives steadying power, increasing faithfulness in love, and organic growth to the church. Since the first Day of Pentecost, God's Spirit has given life, structure, purpose, and direction to the church.


We reject the assumption that the church can measure her own faithfulness, determine her own identity, and set her own course, according to conventional wisdom. 

Article Two

Following the ancient creeds, article two of the confession speaks of the Son in relation with the gathered church. It is God's eternal Word spoken in the Son that builds the church. What is being rejected is our attempt to establish the church with our own efforts. Often when a church sees itself in crisis, such as dwindling membership, we try and safe guard ourselves and blame each other for the crisis. In these moments we often lack patience and hastily determine that we need a specific program or more relevancy to deflect the crisis (assuming that crisis is not part of God's grace). But the church's main construction is not based on our relevancy, rather the church is called together by God and receives its existence from the Son.
The article starts with the eternal Word, which is Christ Jesus. The Word is eternal therefore anything that is not grounded in the Word can "erode over time." 




II. Son: Builder of the Church
"'And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.'" (Matthew 16:18)
We believe the church receives life from God's eternal Word, and Jesus Christ builds the church by working through Spirit-driven, Word-and-Sacrament ministry transforming the Christian community and witnessing to the larger community.
We reject the assumption that the church builds herself by making herself appealing and attractive to the world -- in appearance, in program, and in preaching and teaching. When Jesus Christ is not the church's builder, what is put together in the name of the church is bound to erode over time.