true2yeshua
November 9th, 2007, 04:18 PM
Israel My Glory Magazine
Sept/Oct 2007
by Renald E. Showers
Critical Issues Facing Today's Churches
Part 1
As a person who loves the church and has been privileged to minister in numerous local churches for more than four decades, I have a deep concern regarding the directions that many churches are going today.
I am convinced the most critical issues confronting churches are these: What should be the source of authority for detrmining the nature, purpose, and function of the church? And what are the nature, purpose, and function of the church?
Source of Authority
Is the source of authority to be (1) a market-driven philosophy; (2) the opinions of the people in the pews; or (3) God, through the revelation He has given in Scripture concerning the church?
In essence, the market-driven philosophy says, "In order to reach the unsaved, we must make the church relevant to them by conforming it to their concept of relevancy." This approach allows the unsaved - whom the Scriptures declare are the children of Satan (1 Jn. 3:10) - and the world's wisdom, which God declares is "foolishness" and "futile" (1 Cor. 3:19-20), to play a key role in determining the church's nature, purpose, and function.
Using the notions or opinions of churchgoers as a source of authority has a great pitfall: Every congregation consists of people with many different levels of biblical knowledge and spirituality and who hold many different opinions. And since most of the congregation probably has never studied what the Bible states concerning the church's nature, purpose, and function, these differences militate against a proper consensus on this critical issue.
Clearly, God, through the revelatioin He has given us in Scripture, should be the ultimate and final Source of authority concerning the nature, purpose, and function of the church. Through the repeated expressions the church of God and the churches of God, the Bible clearly indicates that the church belongs exclusively to Him, not to the unsaved or the people of the church (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 11:16, 22; 15:9; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:13; 1 Th. 2:14; 2 Th. 1:4; 1 Tim. 3:5, 15).
The Bible teaches that God is the One who has the authority to add people to the church and to determine the functions individual believers are to have in accordance with the ways He has gifted them for ministry (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 12:28).
The Bible also indicates that God is the One who had the authority to appoint Christ "to be head over all things to the church" (Eph. 1:22).
Since God, not the unsaved or the people of the church, is the exclusive Owner of the church, He is the only One who has the authority to determine what the nature, purpose, and function of the church should be.
Nature of the Church
Through the use of several terms in the Bible, God revealed what He intends in this regard.
To Be Holy. Ephesians 5:25-27 declares that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her so that "she should be holy" by nature. The word translated "holy" means "to divide, which would cause us to think of what is marked off from the secular." The opposite of holy isprofane. That term refers to "ordinary life, and thus self-evidently comes to mean 'common' (1 Sam. 21:5 f.; Ez. 22:26; 42:20; 44:23)." Thus to be holy means to be divided or marked off by being different, distinct, and sometimes even unique from what is secular, common, or ordinary in this world.
When used of God in the Bible, the word holy "comes to have the meaning of divine, and thus becomes an adjective for God (Is. 5:16; 6:3; Hos. 11:9)." It presents "the innermost descriptioin of God's nature (Isa. 6:3)." In other words, as the holy One, God by nature is totally different, distinct, or unique from all of creation. In Hosea 11:9 He "appears in moral antithesis to the nature of man: 'I am God, and not man, holy (qadosh) in the midst of thee."
Ephesians 5:27 and the combination of truths that God is holy by nature and that He is the church's exclusive Owner and the only One who has the authority to determine what the church's nature should be prompts the following conclusion: God intends the church to be holy.
In other words, it is to offer people something different from what the world system, dominated by Satan, offers them on a daily basis (Lk. 4:5-6; Jn. 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:3-4; 1 Jn. 5:19). The church is to be "in" the world but not "of" the world (cf. Jn. 17:14-16).
That this is precisely what God intends is inherent in the word translated "church" (ekklesia) in the NT. It means "called out" and implies that God has called out the universal and local church from Satan's godless world system - not physically but in the sense of being different in nature from that system. Thus the church is to functin accordingf to God's wisdom, not the world's.
In fact, Christ commanded believers to go "into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15). He ordained that the church evangelize primarily by going into the world where the unsaved are. If you want to catch fish, you go where the fish are. Evangelism is not to involve the church changing its nature to attract unsaved people into its services to get them saved. That method reverses the order of evangelism that Christ ordained.
The fact that God intends the church to be different in nature from the world system means He never intended the church to adhere to unsaved people's concepts of relevancy. Christians who believe that to reach the unsaved they must conform the church to the world's concept of relevancy will thereby defile the church's holy nature. They use the world's wisdom instead of God's wisdom to do the work of God's church.
By contrast, the apostle Paul emphasized that God wants His work to be done with His wisdom, and he warned us about the serious consequences for anyone who defiles the church with the world's wisdom (1 Cor. 1:17-25; 2:4-7, 12-14; 3:16-20; 2 Cor. 1:12; 10:3-5).
To Be Sanctified. (Eph. 5:25-26). The word translated "sanctified" is closely related to the concept of holy. Sanctification is exclusively the work of God, and "the sanctifying power rests exclusively on the holiness of God." Whatever is sanctified is "separated from what is profane and set in a consecrated state." Epheisians 5:25-26 indicates that God has consecrated the church to function using a different wisdom from that of the godless world system.
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Israel My Glory Magazine
Nov/Dec 2007
by Renald E. Showers
Critical Issues Facing Today's Churches
Part 2
A critical question believers must ask themselves today is, "What is the nature, purpose, and function of the church?" To reach the unsaved, must the church conform to the world's concept of relevancy? The answer, of course, is that it must conform to God's concept of relevancy.
God intends the church to be different in nature from the world system, which means He never intended it to pander to the unsaved or to use a market-driven philosophy to attract unbelievers. Unfortunately, many churches today are falling away from God's ideal. Yet He has revealed in His Word that He intends the church's nature, purpose and function to be.
Clean, Pure (Eph. 5:25-26). The world translated "cleanse" means "make clean, cleanse, purify." In the OT, the word most closely related in concept to the word for "holiness" was the word for "purity". To the people of the Near East in Bible times, purifying meant to "make free from impurity or evil." Purity played a "highly important role in worship," and purification included "avoidance of everything repugnant to the deity." Ephesians 5:25-26 indicates that to be clean of the world's defilement, or to be pure, the church must avoid whatever would offend God and His holy nature.
Glorious (v. 27). The word glory in the Bible refers to what is impressive or influential concerning a person or thing. "In relation to God it implies that which makes God impressive to man, the force of His self-manifestation". The expression "glorious church" indicates the church is to function exactly as God wants it to function, so when unsaved people observe it, they will be deeply impressed with God and Christ. The Lord can then have life-changing influence upon them.
Spotless, Without Wrinkles, Unblemished (v. 27). Spots and wrinkles are imperfections that spoil something's appearance. Any defilement of the church's nature or any failure in its functioning the way God intends spoils the impression of God and Christ that the church is to make on the world. The word translated "without blemish" means "without reproach" or "blameless." The church should strive to be continually blameless in nature and function "before the judgment of God and Christ."
Purpose and Function
Ephesians 5:27 indicates that the church's primary purpose is to glorify God and Christ. This involves such things as (1) doing God's work the way He wants it done, (2) displaying God's wisdom, and (3) doing good works for the saved and unsaved (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:10; Phil. 1:9-11). It was, after all, God's wisdom that provided a way to remove the enmity that existed between people (such as Jews and Gentiles) and thereby bring them together as equals in one body with mutual respect, harmony, love, and concern (Rom. 15:5-9; Eph. 2:11-19; 3:4-6, 9-10).
Biblically, the function of the church involves at least the following items:
Worship (originally "worthship"). Worship is to be God- and Christ-centered, not man- or self-centered. It consists of telling God and Christ how worthy and deserving they are to receive honor, reverence, homage, adoration, praise, commitment, obedience, and service. The means of worship involves studying and teaching God's Word, willingly accepting and obeying His Word, testifying, praying, giving financially to God's work, being baptized, partaking of communion, and expressing worth through music.
Evangelism. Evangelism declares to the unsaved the gospel defined in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. (See also Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8.) It is true some churches that use the world's market-driven philosophy of conforming the church to unsaved people's concepts of relevancy do become huge. But that approach prompts some significant questions: How many people in those churches are truly saved? Have the natures of those churches been corrupted or defiled, contrary to the holy nature God intended for the church?
We should keep in mind that what appears to be great success is no guarantee that right methods were used. God told Moses to speak to the rock to obtain water. Instead, Moses struck the rock. God gave the right result. He provided the water. But there was consequence. Because Moses used the wrong method, God judged him by preventing him from entering the Promised Land (Num. 20:7-12).
The market-driven approach is not the way God intends the church to grow. His ordained method for numerical growth is through evangelism. Each local church should develop and consistently carry out an aggressive program of evangelism.
Training, Equipping the Saints (Eph. 4:11-21). Equipping the saints to do God's ministry involves several factors.
(1) Helping believers discern how they have been gifted for ministry and training them to use their gifts effectively. Every believer has received at least one spiritual gift (ability to minister, 1 Pet. 4:10; 1 Cor. 12).
(2) Systematically teaching the saints all the doctrines and books of the Bible (Acts 2:42; 6:4; 20:27; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:16-17). This solemn responsibility should be the priority of pulpit and Sunday school ministries, including those for children and youth. Tragically, many churches purposely avoid teaching doctrine and the books of the Bible because they consider them controversial. Instead, they emphasize making people feel good about themselves. And, ironically, some people think that children and youth, who are amazingly capable of understanding complicated computer programs, are not capable of understanding the doctrinal teachings of the Bible.
(3) Administering the ordinances of believer's baptism and communion (Acts 2:41-42; 10:47-48; 19:1-5; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
(4) Felloshiping (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 8:4; Eph. 3:9; Phil. 1:5; 1 Jn 1:3,7).
(5) Praying (Acts 2:42; 4:31; 12:5; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 7:18; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2-3; 1 Th. 5:17, 25; 2 Th. 1:11; 3:1; 1 Tim. 2:8; Jas. 5:14-16).
(6) Maintaining a benevolence ministry (Acts 6:1-7; 1 Tim. 5:1-16).
Sept/Oct 2007
by Renald E. Showers
Critical Issues Facing Today's Churches
Part 1
As a person who loves the church and has been privileged to minister in numerous local churches for more than four decades, I have a deep concern regarding the directions that many churches are going today.
I am convinced the most critical issues confronting churches are these: What should be the source of authority for detrmining the nature, purpose, and function of the church? And what are the nature, purpose, and function of the church?
Source of Authority
Is the source of authority to be (1) a market-driven philosophy; (2) the opinions of the people in the pews; or (3) God, through the revelation He has given in Scripture concerning the church?
In essence, the market-driven philosophy says, "In order to reach the unsaved, we must make the church relevant to them by conforming it to their concept of relevancy." This approach allows the unsaved - whom the Scriptures declare are the children of Satan (1 Jn. 3:10) - and the world's wisdom, which God declares is "foolishness" and "futile" (1 Cor. 3:19-20), to play a key role in determining the church's nature, purpose, and function.
Using the notions or opinions of churchgoers as a source of authority has a great pitfall: Every congregation consists of people with many different levels of biblical knowledge and spirituality and who hold many different opinions. And since most of the congregation probably has never studied what the Bible states concerning the church's nature, purpose, and function, these differences militate against a proper consensus on this critical issue.
Clearly, God, through the revelatioin He has given us in Scripture, should be the ultimate and final Source of authority concerning the nature, purpose, and function of the church. Through the repeated expressions the church of God and the churches of God, the Bible clearly indicates that the church belongs exclusively to Him, not to the unsaved or the people of the church (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 11:16, 22; 15:9; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:13; 1 Th. 2:14; 2 Th. 1:4; 1 Tim. 3:5, 15).
The Bible teaches that God is the One who has the authority to add people to the church and to determine the functions individual believers are to have in accordance with the ways He has gifted them for ministry (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 12:28).
The Bible also indicates that God is the One who had the authority to appoint Christ "to be head over all things to the church" (Eph. 1:22).
Since God, not the unsaved or the people of the church, is the exclusive Owner of the church, He is the only One who has the authority to determine what the nature, purpose, and function of the church should be.
Nature of the Church
Through the use of several terms in the Bible, God revealed what He intends in this regard.
To Be Holy. Ephesians 5:25-27 declares that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her so that "she should be holy" by nature. The word translated "holy" means "to divide, which would cause us to think of what is marked off from the secular." The opposite of holy isprofane. That term refers to "ordinary life, and thus self-evidently comes to mean 'common' (1 Sam. 21:5 f.; Ez. 22:26; 42:20; 44:23)." Thus to be holy means to be divided or marked off by being different, distinct, and sometimes even unique from what is secular, common, or ordinary in this world.
When used of God in the Bible, the word holy "comes to have the meaning of divine, and thus becomes an adjective for God (Is. 5:16; 6:3; Hos. 11:9)." It presents "the innermost descriptioin of God's nature (Isa. 6:3)." In other words, as the holy One, God by nature is totally different, distinct, or unique from all of creation. In Hosea 11:9 He "appears in moral antithesis to the nature of man: 'I am God, and not man, holy (qadosh) in the midst of thee."
Ephesians 5:27 and the combination of truths that God is holy by nature and that He is the church's exclusive Owner and the only One who has the authority to determine what the church's nature should be prompts the following conclusion: God intends the church to be holy.
In other words, it is to offer people something different from what the world system, dominated by Satan, offers them on a daily basis (Lk. 4:5-6; Jn. 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:3-4; 1 Jn. 5:19). The church is to be "in" the world but not "of" the world (cf. Jn. 17:14-16).
That this is precisely what God intends is inherent in the word translated "church" (ekklesia) in the NT. It means "called out" and implies that God has called out the universal and local church from Satan's godless world system - not physically but in the sense of being different in nature from that system. Thus the church is to functin accordingf to God's wisdom, not the world's.
In fact, Christ commanded believers to go "into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15). He ordained that the church evangelize primarily by going into the world where the unsaved are. If you want to catch fish, you go where the fish are. Evangelism is not to involve the church changing its nature to attract unsaved people into its services to get them saved. That method reverses the order of evangelism that Christ ordained.
The fact that God intends the church to be different in nature from the world system means He never intended the church to adhere to unsaved people's concepts of relevancy. Christians who believe that to reach the unsaved they must conform the church to the world's concept of relevancy will thereby defile the church's holy nature. They use the world's wisdom instead of God's wisdom to do the work of God's church.
By contrast, the apostle Paul emphasized that God wants His work to be done with His wisdom, and he warned us about the serious consequences for anyone who defiles the church with the world's wisdom (1 Cor. 1:17-25; 2:4-7, 12-14; 3:16-20; 2 Cor. 1:12; 10:3-5).
To Be Sanctified. (Eph. 5:25-26). The word translated "sanctified" is closely related to the concept of holy. Sanctification is exclusively the work of God, and "the sanctifying power rests exclusively on the holiness of God." Whatever is sanctified is "separated from what is profane and set in a consecrated state." Epheisians 5:25-26 indicates that God has consecrated the church to function using a different wisdom from that of the godless world system.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel My Glory Magazine
Nov/Dec 2007
by Renald E. Showers
Critical Issues Facing Today's Churches
Part 2
A critical question believers must ask themselves today is, "What is the nature, purpose, and function of the church?" To reach the unsaved, must the church conform to the world's concept of relevancy? The answer, of course, is that it must conform to God's concept of relevancy.
God intends the church to be different in nature from the world system, which means He never intended it to pander to the unsaved or to use a market-driven philosophy to attract unbelievers. Unfortunately, many churches today are falling away from God's ideal. Yet He has revealed in His Word that He intends the church's nature, purpose and function to be.
Clean, Pure (Eph. 5:25-26). The world translated "cleanse" means "make clean, cleanse, purify." In the OT, the word most closely related in concept to the word for "holiness" was the word for "purity". To the people of the Near East in Bible times, purifying meant to "make free from impurity or evil." Purity played a "highly important role in worship," and purification included "avoidance of everything repugnant to the deity." Ephesians 5:25-26 indicates that to be clean of the world's defilement, or to be pure, the church must avoid whatever would offend God and His holy nature.
Glorious (v. 27). The word glory in the Bible refers to what is impressive or influential concerning a person or thing. "In relation to God it implies that which makes God impressive to man, the force of His self-manifestation". The expression "glorious church" indicates the church is to function exactly as God wants it to function, so when unsaved people observe it, they will be deeply impressed with God and Christ. The Lord can then have life-changing influence upon them.
Spotless, Without Wrinkles, Unblemished (v. 27). Spots and wrinkles are imperfections that spoil something's appearance. Any defilement of the church's nature or any failure in its functioning the way God intends spoils the impression of God and Christ that the church is to make on the world. The word translated "without blemish" means "without reproach" or "blameless." The church should strive to be continually blameless in nature and function "before the judgment of God and Christ."
Purpose and Function
Ephesians 5:27 indicates that the church's primary purpose is to glorify God and Christ. This involves such things as (1) doing God's work the way He wants it done, (2) displaying God's wisdom, and (3) doing good works for the saved and unsaved (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:10; Phil. 1:9-11). It was, after all, God's wisdom that provided a way to remove the enmity that existed between people (such as Jews and Gentiles) and thereby bring them together as equals in one body with mutual respect, harmony, love, and concern (Rom. 15:5-9; Eph. 2:11-19; 3:4-6, 9-10).
Biblically, the function of the church involves at least the following items:
Worship (originally "worthship"). Worship is to be God- and Christ-centered, not man- or self-centered. It consists of telling God and Christ how worthy and deserving they are to receive honor, reverence, homage, adoration, praise, commitment, obedience, and service. The means of worship involves studying and teaching God's Word, willingly accepting and obeying His Word, testifying, praying, giving financially to God's work, being baptized, partaking of communion, and expressing worth through music.
Evangelism. Evangelism declares to the unsaved the gospel defined in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. (See also Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8.) It is true some churches that use the world's market-driven philosophy of conforming the church to unsaved people's concepts of relevancy do become huge. But that approach prompts some significant questions: How many people in those churches are truly saved? Have the natures of those churches been corrupted or defiled, contrary to the holy nature God intended for the church?
We should keep in mind that what appears to be great success is no guarantee that right methods were used. God told Moses to speak to the rock to obtain water. Instead, Moses struck the rock. God gave the right result. He provided the water. But there was consequence. Because Moses used the wrong method, God judged him by preventing him from entering the Promised Land (Num. 20:7-12).
The market-driven approach is not the way God intends the church to grow. His ordained method for numerical growth is through evangelism. Each local church should develop and consistently carry out an aggressive program of evangelism.
Training, Equipping the Saints (Eph. 4:11-21). Equipping the saints to do God's ministry involves several factors.
(1) Helping believers discern how they have been gifted for ministry and training them to use their gifts effectively. Every believer has received at least one spiritual gift (ability to minister, 1 Pet. 4:10; 1 Cor. 12).
(2) Systematically teaching the saints all the doctrines and books of the Bible (Acts 2:42; 6:4; 20:27; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:16-17). This solemn responsibility should be the priority of pulpit and Sunday school ministries, including those for children and youth. Tragically, many churches purposely avoid teaching doctrine and the books of the Bible because they consider them controversial. Instead, they emphasize making people feel good about themselves. And, ironically, some people think that children and youth, who are amazingly capable of understanding complicated computer programs, are not capable of understanding the doctrinal teachings of the Bible.
(3) Administering the ordinances of believer's baptism and communion (Acts 2:41-42; 10:47-48; 19:1-5; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
(4) Felloshiping (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 8:4; Eph. 3:9; Phil. 1:5; 1 Jn 1:3,7).
(5) Praying (Acts 2:42; 4:31; 12:5; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 7:18; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2-3; 1 Th. 5:17, 25; 2 Th. 1:11; 3:1; 1 Tim. 2:8; Jas. 5:14-16).
(6) Maintaining a benevolence ministry (Acts 6:1-7; 1 Tim. 5:1-16).