The Great Commission, the Core of Our Ecclesiology (Part Two)

The Great Commission, the Core of our Ecclesiology (Part two)

By Jay Wegter and Shane Haffey

In part one of this article, we saw that at the heart of a biblical ecclesiology is the Great Commission. For the intent of the life of the Body is to make, and mature disciples of Christ. Thus, the spiritual fellowship between the members of Christ’s Body exists to make Christ’s character ‘visible’ by the mutual exercise of spiritual gifts. Thus, when collectively pursuing the knowledge of Christ, maturity in Him, and the stature of Christ, it is only natural by this design that mutual edification results in discipleship (Eph 4:13). For our fellow members of the Body are Christ’s agents and instruments for our sanctification and growth. Therefore, it is vital to a biblical ecclesiology that we grasp the communal nature of the church.

To fulfill the Great Commission the local church must seek an ‘every member’ ministry (1 Cor 12:6-7; Col 2:19).

To be clear, an ‘every member ministry’ is defined as the intentional exercise of one’s gifts and abilities for the building up of the fellow members of Christ’s Body. Each believer is a steward of God’s grace appointed to build with Christ so that each member will ultimately be presented as spiritually mature (Col 1:28-29). We are entrusted with a spiritual gift which is to be employed in serving the Body of Christ. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet 4:10-11). “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly, . . .” (Rom 12:6). Believers need to develop the habit of regarding themselves as Christ-appointed agents of change—as instruments in the Redeemer’s hands. “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph 4:7).

Each believer has a crucial part to play in the discipleship ‘growth continuum’: gifted men equip; members of the Body are to minister; as each joint supplies = it results in growth from God (Eph 4:16; Col 2:19). Every member is to contribute to the nurture of disciples—every member is called to invest in disciple-

making. “. . .but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph 4:15-16).

Every Christian, without exception, has received a spiritual gift, designated as “the manifestation of the Spirit” (1 Cor 12:7). “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:4-7). Spiritual gifts are specified ‘the manifestation of the Spirit’ because their exercise reveals the Holy Spirit and makes known the reality that the Body of Christ is a divinely created community—animated by Christ the Lord. “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you” (1 Cor 14:24-25).

To fulfill the Great Commission, we must regard disciple-making to be the priority of the church.

Disciple-making is the calling of the entire Body of Christ. A true disciple of Christ is a disciple-maker. The teaching that Christ’s disciples are to do, reproduces what Christ has done in them. “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Lu 6:40). “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also” (Jn 15:19-20).

As disciple-makers, we major in the gospel which keeps growing people after initial salvation. “Just as you learned it [the gospel] from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” (Col 1:7-12).

We edify one another with the confidence that the Spirit is at work through every stage of growth in the disciple. The gospel by which we were saved is the source of being built up daily. “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth” (Col 1:5-6).

Jesus commissions His disciples to make disciples of all the nations.

In the Great Commission passage, the main verb is not ‘go’—instead the emphasis is on the command ‘make disciples’. “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Mt 28:18-20). The subordinate participles are ‘hanging’ upon the command ‘make disciples’. The sense is make disciples—going (or as you go) baptizing and teaching. Baptizing, and teaching Christ’s followers to observe Christ’s commands is how disciples are to be made.

Teaching obedience to Christ’s commands through personal instruction, admonishment, soul care, and example is the heart of disciple-making (1 Thess 2:5-14). It is inescapably clear that this is the ecclesiology our Lord intends, this is the biblical doctrine of the church. But where do we find this consistently taking place in the overall landscape of the Western church?

Is it possible for an Evangelical church to have a heretical ecclesiology?

Yes, states John Stott, “Our static and inflexible self-centered structures are heretical structures because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church.” “Our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world. It is a heretical structure.” The theologian’s point is this, in defaulting to an unbiblical ecclesiology the church becomes unhinged from its mission as declared by Christ. To elucidate further, Paul Zahl states that the church in principle is in its ideal expression the coming together of two realities: the cross of Christ and Christian freedom. These two ideas jointly create families of love repeatedly through time. Thus, to overestimate church as a value in itself is to objectify the non-objectifiable and thus to possess that which can never be possessed.ⁱ

Zahl’s needed reminder is that the church is created, sustained, and defined by the gospel. Christ is the church’s living directing Head. When the church in any way is detached from Christ its Author, Director, and life Source, she begins dying an institutional death.ⁱⁱ So entrenched is the passing down of traditional ecclesiology, most staff pastors have not entertained the question about the possibility of a heretical one. Yet an unquestioned commitment to revered structures tends to cast a veil over the practical outworking of one’s ecclesiological convictions. The consequences are not small, for the mutual life of the Body gets smothered when religious forms supplant the biblical functions of the church.

When ministry is defined by a hierarchal grid, a reigning hyper-structuralism is the result.

When hyper-structuralism becomes the philosophy of ministry, by nature it chokes out not only the life of the Body but also the transcendence of Christ as Head of the Body. Christ as the Head of the Body supplies what the Body needs to be conformed to His image (Rom 8:28-30; Eph 4:15-16; Col 2:19). Today’s popular ecclesiology adopted across denominational bounds is a form of religious institutionalism. In an institutional structure members are strategically placed into a particular area of influence, given titles, and often a job description. This is called “ministry.” This is so commonly accepted as normal and positive; it is seldom ever questioned. Yet, if ministry is something that is defined, organized, and controlled by a small select group of men then how is it that Christ is expected to be the Head of each individual member? Has Christ given His dimension of control to the office of elder?

Is it possible that professionalizing the pastorate has usurped Christ’s role and program as Chief disciple-maker? Is the gulf that exists between clergy and laity something that brings honor to Christ emphasizing His Lordship over His Body? Will each member be brought to full maturity when so much control is exercised by staff pastors? It is not the intent of the present authors to blister clergy. Our hearts go out to the countless faithful men who have inherited a hyper-structural ecclesiology. And, it goes without saying that examining a church’s ecclesiology with a willingness to change biblically is a daunting task.

Admittedly, great courage is needed when challenging an ecclesiology that cannot be defended from Scripture. For traditional ecclesiological structures are ubiquitous. In most Protestant churches there is virtually no participation in the service from anyone that does not have a title. Every designated area is identified, defined, and managed by hierarchy. Members are placed in roles much like in any secular organization. Even the curriculum and content of small group meetings are often generated and managed by staff pastors. Events, guest speakers, and children’s ministries are often all controlled by staff. This leaves very little room for the Body to function under Christ’s rule. Unless we are to assume that Christ’s control is mediated by staff pastors and elders. But that would be a leap unsupported by Scripture.

How did the Great Commission slip from view, reaching a point wherein disciple-making came to be viewed as elective for Christians?

Church became a spectator event; members relinquished their roles as evangelists and disciple-makers. Everything became consumer easy and comfortable. Evangelism was left to the pastoral staff—the norm became, bring the unsaved to church to hear the gospel. Let the paid staff do the discipleship via church programs. But what does Scripture say? Believers are to do the work of evangelism; we go where the unsaved are, outside of the church rather than attempting to bring unbelievers to the church to be evangelized. In the biblical pattern true believers attend church to be discipled and to disciple one another (Rom 15:14). And in building up believers, members discover what it means to carry the DNA of a disciple-maker. Just as a small tree seed carries the DNA of multiplication—the potential to make an entire forest, so also, a true Christ-follower possesses the spiritual DNA to reproduce himself spiritually. Are these biblical truths inherent and central in your church’s ecclesiology? If not, why not?

Consider that a majority of church members have never been personally challenged along the lines of Christ’s command to make disciples. Why has disciple-making become the exception? The narrow way described by Jesus is not ‘the higher spiritual life’; it is the way of life and salvation. The way Jesus described has no spectators, no passengers, and no consumers. Every true believer is a disciple and a disciple-maker who pursues relationships of closeness to reproduce godliness by means of obedience to Christ’s commands (Lu 6:40). This is what Christ meant when He said a true disciple ‘denies himself’ and ‘loses his life for His sake and for the sake of the gospel’ (Mk 8:35).ⁱⁱⁱ

Christ clearly and fully lays out the terms of discipleship—namely that living the life of a disciple is how we follow Him. A true believer is a Christ-follower who seeks to obey the Lord Jesus Christ in everything—in unconditional surrender to His rightful Lordship. This is what it means to be a true believer. This begs the question, has a believer accepted certain truths, or an actual Christ?ⁱᵛ For a disciple is both a learner and a follower. He is called to a life of self-denial. This removes all middle ground and sets forth what a commitment to Christ looks like.

But, where the Great Commission no longer defines a church’s ecclesiology, it is unavoidable that its knowledge of Christ will suffer. For Christ Himself becomes captive to that assembly’s heretical ecclesiology. Consequently, the church turns in on itself and becomes non-missional when it is detached from Christ’s design for the life of the Body. In such a condition, the church shrinks Christ’s authority while enlarging its own, so that any challenge to its policies is considered challenging God.ᵛ

Prepare for a shock; there is no scriptural basis suggesting that early church gatherings were to be strictly conducted by a pastoral staff.

The evidence is to the contrary. Christian meetings were oriented with full body participation in mind. Perhaps the best view of the inner workings of these meetings is found in First Corinthians chapter 14. In that chapter Paul envisioned how these gatherings should look.ᵛⁱ Building up one another in an orderly manner is the central thrust of Paul’s instruction. Apparently, there was an abundance of eager participation from the church at Corinth, and so much so that it became much like a free for all. Everyone was talking at once, women were engaged in leadership roles, and various languages employed without interpretation (v. 23).

Since the meetings were anything but orderly and edifying, a few ground rules were necessary. First, reduce the use of tongues and employ them for their specific purpose. The word for tongues here is glossai (Grk.) which means languages. Their value in edifying the gathering required their interpretation (vv. 27-28). Next, women are not to exercise their physical tongues when the church gathers (vv. 34-35). This instruction was theological in honoring male headship in the family, yet also served a practical purpose by reducing the amount of chatter when the church gathered.

Once the ground rules had been laid, Paul never suggests that the meeting should be dominated by one or two gifted men. In fact, Paul says the opposite. “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged” (v. 31). Paul suggests that encouragement is a two-way street. The one proclaiming is encouraged as well as the one receiving (v. 31). God has constructed the Body in such a way that growth and proper function is contingent upon mutual participation. It is edifying to have something meaningful to say to the Body so that the members are encouraged. Consider Paul’s introduction to the Romans, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Rom 1:11-12).

Paul’s overall goal was to see these gatherings operate in accordance with Christ’s design, for the purpose of building up each member.

Ironically, these meetings were to be orderly for the very purpose of garnering full participation! For it is with full participation that the church will be edified, this is what Paul wants to see as he states the goal four times in this chapter. Notice also that full participation is intended to send the message, God is certainly among you (v. 25). The apostle indicates that it is a powerful experience of witnessing unified full participation that causes the unbeliever, should he darken the doors, to see the manifest work of God thus calling his own unbelief to account. “If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (vv. 24-25).

Never once does Paul suggest that there be anything less than full, male led participation when the church gathers for edification. This ought to be striking to us when we compare how church gatherings are dominated by one so called designated preacher. This concept of complete participation is in harmony with every other New Testament epistle. According to Paul, an orderly gathering would look more like a smaller gathering of families sitting in a horse-shoe seating arrangement.ᵛⁱⁱ Perhaps each discourse went 10 or 15 minutes each, then another would weigh in and yet another. There is a genius in smaller gatherings, for how can the above be done with large assemblies. The crucial aspect was the full participation of the Body. Each one was learning and discerning while receiving knowledge and wisdom of each individual man. What an invigorating thought!

Think of how different our Sunday mornings are now. What is nearly universal today in Evangelical churches is attendees arriving to hear the discourse of a preacher. The sermon may reach an hour or more. And after a few songs and announcements the preacher heads to the lobby to greet people as they chit chat about their week. Then he gathers his family and heads out. But how different a picture is drawn when we read our Bibles.

Noting Christ’s design for His Body, how will church members be brought to full maturity when the gifts of their brethren lie dormant?

Arrested development of the members is one of the tragic consequences of neglecting a biblical ecclesiology. What potential spill over at home would this kind of passive repetition produce? How about in the mission field? Our Lord did not design the Body to be nourished by one or two men alone to showcase Christ’s virtues. No individual man has the ability, nor has been given the purview, to be the catalyst in demonstrating Christ’s perfections to His Body. Any attempt to arrange a Sunday gathering around one individual sermon is to suggest, albeit inadvertently, that Christ’s Body is best built up through a “God appointed” man or small group of men and women. This thinking however is in stark contrast with the Word of God.

The Body dynamic functions in balance when each individual member is working properly (Eph 4:16). Each member of the Body must be animated by Christ their Head, or the Body will suffer, “…holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God (Col 2:19). The institutionalization of the church has fought against the fundamental principles of Body growth.

The following statement may sound like heresy, but the point of gathering on Sundays is not primarily to worship God, the purpose of gathering Sundays is for the church to build itself up. “. . . we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph 4:15b-16).

But when church is turned into a spectator event it sends an antithetical message to the congregation: You are not here to build up one another up, nor are you here to exercise your gift. You are here to receive; to be a passive attendee. Christian meetings have been turned into services or events, instead of edification meetings. As a result, the buildings erected to host these events have been turned into multimillion dollar worship houses.

The message being sent in the most common church meetings is that you are here to watch, listen, and receive. You are not here to exercise the individual gift that Christ died to secure.

Consider that members of the early church were referred to by Romans as atheists because they refused to build temples since they rejected the idea that a deity was contained in such spaces. “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). Yet we have buildings today that are called “worship halls,” “sanctuaries,” “cathedrals,” and so on. Consequently, the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer tends to be obscured by designating a meeting place a ‘house of God’—a place where God is present. Paul clarifies the issue, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are” (1 Cor 3:17-17).

Christian gatherings have evolved into something done for God rather than meeting together for mutual edification and as something God does for the members. Congregants erroneously view worship services as sacrificial. We have all heard the mantra, “We are here to worship God!” “May He find our offering of worship acceptable.” Although staff pastors, when pinned down, would not describe Sunday morning services as sacrificial, the attitudes often suggest otherwise. Coming to church to fulfill one’s duty to God as a box-checking passive attendee is not the description set forth in the N.T. Habitually forsaking church gatherings meant abdicating one’s role in edifying the Body! “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:23-25).

Does God need us to gather? When gathering is cast in the language of doing something for God, it feeds a mindset of fulfilling an obligation or executing a duty. Is it any wonder that for countless churchgoers’ attendance is but a passive perfunctory experience. Having fulfilled an obligatory chore, they give themselves permission to toss a sop to the conscience. Is it not possible, according to the New Testament, that Christian assemblies are not for God, but instead are for the church of God. According to the Bible, church meetings are for Christ to showcase His ministry in His bodily absence through His corporate Body by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:12-14; Eph 4:13; 1 Jn 1:3; 4:7-12). This begs the question, what are the long-term consequences of gatherings dominated by a small handful of select people? Answer: spiritual gifts go dormant when members of Christ’s Body regard themselves as mere end-users or passive spectators.

The mind shift which moves the church into an ecclesiology which fulfills the Great Commission won’t occur through superficial change.

Developing a new biblical mentality intent on obeying Christ’s last command depends upon several factors.ᵛⁱⁱⁱ 1) Church leaders must cast the vision for discipleship in tandem with visibly modeling disciple-making—this is best achieved by raising up shepherds within the Body. 2) In keeping with that goal, each church member must recognize his calling to live as a disciple-making disciple of Christ. That is an immense paradigm shift. Keeping disciple-making at the center of our ecclesiology exalts Christ’s preeminence in His church and protects His Body from the deadening effects of turning inward on itself. 3) The training needed for the above must be ongoing as the normal ‘rhythm’ of the Body, and not a temporary program. 4) Each church ministry must be able to describe its role in deliberately nurturing disciples toward maturity.ⁱˣ 5) Reaching our nation and the world with the saving news of Christ Jesus will be best accomplished by making disciple-making disciples. 6) In obedience and conscious submission to Christ there must be a full embrace of Christ’s pattern for His Body, with the aim of an ‘every member ministry’ that is designed to bring every member to maturity. Paul’s approbation in Colossians 1:7-12 is to laymen—this is the opposite of an ecclesiology which regards ministry output to be derived from and directed by a professional clergy. 7) And lastly, for the church to nurture disciples to maturity, great intentionality is requisite. The discipleship mandate: ‘Teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded’ (Mt 28:18-20) will only become the practice of the church when shepherd-teachers begin equipping the saints to do the work of the ministryˣ (Eph 4:11-13).

Realism is essential at this juncture, for no substantial move toward a biblical ecclesiology will occur without periods of soul-searching on our knees with the Word of God open before us. What is at stake in our ecclesiology is the present and eternal glory of God in Christ. For our ecclesiology must be nothing less than that which exhibits Christ’s relationship to His Body, the church. Out of our ecclesiology comes our philosophy of ministry. And if we are to remain true to God’s Word our philosophy of ministry ought not be allowed to degrade into the pragmatism that inheres in hyper-structuralism. For the whole life of the believer is to represent life in Christ as one who is animated by Christ. Every believer is to be gripped by this radical realization that he or she is a minister. This is what it means to possess life in Christ. Our ecclesiology must vividly manifest this reality. Let us consider afresh that Paul’s life purpose and mandate is not reserved for Apostles, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).

End Notes:

i Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, p. 88
ii Ibid.
iii Von Trutzschler, Clairemont Immanuel Church, San Diego, CA
iv Ibid.
v Tom Wadsworth on the content of the early church, “Has the Church got Worship wrong?”
https://cr101radio.com/podcast/has-the-church-got-worship-wrong-tom-wadsworth
vi Ibid.
vii Ibid.
viii Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Vine Project (Sydney, Aus: Matthias Media, 2016) 28-40
ix Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine (Kingsford, NSW: Matthias Media: 2009) 17-28
x R. Paul Stevens, Liberating the Laity; Equipping All the Saints for Ministry (Vancouver, British Columbia:
Regent College Publishing, 1983) 21, 22