Christ's Spotless Bride -- Some Thoughts on the Doctrine of the Church (Part One)
St. Nicolas Church in Strasbourg — Where Calvin Preached to French Exiles
Some Thoughts on The Importance of the Doctrine of the Church —
Or How I introduced My Ecclesiology Course to Students
I understand that ecclesiology is not everyone’s favorite topic. No doubt it is the least read section in any systematic theology text—and that is not merely because the doctrine of the church usually comes at the end of the volume. For a host of reasons American Christians tend not to be interested in the topic. But after serving as a pastor and professor for over forty years, I have come to believe that ecclesiology is one of the most important topics for our time and well worth thinking about.
Here are the main points for consideration I made whenever introducing the topic to Reformed seminarians.
First, during my post-seminary days I taught graduate systematic theology and apologetics courses to mostly “five-sola” evangelical students at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law (now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, CA). Berkhof’s Systematic Theology was my text. I always dreaded coming to the closing chapters on the doctrine of the church because the class was filled with students who came from various evangelical churches. Many were professing Christians but had no ties to any church. Many were still in mainline Protestant churches but were soon to leave. Others stayed in the churches in which they were raised, or they followed the crowd to a celebrity pastor. Many of these students had picked their churches for reasons that had little if anything to do with ecclesiology or doctrine. Reading Berkhof pulled the church rug out from under their feet.
I had done my best to convince them of Reformed doctrine, but ecclesiology was one topic about which I could only foment division. The doctrine of the church opens a chasm–in many churches you can hold to Reformed doctrine while embracing all sorts of church governing structures and practices antithetical to Reformed theology and piety. But this was the one section of Berkhof which challenged you to think about where you went to church–no small thing. The Reformed category of “a true church” meant other churches were not. This was the start of my realization that the doctrine of the church was important and something my wife and I were also forced to consider. Where would we worship? How long could we stay where we were? Especially since our church at the time was an EFCA congregation, which had a pastoral staff, one man called an “elder,” a governing board, and a very thin doctrinal statement. Not exactly the kind of church polity Berkhof was presenting. I too had to decide.
Second, many seminary students will go on to serve Christ’s church as ordained officers: ministers, elders, and deacons. But all Christians should be members of churches with a sound ecclesiology. If you do go on to be ordained, your professional life will take place within the life and assemblies of that church–which will impact you greatly. You will be ordained according to some sort of church order, you will be accountable to your church and your fellow officer-bearers in local, regional, and national/international assemblies (or courts). You will not subscribe to the writings of Calvin, Berkhof, or Horton. Instead, you will subscribe to a series of doctrinal standards, agreed upon up by the church body in which you will be ordained. To be ordained is to serve the church and embrace its government and doctrine.
Third, ecclesiology primarily deals with the doctrine of the church (and secondarily the doctrines taught by the church). This includes the categories you need to have in place as you live, work, and serve in Christ’s church as officers or church members. These categories include pressing questions such as: What is a true church? Why does this matter? How can people tell? What are the attributes and marks of the church? How should the church organize, govern itself, and conduct its worship? What is the church’s mission? These are very important questions which too often are not asked or properly considered.
Fourth, Christians are members of Christ’s body and identified as his bride (Ephesians 5:22-33; Revelation 19:6-9). This fact by itself encourages us to know what that means and how we ought to conduct ourselves as we prepare for the marriage feast yet to come. Of this list of reasons, I think this one is perhaps the most important reason why we should have a good understanding of ecclesiology–we are Christ’s bride as well as members of his body. What does this require of us? What does this mean for us in practical matters?
Fifth, we are also members of churches which function as God’s embassies upon the earth–providing shelter for those who sojourn here as witnesses to the spread of Christ’s kingdom and servants to our fellow saints as together we await the final consummation and the marriage supper of Christ the Lamb. What does God tell us in his word about the role, function, and blessings of being members of Christ’s body, how we are to serve, shepherd, rule, and protect it, as Christ’s collective bride?
Sixth, there is the stark reality of what our calling to serve Christ’s church involves. Church life is messy. People join your church, people leave your church. People do very sinful things, make disastrous personal decisions, and manifest all kinds of self-centered and poorly-thought out actions–oftentimes which do great harm to their brothers and sisters. People can be mean and cruel. People experience tragedy. People need help. People need instruction and rebuke. Some lack sound theological and biblical knowledge and are not interested in learning. Some just need encouragement and someone willing to listen. The church has to deal with such people in as many diverse situations as there are people–all the time, every day. A sound ecclesiology is necessary in order to help us deal with this reality.
Seventh, Reformed polity (and interest in it) is foreign to many of our contemporaries. For the most part American Christians simply do not care about this stuff. Properly understood, the church is the covenant community–made up of those whom God has called to faith and is currently sanctifying (think of it as a spiritual family). We cannot understand Christ’s church as an entrepreneurial enterprise (with a charismatic leader or celebrity pastor), as a voluntary society which I can join or un-join at my leisure. The church is not a political action committee or a vehicle for partisan politics–though sadly, many in our churches are far more interested in politics than they are in sound doctrine. Christians are concerned about things our secular contemporaries are not. We speak a language foreign to them.
Finally, many in our churches approach things as individuals who navigate life via personal experience or mere opinion–and do not see themselves as members of churches in submission to its head, Jesus Christ, who rules his church and cares for his sheep through his church, its officers, and the means of grace. People or churches without a sound ecclesiology have a hard time with life’s messiness. Making up our doctrine of the church as we go along often ends in disaster. Our fathers in the faith have thought long and hard about these things, reflecting upon biblical teaching, and then framing that teaching with wisdom and grounded in generations of experience. We are foolish if we do not take avail of all they have left to us.
The Two Critical Questions
I have seen this quoted many times, but its profundity was once lost to me. Not any more. As historian Paul Avis once wrote, “Reformation theology is largely dominated by two questions: ‘How can I obtain a gracious God?’ and ‘Where can I find the true Church?’ The two questions are inseparably related.”[1] He is absolutely right–the first question raises the latter. We will assume the former has been answered, so this series will focus on the latter.
If this has tweaked your interest in the subject, here is some suggested reading:
Michael Horton, People and Place
Guy Waters, How Jesus Runs the Church
To read the next in the series, Christ's Spotless Bride -- Some Thoughts on the Doctrine of the Church (Part One)
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[1] Cited in Michael S. Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology, First edition (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 220.