More Questions About Your Church Is Too Small Part Three
April 12, 2010
John H. Armstrong
ACT 3 Weekly
April 12, 2010
More Questions About Your Church Is Too Small
Part Three
John H. Armstrong
The last two weeks I have answered some of the questions that I will be asked by radio hosts during the month of April as I promote the readership of my new book, Your Church Is Too Small. Now that the book is formally published, and it is being discussed in interviews, on blogs and in various public forums by speakers, I want to candidly address some of the important questions that flow out of the content of this book. I have covered six questions so far and will conclude with four more in this last article.
1. What events in the last few decades have actually brought Christians together in ways that have allowed them to get to know one another and thus to see how much they really do share in common?
Over the last two or three decades the most important events that have driven Christians together in new ways include abortion, same-sex marriage, the steady and obvious decline of churches in both Europe and America, and the rise of a new generation of young adults who believe the old paths of schism are wrong.
Early Christianity began as a movement within Judaism in the eastern portion of the Roman Empire. In relation to these two realities—Judaism and the Roman Empire—early Christianity forged a new identity. It advanced claims that put it at odds with both parties. Some of the earliest Christian writings reveal these tensions. Thus Christianity initially emerged out of a very uneasy relationship with mainline Judaism on the one side and the wider culture and practice of the Roman Empire on the other. Distinctive beliefs, moral codes, and liturgical practices all developed in this context.
I sincerely believe the West creates a similar context for faithful Christians in this new era of post-Christendom. The church is emerging from Christendom, a cultural context in which the church and state/empire have been extremely interconnected, into a secular world in which they are seen as polar opposites, if not outright enemies. This has happened over a period of five or six decades in America. In Europe it has occurred over several centuries. The question is obvious: how can Christianity flourish and the faith grow in this new age? Mainline Christianity, expressed in many forms, is changing. It is either retrenching into a fortress out of fear about capitulating to new ways of thinking or it is running toward cultural mores and norms that are neither biblical nor missional as it continues to seek to be relevant to people who are less and less interested in our message.
In our increasingly post-modern, or extremely secular, context Christians of all sorts and backgrounds are talking with one another about their common faith. They are discussing what truly matters to them and thus what lies at the core of Christian faith. A significant recovery of interest in the ancient church (creeds, catechisms, the church fathers and the great church councils) is an indication of this conversation. Thus our new context presents a remarkable opportunity for us to become more like the early church than the recent modern church. We are truly strangers in a foreign land in our modern context, though many Christians in America are yet to discover this obvious reality.
I am persuaded that we cannot afford the luxury of internecine Christian conflict in the present context. I am not sure it was ever a good thing, though it certainly produced a number of positive benefits I will admit. But the breakdown of families and community has created a context in which Christians should seek intentional community with one another in new ways. Here is where I believe my book provides a reasonable alternative to the old patterns of schism and denominationalism.
2. You speak of the four great marks of the Christian Church? What are they and why does it matter that Christians confess these marks intelligently and faithfully in an age of pluralism and relativism?
The four marks of the church are found in the first two creeds where the church confessed faith in the Trinity. When these earliest Christians spoke about the Holy Spirit they proclaimed that the church was “one holy catholic and apostolic.”
1. The Church is One
Paul says, in Ephesians 4:4, that the church is “one.” This idea suggests at least two things. First, the church is unique. There is no other institution, or community, like the Christian church. This oneness expresses our one salvation in Christ alone. Everyone who truly “calls on the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13; 1 Cor. 1:2) is a member of this one church.
Second, this idea of oneness is an ideal to be pursued. We are one because there is “one body and one Spirit, [and there is] one hope [and] one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4–6). There is real diversity among us but there is also this a deep oneness that includes that diversity and invites us continually to pursue each other in love. There are many cultures and languages in the one church yet because there is one God—revealed in the diversity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit—there is only one church.
2. The Church is Holy
The church is called to be holy. Holiness is true in at least two senses—ritually and morally. Debates about what is morally right and wrong threaten the church today as they did at other times in history. This is not new. We should ask, “Is it possible to preserve our oneness while we also pursue our faithful and radical holiness?” There are real tensions here for sure but we must never cease to pursue holiness if we would be faithful to the four marks of the true church. Unity does not negate holiness if all four marks are to be kept in balance.
3. The Church is Catholic
The word catholic comes from a Greek work that literally means “throughout the whole world.” The true sense of this word refers to both universality and inclusiveness. In extent the church is catholic, or universal. This unity embraces real differences within a larger unity, or within our deep catholicity. Catholicity refers to the quality or state of universality. By this we are reminded of the comprehensive nature of the undivided church of Jesus Christ that gathers all people into one church from many different races, languages, and cultures.
4. The Church is Apostolic
The church is intimately and historically linked to the apostles according to the New Testament. In order to combat heresies the early church appealed to the authority and writings of the apostles. Early church fathers such as Irenaeus and Tertullian clearly made continuity with the apostles an essential mark of the church. The best way to understand this today is to make a constant appeal to the standards of the apostolic age—the writings of the New Testament canon. Though Christians have different ways of understanding these writings we can all agree that the most essential writings for the church’s faith and foundation are found in the New Testament. This means that we must constantly reexamine our practices and structures in the light of the apostolic practice we see in the early church. We actually go forward by going backward. We must recover before we can reform and seek renewal. This is why the idea of an ancient-future faith gripped me more than twenty years ago.
3. What does this book, and your vision, have to do with non-Christians? Should they fear what you appeal for in this call for Christian unity?
Non-Christians have had some significant reasons to fear the church, especially when it controlled nations and states. The church has a mixed record in history. We need to be honest about this historical fact. But there is no present danger, especially in the West, that this is going to happen again, at least not in our time. In the twentieth century alone we have fought great wars fought over ideologies like facism and communism but not over the control of the state by the church.
Today I believe non-Christians should welcome the unity of the church because this unity will stop a great deal of the social disruption caused by internal church conflicts that have impacted everyone. When Christians live together in grace and peace the benefits to others will be evident, as they were in the second and third centuries when Christianity was developing in a hostile cultural and social context. Christians loved the poor, raised the unwanted child, looked after the sick and ministered to the dying. Christians cared about education and families. These are common values in every good society and should be welcomed by people of good will who desire a stable nation. Only the most militant atheists, who want to see the “myths of Christianity” stamped out completely, should fear the unity of the church.
4. Tell some real life stories of how this vision really works in cities across America and beyond?
In my book I tell ten stories that I have had personal relationship with in regards to my thesis. Each of these is unique. These include local church stories, where churches have come together to do mission across lines of division. One story even includes a ministry where Catholics and Protestants have established a work to save lives by reaching homosexual prostitutes on the streets of Chicago.
A common fear that conservative Christians have about my thesis is that we cannot preach the same gospel so these real life stories do not include Christians from various churches actually making disciples together. This is just not so. Eventually new believers will have to choose a church home and this will require them to do something very important that will sadly divide them from others, at least at one level. But even here I have seen this all done with great care and respect for our remaining differences. Again, I tell a lot of stories along this line.
Internationally I tell the story of the Alpha Course. It is being used to reach multitudes of people with the gospel. No course of discipleship that I know about has led to a more effective preaching of the gospel to people around the world than Alpha. This course is being used by Christians from all of the three great traditions and it is drawing believers together in remarkable ways as they share their faith both relationally and verbally.
Conclusion
I hope every reader of the ACT 3 Weekly will read Your Church Is Too Small. I have done eleven previous books. None of them, indeed not all of them put together, is as important as this book. This book addresses the central issue among Christians in our time. Will we be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and his mission? Will we not only acknowledge his supremacy with our lips but live it out in such a way that his supremacy truly brings us together in the one Lord and who has only one people, one church?
If you are a reader of these weekly ACT 3 articles I urge you to visit www.yourchurchistoosmall.com and read more about my book. I strongly urge you to order at least one copy through our web site since this will give 4-5% of your purchase price back to the mission of ACT 3. You might even order copies to give away, to your pastor or leaders. I further urge you to begin study groups with the book in your church or small group. There are reflection questions at the end of each chapter and a glossary of terms at the back of the book. It is an accessible book that can be read by anyone with a real desire to grow in their understanding of Christ and his church.
