Why a Discussion on the Church?

By Mark Roberts

Part 2 of series: What is a Church? Biblical Basics for Christian Community

This is the second post in a series I'm calling: What is a Church? Biblical Basics for Christian Community. Yesterday I explained that I'm planning to answer this question from a biblical point of view, though without denying the value of church tradition and Christian experience. I believe that, in the end, however, Scripture is the most authoritative guide for matters of faith and practice, including questions of ecclesiology (the study of the church).

One additional point of clarification might be helpful here. Notice that I'm asking "What is a church?" rather than "What is the church?" I'm more concerned in this series about the nature of a particular Christian community than the whole configuration of Christians throughout the world and/or throughout the cosmos. Of course these issues of local church/global church are interrelated. But my primary focus is on an individual Christian community, a church, if you will, rather than the church.

Why This Series?

I'm taking on this series at this time for a variety of reasons. Mostly it is an outgrowth of my ministry as pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church. In fact, I plan to use this series as a resource within my own church, especially as I teach our new members classes and as I work with my leaders. I'm finding that folks often have differing visions of what a church should be, and that these differences can be either enriching of our corporate life or debilitating, or both. If, for example, people join our church with a particular image of what a church should be, but it turns out that we are not what they had imagined, then it's likely they will become disillusioned and start looking for another church that offers what they want. Nobody wins when this happens. If, on the other hand, members of my church have a clear, common vision of what a church is, then their experience will be more positive. If our leaders share this vision together, then our church will be healthy and growing in the right direction.

As I write this series, there are lots of competing visions of the church in the marketplace of religious ideas. Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Church has had a major impact on Christian thinking about the church, not to mention the practice of individual churches. This book has helped thousands of churches clarify their mission and focus more intentionally upon it. Younger Christians (and a few not so younger ones) tend to be influenced more by an amorphous configuration of ideas and practices known as "the emergent church" or "emerging movement" or something like this (see, for example, The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball or Scot McKnight's excellent collection of blog entries on The Emerging Movement). Of course there are dozens of other visions of the church floating around in the Christian atmosphere, ranging from home-based Pentecostal communities to more traditional churches that emphasize Reformed theology and the regular administration of the sacraments. Moreover, many evangelical Christians continue to be drawn to more liturgical churches of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic variety. Talk about a wide range of perspectives on the church!

Then you can throw into the mix the crises in which many of the well-established American denominations find themselves, including my own, the Presbyterian Church USA. Though our potentially-schismatic squabbles don't have to do primarily with the nature of the local church, they have touched upon this issue, especially with respect to who actually owns the property of a particular church. Many Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and others have been asking what it means for a local church to be connected to a larger body of believers. Is this essential? Or optional? Should such connections ever be broken? And if so, when? Though I don't intend to address these questions much in this series, they do loom over this investigation to some extent.

I determined to do an extended series on the question "What is a church?" a couple of weeks ago. Since we at Irvine Presbyterian Church need to focus again on the biblical basics of Christian community, I figured this might be true of other Christians and churches also. This hunch was confirmed today by an article on the Christianity Today website . The title of this article reads, "What's Next: Local Church." The subtitle explains: "We asked 114 leaders form 11 ministry spheres about evangelical priorities for the next 50 years. First up: Fresh basics for the local church." There you have it: fresh basics for the local church! So it appears that a series on biblical basics for the local church might in fact be helpful to others outside of my own church.

I'm particularly eager to help well-meaning Christians overcome some of the confusion they feel about what the church should be. Even in one particular church, even among leaders who share a common heart for Christ and a common commitment to Scripture, you'll find a wide range of visions of a church. Some of these visions are derived from Scripture and to that extent are helpful. Others come from a wide variety of other sources. In my next post I want to consider where people get their ideas of what a church should be.