Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

Chapter Eleven: Thinking Rightly about the Church

How do we meet the challenge of disunity?  The challenge is real and important if we are to accomplish the church’s mission.

Our author, John Armstrong, briefly surveys the ecumenical movement of the 20th and current centuries.  The former was adversely impacted by “embracing aspects of theological diversity that were not always faithful to Christ’s mission” and the absence of Roman Catholics and evangelicals.  John sees more hope in 21st C initiatives, such as:

www.globalchristianforum.org

www.christianchurchestogether.org

John rightly suggests that Christians need to firstly “cultivate a love for catholicity and then prayerfully reach out across our divisions, challenging each other to embrace the mission of Christ together.”  John emphasises the need to be clear about the nature of the church.

At the most basic definitional level, the church is the people of God – and it belongs to Jesus Christ.  In church history, so-called ‘marks’ have been developed to describe what is a church – John adds two:

• where Word of God preached
• sacraments administered
• discipline exercised
• mission, and
• deep commitment to justice and the poor.

In summary, “the church is the people of God hearing, believing, and obeying the Word of God.”

Our author rounds out this foundational chapter with a succinct presentation of how ‘church’ is applied in the New Testament:

1. It is the local congregation in a particular place.  Importantly, one local congregation is as much the church as any other church.
2. It is all the congregations in one particular community.  This aspect I believe would have major practical impact if each of our congregations thought of themselves as part of a larger whole.  In our area of Melbourne there are many encouraging developments of congregations coming to together in shared mission – but there is so much more we can do.
3. The church is universal.  It is invisible, reminding us that the unity of the church is ultimately God’s work.  And it is visible – this must be our primary concern “since we are members together, and this church belongs to Jesus Christ.”

As I reflect on these foundational truths, the challenge that is raised for me is holding together the local and broad – not just intellectually but in practical mission.

In John’s next chapter he looks at “The Servant Church and the Kingdom.”

As a followup to the last post on your church is too small, here’s a helpful presentation by John Armstrong on the nature of the Church:

Chapter Four: The Jesus Prayer for our Unity

Chapter Five: Our Greatest Apologetic

Chapter Six: Christ the Center

John Armstrong in these next three chapters of your church is too small starts to explore what is meant by ‘unity.’  And his attention turns to the longest recorded prayer of Jesus: John 17:20-23.

As John states, Jesus is praying for the entire church.  And He is praying for something more than the “invisible unity” of the church (which is already true).  Jesus is praying for relational unity – a unity that is rooted in Christians relationships with one another.  As we share in the divine life of the Trinity; as we live daily with our lives centred on Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, then “the church will be a visible example of the relational and spiritual unity of the triune God.”

Our author then explores the role of love.  Jesus’ prayer for unity is “really a prayer about God’s love in action” (John 17:23; 1 Pt 4:19-21; 1 John 4:19-21).  Francis Schaeffer believed that the truest identifying mark of Christians was love.  The challenge for all followers of the Lord Jesus is to accept those who are accepted by God and belong to Him.

So how can we work together in Christ’s mission?  John briefly explores models of unanimity, uniformity and union (one visible, united church) and concludes that none of these understandings of unity “truly fit the context of the New Testament.”  The early church was focussed on evangelism in which they cooperated.  What is the means for our cooperation?  Keeping Christ centre.

Our unity is in Christ alone – not in visible structures or particular practices of individual churches.  Our author presents a helpful image: think of the world wide church as a large circle with Christ at the centre.  As we move inward we grow closer to one another.  Excellent!

For John Armstrong, he is seeking to practically live this out by:

• being willing to work with all Christians, including those he does not know well;
• engaging in relational and cooperational unity with Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Chapter Two: My Journey to Catholicity Begins

Chapter Three: Searching for the Elusive Truth

John Armstrong in your church is too small describes his journey towards a big view of the church and his passion for unity.

John was brought up in a “very conservative home and church” in the American South.  He was positively impacted by fellowship with other Christians during his university years; during his twenty years in pastoral ministry grew concerned by the suspicions between Catholics and Protestants and the long list of “internal evangelical debates.”  In the mid 1990s, during corporate worship while saying the Apostles’ Creed, John recalls being led by the Holy Spirit to the prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-23.  In response, he took two practical steps:

• he went back to the primary sources of the three different historic Christian churches – Catholic, Protestant to discover the core truths shared by all Christians
• he deliberately set out to meet with Christians “who were different from me.”

John was positively impacted by visiting with a group of Catholic monks but was battling inner fears about the course he was on and increasingly came under criticism by those believing he was falling into “doctrinal error.”  His refocussed ministry, now called ACT3, sponsored a church renewal conference with representatives from across the church.  He grew to love the Catholic community (which he had once feared) and benefited from new friendships with Orthodox brothers and sisters.

In the apostolic and post-apostolic church, there was deep commitment among the leaders to preserve the church as one family with Christ at the centre, notwithstanding doctrinal differences.  But down through the centuries, divisions grew large.  John laments that today the “spirit of devisiveness” has spread like a pandemic from America.  This sectarianism and subsequently small view of the church harms the mission of Christ – that’s John’s big point.

As a relatively new Christian in the early 1990s, I began reading, and profited much from, the writings of Dr John Armstrong – especially the Reformation & Revival Journal and his newsletter, Viewpoint. Over the years it has been fascinating to witness the obvious work of the Lord in John’s life and the evolution of Reformation & Revivial into ACT3, a ministry to equip leaders for unity in Christ’s mission.

But the negative response of some high profile evangelicals to John’s journey has been most unedifying.  The response from the Board of ACT3 is worth reading.

We’re going to blog through your church is too small: why unity in Christ’s mission is vital to the future of the church.  It reflects a journey that John has been on for almost two decades.

Why the title?  In his Introduction, John writes that he is not referring to the size of physical facilities or the number of people attending services but,

“…our all too common penchant for placing limits on Christ’s church – limits that equate the one church with our own narrow views of Christ’s body.  When our church is too small, we adopt a desperately flawed image.  The image shrivels our spirit and hinders Christ’s mission.”

Chapter One: The Road to the Future

John begins with a recognition that the church is in a period of significant transition.  There are many new patterns of Christian faith and life emerging in the church – but our author calls us to see that the road to the future must run through the past.  John’s context is the American church and he observes that “American Christians have a unique predilection to approach the Christian faith as if what we know is vastly more relevant than what previous generations knew.”

Unique to American Christians?  I don’t think so.

Our author expresses concern (alarm?) at Christians building their lives and faith on various passages of Scripture understood through private experience.  His argument is that Christ’s mission is best served by the one church of Jesus Christ ministering out of its spiritual unity in Christ and being rooted in core orthodoxy.

As John develops his thesis of the road to the future he makes the following points:

• Scripture is the supreme witness to the living Christ, illuminating the minds of God’s people in every culture and context.  We need to listen to the witness  of the whole church through Scripture.
• Contrary to the last few hundred years, the church in history has not been made up of unrelated and independent entities.  Our author expresses the view that we are now witnessing the Holy Spirit bringing unity amongst our diversity – a new expression shaped by mission and ecumenism.
• Critical realism is required, defined as “a positive yet critical response to the past allowing the past to be properly linked with a biblically hopeful view about what God will do in the age to come.”
• Despite obvious flaws, there is no need to be pessimistic about the church.  Why? It belongs to Christ!  And we see congregations flourishing where the kingdom of God breaks out.
• Jesus’ prayer of John 17:20-24 is being answered in previously unheard-of-ways.  We are witnessing Catholics and Protestants learning to interact with one another in gracious ways.  We are beginning to experience the reality of Eph 4:4-6.
• Christians need a deep sense of our collective spiritual roots – this will “move us forward to new faith, fresh hope, and genuine love.”

In a world with a massively fragmented church I trust that you’ll join our journey with John Armstrong, with our hearts attuned to the Word and Spirit.

If you have appropriated the peace dividend, how then are we to live?  That’s the very practical question addressed in the next chapter of God the Peacemaker by Graham Cole:

Chapter Eight: Life Between the Cross and the Coming

How should followers of the Lord Jesus live?  By faith.  And our author gives an excellent exposition of what walking by faith, and not by sight, looks like.  Living by faith means:

• always trusting God, including in the age to come
• living a life of love (Gal 5:6)
• the opposite to living by fear and by sight (Matt 8:26; 2 Cor 5:7)
• giving our total allegiance to the One who won our redemption (1 Cor 6:19f)
• responding to Christ’s love in a “self-donating lifestyle” (eg. Phil 1:13-26). Simply put, Christ is worth it!
• living as a true servant (“worthy of the Gospel”), exemplified in the Lord Jesus’ “great stooping both in incarnation and atonement” (Phil 2:5-11)
• being prepared to suffer for Christ (2 Cor 11:23-28; 1 Pt 4:12-16).  This is the reality for so many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world
• attracting spiritual opposition from the demonic.  The devil has not disappeared; he is behind human hostility to the gospel and is to be resisted (1 Pt 5:8f).  The armour against his attacks are defensive (shield of faith, breastplate of righteousness, helmut of salvation) and offensive (the Word of God).  Prayer is crucial.  It needs to be specific and gospel focussed (Eph 6:14-20)
• living now, in the reality of what we will be – “Spirit-impelled resurrection life.”  In the most practical of ways, this means worshipping the Lord through the offering of our whole person as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2).  The individual believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20) as is the corporate Body (1 Cor 3:16-17) and that’s what needs to be displayed – not a physical Temple.

Living by faith (I think of it as being ‘up close and personal with Jesus, as we walk around the Sea of Galilee together’) means living as Kingdom people.  Graham zeroes in on two of the beatitudes in Matt 5-7: ‘blessed are the merciful’ and ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’  When we are ‘shalom-bringers’ we are acting like God in character.  And active peacemaking will be in sync with justice – reconciliation requires that wrongs are confronted and acknowledged.

As those who have appropriated the peace dividend (ie. those who are caught up in God’s reclamation project), we have a story to tell the world.  And it is undertaken by:

• evangelists, gifted by the risen Christ and equipped by His Spirit (Eph 4:11-13) to tell the story.  Our author gives a succinct account of the gospel content and proclamation approaches in the Acts of the Apostles.
• witnesses.  Every believer is not gifted to be an evangelist but every believer has a story to tell – of God’s ways and deeds.
• apologists.  Again, every believer has the task of answering questions raised by the gospel (1 Pt 3:13-16).  And we are to do so with gentleness and respect – if there is offence its source must be the gospel itself and not our manner!

Life between the Cross and the Coming is a life lived in the Spirit - the great applier of our salvation.  Graham provides a helpful overview on “filling” as seen in Luke/Acts.  And then in considering the Spirit’s role (in relation to the Trinity), he comments:

“…the Holy Spirit…uses our evangelism, witness, apology, shalom-making and mercy-showing…to bring to fruition the divine plan.”

This is a great chapter, linking biblical theology with helpful historical theology examples, with a focus on the way we live out our daily lives now, in this age.  There will be wonderful benefit in chewing on the contents of this chapter with our Bibles open, and hearts submissive to the Spirit’s transforming work.

Ed Stetzer is a prolific writer on mission, President of LifeWay Research and a frequent conference speaker for a wide variety of churches.  He recently spoke at Dwell London.  Ed gave a seminar for cross-cultural workers to help them understand the current evangelical movement.  Adrian Warnock has helpfully posted some of what Ed said here, including:

“Ed spoke about what he called the pragmatic evangelical movement …Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. Big global influence. Saddleback is probably the most influential church in the world. …Many think pragmatic is a bad word. But it just means determining what works. …

Traditional evangelicals …would have conferences about for example creationism vs evolution. Must prove these things to be true… Rick Warren is a very conservative evangelical on almost all issues but he says “what people really want to know is how God can change their life or marriage”. Many traditional evangelicals rushed into pragmatic evangelicalism as they were so fed up of dry dead theology.

A decade ago, Purpose Driven was the most influential Christian movement in the world. Very broad reaching. In the the USA, these movements are still influential, but not like they were ten years ago…. Willow Creek originally spoke about being seeker driven. Stage driven. Take into account the local expressions of music and drama. Willow Creek was also influential but less globally. The seeker paradigm of ministry has declined in influence, and Willow itself has changed their own paradigm. When they realized they needed to change their way to disciple, and announced that they were changing, many people went after them in a nasty way, especially online.

Younger evangelicals …are building on or charting new directions. Younger evangelicals can be found among a number of different groups: 1. Hyper-contemporary . Desire for “in your face,” eg series on sex with aggressive titles that get complaints. Gets media attention and they like it….The idea is that in the modern world it is harder to get peoples attention. So the desire is to cut through the noise and get people to notice. In an all consuming passion to reach the unchurched they often offend the Christians. In a way they are a continuation of the seeker movement but “louder.”

2. Emerging Church.  These should be considered as several different groups:Relevants A lot of this is just about being relevant. Appropriate to the culture. Same understanding of the gospel but engage in a different way.  Reconstructionists want to change the way we do church. They believe in the gospel. Believe in conversion. But believe that much of what had been done in church harms the gospel. So we see, House Church, Missional,  incarnational models. The reality is indeed that many churches do need to change.  Revisionists like Maclaren want to rethink the gospel want a bigger gospel, more societal. Some want to ditch the idea of gospel as a transaction altogether.

3 New reformed. These respond to society by wanting to go deeper. Time magazine thinks that this idea is one of the most influential ideas (including secular ones)  in modern America. Different varieties eg charismatic reformed. John Macarthur and Driscoll are very different for example. A lot of younger reformed evangelicals became reformed in response to more vague churches they grew up in.  There is much to rejoice about, but much to be anxious about also. There is a level of anger in some that is so concerning that they are nick-named the “TR” =truly reformed. Fortunately there are also the “WR” =winsomely reformed. Many in more traditional forms criticize. Actually the new reformed have something in common with the emerging in that they want to correct the common gospel, in this case they want a bloodier one with more emphasis on cross and resurrection. There is a growing evidence of dissatisfaction with evangelicalism. People feel that they are not seeing the results that they thought they would. There is much experimentation that is going on, and coming up with new expressions of church. Stetzer calls this Evangelical angst.People are seeking a model. Unsure about who they are. There is a drive to reclaim the centre, because the edges are fuzzy. We live in a time of Tumult. Many are dissatisfied with the results so far, unsure what the future holds.”

Are evangelicals more fractured and polarised than any time in history? I’m not sure. 21st century travel and digital communications certainly makes dissemination of new trends, movements, theologies and practices quite different to any prior times.  But we are certainly living in an era of what Ed calls ‘evangelical angst’ and struggling with our expression of Jesus’ words in John 17:20-21.  That’s why John Armstrong’s call in your church is too small: why unity in Christ’s mission is vital to the future of the Church is so vital – for those both within ‘evangelicalism’ and right across Christ’s Church.  We will blog through this book in the near future.

Philip Payne’s Man and Woman, One in Christ is, I believe, the most comprehensive treatment of Pauline texts in relation to men and women in the life of the church.  The reader will benefit from a steady and close reading of each of the twenty five chapters with their Bible open.  The interaction with the Greek text may be off putting for some readers, but there is ample explanation for those not acquainted with Greek grammar and differences in manuscripts.

Clearly the matter of women’s roles in the Church has become a most contentious issue, particularly in the last few decades.  In my own journey, it was my wrestling with Scripture that gradually moved me from a complementarian position (that I grew up with) to an equality of men and women, in all respects, including public ministry in the Church.

As I read and studied, pondered and prayed about ‘women’s ministry’, I:

• noted numerous instances of sloppy exegesis by proponents on both sides of the debate;
• became increasingly concerned that this matter has become, in some quarters, to be a prominent test of orthodoxy;
• reflected back on my own experience of growing up in complementarian churches, where a whole set of man-made rules, about what women could and could not do in public ministry (that bore simply zero connection with Scripture), were the accepted doctrinal infrastructure.  Interestingly, in churches that spoke loud and often about the authority of Scripture;
• recognised that in our frailty, the struggle to live out sola Scriptura and semper reformanda is very real.

Philip Payne has made an enormous contribution to this tragically contentious issue in the Church. How significant will it be in bringing greater unity on this issue?  I’m not overly confident, if the concluding words in Tom Schreiner’s review of the book in the April edition of Themelios are anything to go by:

“Most of what [Philip Payne] says is not new, and his egalitarian readings are unpersuasive. Surely he will convince some, for many in our culture today ardently desire egalitarianism to be true. But it will not hit the scholarly world like an avalanche. It is closer to being another drizzly day in Portland, Oregon.”

Wow!!  I do trust that Philip Payne finds his encouragement in Christ and not in book reviews!

The Holy Spirit speaks only truth and God does not contradict Himself.  The complementarian and egalitarian readings of Scripture cannot both be correct.  The challenge for all followers of Jesus is to roll-up our ‘Bible reading shirt sleeves’ and seek to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, notwithstanding the baggage that we all bring to biblical interpretation.

The full list of my posts on Man and Woman, One in Christ are:

Introduction

Chapter One: Backgrounds to Paul’s Teaching Regarding Man and Woman

Chapter Two: Women Paul Names as Ministry Leaders

Chapter Three: Paul’s Theological Axioms Imply the Equality of Man and Woman

Chapter Four: Galations 3:28: Man and Woman: One in Christ

Chapter Five: 1 Corinthians 7: The Equal Rights of Man and Woman in Marriage

Chapters Six and Seven: 1 Cor 11:2-3

Chapters Eight and Nine: 1 Cor 11:4-6

Chapters Ten to Thirteen: 1 Cor 11:7-16

Chapter Fourteen: 1 Cor 14:34-35

Chapter Fifteen: Eph 5:21-33

Chapter Sixteen: 1 Tim 2:8-15 Introduction

Chapters Seventeen to Nineteen: 1 Tim 2:8-12

Chapter Twenty: 1 Tim 2:12 on ‘assume authority’

Chapter Twenty One: 1 Tim 2:13-14

Chapter Twenty Two: 1 Tim 2:15

Chapter Twenty Three: 1 Tim 2:8-15 Conclusion

Chapter Twenty Four: 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9: May Women be Overseers and Deacons?

Chapter Twenty Five: Conclusion: Paul Consistently Champions the Equality of Man and Woman in Christ

Chapter Fifteen: Ephesians 5:21-33 and Colossians 3:18-19: Husband-Wife Relationships”

We return to Philip Payne’s very significant book Man and Woman, One in Christ.

Philip begins this chapter highlighting that Paul’s ‘household rules’ are vastly different to those in the 1st C secular world.  ”Paul goal is the actualisation of the “New humanity” where all members are filled with the Spirit and nurtured in Christ (Eph 5:18).”

Our author contends that Paul’s statements do not endorse a hierarchical structure, so prevalent in that 1st C world.  For example, Paul effectively undermines slavery – the image of God in humankind and the family of believers who are one in Christ is fundamentally incompatible with slavery (see also 1 Tim 1:10).

Before our author gets into the detail of Eph 5:21ff with its instructions on husbands and wives, he highlights the importance of mutuality and love in the Letter to the Ephesians.  Payne comments,

“True love for one’s wife is not compatible with a husband completely controlling her life, just as true love is not compatible with a master completely controlling his slave’s life or for a parent controlling his mature child’s life.”

Paul writes in Eph 5:21 (NIV): ^“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  Payne notes that:

• the reciprocal pronoun (“one another”) shows that Paul is not in the following verses endorsing hierarchical social structures [Payne gives an extended discussion on v21 and refutes Wayne Grudem's approach in pp 277-283]
• v22 (“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord”) is in fact embedded in one long sentence in the original that goes from 5:18-24.  Additionally, ‘submit’ is not in v22, which depends on the verb ‘submit’ in v21 – ie. husbands need to submit to their wives as well.
• Additionally, it is not only husbands who are to love their wives – the reverse applies (see Eph 5:2; Tit 2:4).
• So how do we make sense of vv22, 25 with their calls for women to ‘submit’ and men to ‘love’?  Payne’s answer is important:

“Paul highlights for women and men what each tends to need to hear most.” (277)

The second critical issue that Payne wrestles with is the meaning of “head” in v23.  This is an analogous relationship put forward by Paul between husband/wife and Christ/church.  So the starting point is to understand what is meant by: “Christ is the head of the church“.  Our author makes the following points:

• By placing “saviour” in apposition [ie. the placing of a word or expression beside another so that the second explains and has the same grammatical construction as the first] to “head”, we are to understand “head” as equivalent in meaning to “saviour.”  And Paul’s following descriptions of Christ’s relationship to the church do not stress authority but rather His actions as saviour, the source of life and nourishment of the Body.
• The parallel use of “head” in Col 1:18 confirms that Paul intended this image to convey “source.”
• By using the metaphor of ‘head’ Paul encourages readers to consider how a head is s source for the body. ie. the husband is the person on whom the wife depends just as the church depends on Christ – and therefore submission is appropriate.
• When a husband is the “head” of the wife in the sense of self-giving, his wife has good reason to submit to his loving nourishment and “submission” becomes a joyous response.  [Clearly 'submission' does not entail doing anything wrong]

I found Payne’s analysis very helpful.  My understanding of this passage starts with the command of Eph 5:18 on being filled with the Spirit.  What follows, all the way down to Eph 6:9, are descriptions of what this looks like in the church and in everyday life.  And clearly Eph 5:21 is an overarching verse on the conduct of our relationships.  Payne’s examination of v21 and its link with v22, and the analysis of the ‘head’ metaphor has put much more meat on my understanding of this passage.

The Lord Jesus, in John 13:35, states, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  Tragically the Body of Christ in the 21st century often falls far short of this instruction.  The Australian Church struggles in this area, but certainly not more than evangelicals in the U.S. where tribalism has developed into an artform.

John Piper, a significant leader in American Reformed circles and particularly the somewhat recent movement, dubbed The New Calvinists, has invited Rick Warren to speak at a Desiring God conference.  The blogosphere has exploded!

Much of the discourse is distasteful and certainly not building up of the Body.  Tragically this is not an isolated incident.  Christians behaving poorly is not limited to those who associate themselves with one particular theological system.  However the Reformed movement has hardly distinguished itself historically (and particularly in the last decade) in its embrace of all who love the Lord Jesus.  I find this increasingly sad, and it leaves a bitter taste.  Not to mention the impact on a watching world!

Scot McKnight offers some insights here that I resonate with.

The challenge for all of us is to continue to grow in Christlikeness. To be progressively formed into the image of the One who is full of grace and truth (John 1:14).