Theology Thursday: Faith in the Church

From Paul, to Calvin, to Edwards, we see people wanting to be in the church. When these men enforce biblical restrictions on membership, they find themselves on the defense (or in another city). One aspect of these lessons from church history and the letters to the Corinthians is that people desperately wanted to be “in the church.” They knew that being a Christian meant being a part of his body, there was possibility of going it alone.

 Our situation is different because we have a marketplace of churches, and because of the market, we can require churches to conform to us, instead of the other way around. Because the city can be a temporary place for a lot of people, BBC wants to give disciples a good philosophy of church life, so that if they leave, they will know how to quickly integrate into a healthy church somewhere else. Here are three things to consider:

 The church is a place of authority and teaching.

Community is a good thing, but community is a natural result of people agreeing about the same goals. The emphasis on preaching and teaching, that we’ve clearly seen in church history, is the building up of the saints so we can think and act in unity. We believe that the Scriptures are truly God’s authoritative, inerrant, infallible communication to us, so it makes sense that we spend a great deal of time listening and understanding that Word.

 The church can be boring.

Just like family life, church is not a burst of excitement every week. You’re dealing with ordinary people and ordinary needs, like cleaning and moving those chairs around. You must have faith to see the long-term effects of a being an ordinary, faithful member. It’s a rare thing to find a faithful, all-in, church member, but that’s what is needed.

 The church is way more important than you think it is.

Yes, there are way more exciting things, such as mission boards and camps, but all these organizations depend on the ordinary local church. That’s where people, over time, mature and become the people who can serve in those ministries. The church is the only organization that is specifically prescribed in the New Testament, it is the only one that is truly the body of Christ, and we must believe that our faithfulness there will produce long-term fruit.