Ecclesiology the honor of Christ

Ecclesiology and the Honor of Christ

By Jay Wegter

Ecclesiology and the doctrine of God

“Mega-church values” are killing the spiritual core of Evangelicalism, states author David Wells. He is one of the most lucid and incisive writers today on Evangelicalism’s drift from God. In the following two pages, I have collected some of the most important observations which Wells makes about Evangelicalism’s ‘degenerative sickness’. These excerpts are from his book, “God in the Wasteland.”

Wells notes that Evangelicalism has assimilated therapeutic culture (in which “badness” is a disease). It has also assimilated consumerism in which worship has become entertainment. Modernity has reduced Evangelical Christianity to the private and the internal. Evangelicalism has been emptied of serious thought, serious theology, serious worship, and serious practice in the world. Yet, these are the very things needed by broken men. Protestant orthodoxy has been altered to fit an atmosphere of “pleasantness and light.” Churches are filled with those who wear a happy face, but who have no religious passions. [Post]modernity has twisted Evangelicalism to the point where interest in the truth of God is severely lacking. The therapeutic and managerial have replaced love of the truth (pp. 27-29).

[Post]modernity is worldliness. It has invaded everyone’s psyche. The world of religious modernity prizes techniques, managers, and psychologists (all in “Christ’s name). There is an ever-present search for adaptation to the needs of the modern world. God is secondary to the organization and its image. Wells goes so far as to suggest that “the church has replaced God” (p. 29). The sovereignty and providence of God are no longer believed; they are no longer pulpit themes. God’s control of creation has been wrenched away. Self-fulfillment is at odds with the self-denial proper to union with Christ (p. 38, 42-43).

Today’s Evangelicals practice a religion wed to worldliness. Results are measured by “successful” entrepreneurship. Thus, when biblical truth is dislocated from life, discernment is gone. The Church’s theological soul is dying as a result. The Church is no longer taking its bearings from God who is centrally holy. Evangelicalism, having abandoned theology, is running on the high octane fuel of modernity, therefore it cannot see the alien values inside it! In this condition, the Church cannot recognize or dislodge the worldliness within her (pp. 55-56). The priority that has taken over is refining of technique to improve the bottom line. Because of accommodation to modernity, the techniques of capitalism devastate the understanding and experience of God. Love of the world and love to God are totally antithetical (p. 62).

Evangelicalism’s new value system can be stated thus: remove the barriers to conversion and you’ll get the numbers. McGavran’s formula for church growth is applied sociology. Raw pragmatism intrudes into churches where the confessional and the theological have faded. When theology is not at the center, managers and marketers will conduct the “business” of the Church (pp. 69-71). George Barna does not even conceal his crassness in the matter: the Church is to follow the big business, competition model; assess consumer needs. Says Wells, according to George Barna the Church is viewed as a business with a market with a product. Its core product is the message of salvation. Each church is a franchise, the Chrysler of tomorrow. Modern pastors are CEO’s. Market the Church by understanding NEED suggests Barna.

The mega-church is a full service bureaucratic structure that fills a market niche of felt needs (p. 72-73). Modernity plays to the “sovereignty” of the audience. Os Guinness gives this sobering reminder; it is possible to “win” the world and lose our own souls by ecclesiastical engineering. Worldliness makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange. Worldliness puts man at the center and God out to pasture – then there is no place for truth. There is no longer a place for transcendent sermons of God’s word of grace. When self is at the center as a consumer, technique replaces truth (pp. 85-86).

The “otherness” of God is domesticated; He is reduced to harmless. God is no longer understood as standing outside the sinner, summoning him to repentance. By contrast, the God of Scripture calls the sinner to repent by the knowledge of Himself—to be emancipated from the deception of external religious appearances (pp. 110-111). Modernity embraces a god who can be used. Psychologized culture has an affinity for the relational, but a “dis-ease” for the moral. The modern church wants the love of God, but not the holiness of God (p. 114). Objective truth in redemptive history is the revealer of who God is. God’s redemptive presence in truth and holiness are found only on His terms, not ours.

We must have God transcendent in holiness, or we do not know Him! (pp. 116-117). Modernity is appalled by the great things of God. Modernity dislocates the significance of God from life. God’s moral “otherness” is converted into relatedness. In the transition from transcendence to immanence, God becomes a convenient means to satisfy self. God’s “otherness” is increasingly lost in compromised Evangelicalism (pp. 120-122).

The only way to be God-centered is to be Christ-centered. The glorified Christ of eschatology who returns as Lord of history to judge the earth and consummate all things is assiduously avoided by modernity. Disinterest in God’s holiness always results in a lack of interest in the pursuit of godliness and little interest in the reception of holiness from God (pp. 132-134). There must be an echo of holiness in those who approach God. That echo manifests itself in separation and consecration unto God. God’s holiness is intrusive to the inner man. To approach God’s holiness is to have the life of the inner man invaded by light that exposes everything.

If holiness slips from a central position, then the centrality of Christ is lost. One cannot enter the knowledge of the Holy as a consumer, ONLY as a sinner. Sin, grace, and faith are meaningless apart from the holiness of God (pp. 142-144). The implications of God’s holiness are missing in the Church. God’s authority and power are passé. Self is sovereign; authority now is only a private reference (pp. 145-148). The Church of modernity is fun and bouncy—she is oblivious to the gaunt figure of death that is stalking the post-modern world. The indulged Church must be put to death in order to be of any consequence in the world. Only God can incite the heart to “rebel” against the world so as to love the Word of God, to love the truth, and to love the Lord (pp. 224-225).

The Church of modernity is afraid to ask for consecration, for death to sin, and for sacrificial service. The Church which asks most (in terms of conformity to Christ) will stay closest to the biblical pattern. Post-moderns are, for the most part, ignorant of the fact that the believer is strengthened by giving of himself. Only when the lives of believers intersect in sacrificial ways, the Church will develop an internal culture of true community. Only then will the reality of God weigh heavily on the Church. The Evangelical Church must reformulate anew what is the chief end of man—she must return with complete resolve to the Word of God in order to be rescued from the morass of modernity (pp. 226-227).

Ecclesiology and the gospel

The gospel comes down like a Texas tornado and by its power redeems sinners and gathers them into local church bodies. The gospel’s transforming force operates by the power of forgiveness, blood-bought freedom, and Spirit-engendered true community—“creating families of love.” The result is that churches are planted. But that powerful ‘gospel tornado’ when neglected, can lift up and away. Author Paul Zahl warns that as a consequence, the church is ‘objectified’ (institutionalized). In other words, we must not forget for a moment that the church is a supernatural entity by virtue of organic union with Christ. It is formed, birthed, and sustained by the gospel of Jesus Christ. When that reality is forgotten, men tend to objectify the church (treating it, and managing it like an earthly institution). That is to sever it from its life source—as a result, argues Zahl, they begin to kill it in the process of objectifying it.

“To overestimate church as a value in itself is to objectify the non-objectifiable and thus to possess that which can never be possessed” (p. 88). Zahl’s point is deep and profound—he is saying that any movement in the direction of institutionalizing (objectifying) the church will have the effect of hiding and concealing its God-ordained and God-sustained life and identity. The author cites the fact that Europe is filled with church buildings which are lifeless monuments to a bygone age. They have become ‘museums’ of marble and stained glass; but in reality they are nothing but ‘grave markers’ recording the memory of where gospel-fed spiritual life once thrived (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, pp. 88-89).

Charles Hodge offers a related comment: the purity of the Gospel is of extreme importance because it alone is the power of God unto salvation, and the true basis of Christian unity. Hodge points out the danger of teaching decisional regeneration (a pervasive error in Evangelicalism today). “No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine that sinners can regenerate themselves, and repent and believe just when they please. . . As it is a truth both of Scripture and of experience that the unrenewed man can do nothing of himself to secure his salvation, it is essential that he should be brought to a practical conviction of that truth. When thus convicted, and not before, he seeks help from the only source whence it can be obtained” (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids 1970, Vol. 2, p. 277). Paul Washer echoes a contemporary and very disturbing assessment of this problem, “The biblical doctrine of regeneration is completely missing in the church today” (Paul Washer, audio, “The Gospel”).

What Hodge and Washer are contributing to our discussion is this: our ecclesiology and our unity (in order to be biblical) depend upon a corporate understanding of sovereign grace—of monergistic regeneration—of the effectual call itself. The saints are bound together in overflowing gospel gratitude— for God intervened in His sovereign grace in our case—breaking into our ruinous situation of helplessness and rebellion. This is the power of God in the gospel. For in the good news of the gospel we discover that God comes to the elect monergistically—bringing the divine power necessary to resurrect spiritually dead sinners. Therefore, the saints, by means of the effectual call, are bound together into a worshipping body by the Spirit of God—this is the gospel reality that holds us together—this is the ‘call’ of which we are to walk worthy (Eph 4:1).

We agree with Hodge that the purity of the gospel is “the true basis of Christian unity.” By denying the necessity of the effectual call, Semi-Pelagian schemes of salvation rob Christ of the glory He is due in saving, keeping, and sanctifying us. “[Semi-Pelagianism, and decisional regeneration] while not denying the necessity of grace for salvation, maintain that the first steps towards the Christian life are ordinarily taken by the human will and that grace supervened only later” (John Hendryx, “Differences between Semi-Pelagianism and Arminian Beliefs”).

Ecclesiology and Christ’s relation to His church

Christ is Redeemer, Owner, Ruler, Sanctifier, and Lover of His church. He whose eyes are a flame of fire walks among the lamp stands of the churches, giving oil, trimming wicks, and in many cases, abandoning some of the lamp stands to die, leaving them in a state of ‘ichabod’ (Heb.-‘the glory has departed’). In Revelation 1-3, Christ examines the churches, providing very precise commendations and condemnations. In His office of Prophet, He calls the churches to repent of very specific sins (Rev 2-3). Christ is the Chief Shepherd, the True Pastor of every genuine church body. But His absolute living Headship of His blood-bought church is not in the ‘DNA’ of most evangelical churches today.

Very few churches order their worship services around the glory of Christ. A church pastored by a friend in Orange County, California is a wonderful exception to this sad trend. When I sat in this service, I was moved with awe and adoration as Christ and His accomplishments were central in every part of the service. Every portion of the morning worship was aimed at His glory. The Christo-centric mindset was grounded in the following: Christ is enthroned on the praises of His church. The body of Christ is animated and constrained by His love. He directs His church by His Word and His Spirit—by His providence, by God-ordained circumstances, and by gifted men. The ordinances of the church are intended to communicate our corporate life in the Son by virtue of our union with Him. We are built up and edified by means of the corporate enjoyment of Christ. Progress toward maturity is indispensably a function of attaining to “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13).

Churches that order their services around the glory of Christ seek to make the offices of Christ as visible as possible in the way they ‘do church’. Christ as Prophet examines us (Heb 4:12-13). All we do is under His omniscient gaze. He corrects us, comforts us, and admonishes us by His Word. As Priest, all of our access to God, our status, our pardon, sanctification, hope, and cleansing come from His ceaseless intercession on our behalf. As King, He rules over us, His beloved subjects and the citizens of His Kingdom. He is sovereign King over all, He selects the trials which refine us, discipline us, sanctify us, and subdue our wills to His. He is subjecting us to Himself by trial, discipline, and affliction for our consistent progress in holiness, all for His glory and our eternal good.

Now this begs the question: “Is the way we do church really intended to communicate Christ’s offices and the church’s relation to those offices? Do we do church so as to honor Christ’s authority and place as absolute Lord and life of His church? We are instantly aware that the answer to this question is “no.” This begs a second question: “Why not?” “Why are we not committed to exalting the glory of Christ in every part of our Sunday services?” The answer is revealing: it is because we think we can do church without Christ and His glory being central. We have stepped into the ditch Paul Zahl warned of—we have objectified the non-objectifiable—we have attempted to possess which cannot be possessed.

Martin Luther said it well: the church always tends to deteriorate into a system of honoring men. And why does that take place? The trend throughout church history has been, by ‘sheep consensus’ to crave a strong visible human head to lead them. The answer in part is because men prefer a visible head in which they may take pride, with whom they may identify—for a visible head requires no vigorous faith to behold (1 Sam 8:4-5ff.). In addition, men in their carnal religious instincts tend to fear that which they cannot control. It takes a faith well-fortified by Scripture to prefer the glory of our unseen Lord Jesus, to the dynamism of a mortal pastor standing before us in the flesh. Do we really want Christ and His offices exalted and made ‘visible’ in our ecclesiology—in the way we do church? If so, it will cost us the relative comfort of our traditions and religious forms.

We will have to review what it means to be a believer priest in the new covenant. It will take a fresh renewing of our minds to be thrilled once again that every true believer is a living stone in the temple God—and that through Christ, God is constructing as an eternal dwelling place for His Spirit— Christ being the Chief Corner Stone (Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:1-10). To recover our cognizance of Christ’s glory, we will need to craft our sermons in such a way that they are clearly directed at our listeners being alive in Christ (Hywel Jones). Here is where pulpits fall short. Sermons tend to be directed at the lowest common denominator. Therefore a transforming vision and awareness of Christ our living Head eludes us— the remarkable truth that we are the very members of His body is overshadowed.

Major Ian Thomas in his book "The Saving Life of Christ" (which means continuous/daily sanctification by learning to let Him live through us) provides a wonderful summary phrase dealing with both justification and sanctification is: To be in-Christ, that is redemption; but for Christ to be in-you, that is sanctification! To be in-Christ makes you fit for heaven, but for Christ to be in-you; that makes you fit for earth! To be in-Christ changes your destination, but for Christ to be in-you, that changes your destiny! The one makes heaven your home - the other makes this world His workshop! (Bob Alderman citing Major W. Ian Thomas in, The Saving Life of Christ, p. 20). Rather than occasional or peripheral, these truths summarized above must be central—they must be the ‘turning dynamo’ that moves the church community forward to answer her calling, keeping her on mission. The saints must continually here about their being in Christ in order to live radically identified with Him.

Pastors are too timid when it comes to proclaiming who we are in Christ and what Christ requires of us. If he were as bold as he should be, then he would frequently preach not only the infinite resources we have in Christ; but also the ‘hard words’ concerning discipleship uttered from the mouth of our Sovereign Savior. If a pastor really ‘speaks for God’ then he will plead with God that Christ may be more visible, and he himself less visible. He will rely less upon the sway of his personality, and will rely more on exhibiting Christ to the affections of his listeners.

Nothing less than this is required if a pastor is serious about growing a church that is pleasing to Christ. After all, who is really the final evaluator of a church, men or the Lord Himself? If we bow to Christ as He rules through the imperial instrument of His Word, then will not have to wait until judgment day to find out what He thinks of our church—for, by His Word He searches the motives and intents of hearts (Heb 4:12). Therefore we need to ask, “Is our ecclesiology engineered by human wisdom, OR, are we striving for an ecclesiology in which the glory of Christ is central—an ecclesiology which is true to Christ’s pattern for His church?” The ironic answer in many cases is that Christ is standing outside the doors many Evangelical churches today. We could say that He is knocking at the door of the ‘Laodicean church’ (whether in the first Century or the 21ˢᵗ Century). Revelation 3:18-21 tells us precisely HOW to open the door to Christ. It is by repenting of our proud spirit of independence and self-sufficiency which says we do not need Christ in all we do in His Name (Rev 3:19-22).

Only new covenant worship adequately exalts Christ as Mediator of that covenant. The opposite is spectatorship and consumerism. In the process of the latter, the layman gets lost in the pew as an observer. The church service becomes an event instead of the body of Christ edifying itself under the animating love and authority of her Head (Eph 4:11-16). The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that some of the mega-church values so rampant in Evangelicalism represent a retrograde slide back into old covenant forms. For instance, under the Mosaic covenant, there was a very visible elevated king, a large Levitical choir and orchestra taken from a priestly order, a clerical order separate from the laity, a physical altar or holy place, and a highly embellished lavish temple.

In contrasting these ‘beggarly’ old covenant elements to the new covenant, the author of Hebrews says, “We have an altar”—spiritually speaking this ‘altar’ is the cross of Jesus Christ. We meet our Lord at the altar of His cross as it is expounded in the gospel (Heb 13:10). Christ the substance is here, all that went before was but shadows and types. Thus, in the new covenant, each of these old covenant forms (associated with the tabernacle/temple, a clerical order, and the theocratic kingdom) has been replaced or changed—for every true believer is now alive in Christ and ‘organically joined to Christ’. Sadly, mega-church values of spectatorship and consumerism tend to drag the ‘altar’ away from the cross and toward the front of the church where the ‘performance’ is often showy and elaborate.

Therefore, it is the premise of this paper that we ought to do church in such a way that this truth about us being Christ’s members ‘bleeds through in all we do’. For, Christ has inaugurated the new and living way of access for us through the veil which is His flesh—we must do church in a way which communicates that Christ is our covenant Head who entered the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood—He alone joins us together, He alone constantly brings us all the way to God (Heb 10:19-25).

Ruthless honesty is needed at this juncture. Our problem says Colin Marshall, is that our churches today have “a heretical ecclesiology—ecclesiology has become the soft underbelly of the church” (the place at which the church is most vulnerable). It is common today for a strong pulpit to be a covering or disguise for a broken ecclesiology—an excuse to abandon the New Testament functions of the church (i.e. especially The Great Commission). When the reality of the new covenant is more central instead of marginalized in our ecclesiology, we will do church in such a way that new covenant realities are modeled and communicated and, as a result, Christ’s glory will be central in our focus.