For the last few months, I’ve been writing about my ordination process in the Evangelical Free Church of America. If you’d like to read about what the process looks like, check out the first post in the series (here). Throughout the autumn, I’ll occasionally share the remaining sections of my ordination paper, which engages with our denomination’s 10-point statement of faith. This week’s post is from the section on the church, which also required me to interact with the preamble to our statement of faith.

Thank you for the prayers and encouragement along the way,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition, Jesus, The Work of Christ, The Holy Spirit}

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The Church

7. We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

In the context of the Bible, justification is the legal declaration from God that he has declared a person “not guilty” and imputed Christ’s righteousness to the repentant (Rm 3:21–30; 2 Cor 5:21). We call this exchange double imputation, the believer’s sin reckoned to Christ and Christ’s righteousness reckoned to us. All this good news comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. To say justification comes by grace is to say that the loving favor received from God is an undeserved gift (Eph 2:8; Titus 3:7). To say it comes through faith means that a person must look away from his own works and instead cling to and depend upon the provision of Christ (Phil 3:9). We add the word alone to grace to clarify that in justification we add nothing to grace or it wouldn’t be grace; alone to faith because nothing more than faith is required; and alone to Christ because no salvation is found except in Christ. The reason we do not always have to say that we need faith and repentance, though the Bible sometimes but not always says repent and believe (Mk 1:15), is because of the proper understanding of what faith includes. Faith in Christ involves turning from treasuring X, Y, and Z to treasuring Christ, which must include repentance, the renouncing of our old ways to walk in obedience.

The true church is the sum total of all those justified by Jesus—throughout all time and place. We see this understanding of the church in Ephesians 5:25b where Paul describes the church as all those for whom Christ gave himself up. Jesus loves the church as a groom loves his bride. Jesus Christ is the head of every local church because he is the head of the true, or universal, church (Eph 1:22–23; 4:15–16; 5:23; Col 1:18; 2:19; Rev 1–3). As head, Jesus lovingly rules, commands, and nurtures his church, which is his body, and in turn, his church should respect and submit to his gracious rule.

A part of the church’s role in respecting and submitting to God’s gracious rule involves the practice of the two ordinances that Jesus instituted to be carried out under the auspices of local churches, namely, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I have experience in both paedo- and credo-views of baptism, and I see many strengths in each (as well as perhaps some weaknesses), but I do practice believer’s baptism. Once a person has experienced the saving power of the gospel, we properly display what has happened on the inside with a sign on the outside (Rm 6:1–11). In this way, baptism parallels wearing a wedding ring. It signifies to the world that the person is in an exclusive relationship with another. The ring—and baptism—do not put a person in the special relationship; they symbolize it. At our church, we do not require baptism for membership, though we certainly encourage it and typically discuss baptism with those applying for membership.

Concerning the Lord’s Supper, various views exist. The Roman Catholic Church errs in her sacramentalism, the understanding that sacraments such as the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) confer salvific grace to participants regardless of their heart posture. Although far less dangerous, I think the strict memorialist view goes too far in the other direction, as though all we are doing is remembering. Christians never just remember anything (cf. “remembering the poor” in Gal 2:10 means far more than recalling to one’s mind that some people are, in fact, poor). When Christians remember the death of Christ by participating in the Lord’s Supper, God supplies his church with nourishing grace and unites believers. In 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, all the negative observations about the church’s malpractice of the Lord’s Supper imply spiritual blessing when practiced rightly as together we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26; cf. 10:16). It’s common to hear people say that the provocative “eat my flesh, drink my blood” saying of Jesus in John 6 points us to the Lord’s Supper. But it’s the Lord’s Supper that points us to John 6! The bread we break and cup we drink is participating in Christ (1 Cor 10:16–17). In the Lord’s Supper we taste and see that his body and blood are true spiritual food and drink.

There seems to be a biblical, gospel-logic order to these ordinances, namely, that gospel awakening should be shortly followed by baptism (Mt 28:19; Acts 8:35–39), which should be followed by regular participation in the Lord’s Supper in a particular local church, all overseen by qualified shepherds. The last part of that sentence (in a church under the care of qualified pastor-elders-overseers) and the association in the Bible of the ordinances with whole-church unity (1 Cor 11:26) has implications on when and where the ordinances should be celebrated. A youth director should not baptize children while away at a camp, and four Christian guys on a hike or a small group Bible study should not hold a communion service; even when the small group leader is a pastor-elder, his small group is not the local church but only part of a local church. (The inability of a shut-in to come to the regular gathering of the church isn’t the same thing.) To be candid, our own local church could do a better job teaching about the ordinances. We noticed this last year when we changed the default method of handing out the communion elements. Rather than passing trays through pews, we began inviting Christians to come forward to receive, which showed us that a few unbaptized, young children were partaking as well as others we suspect have unclear professions of faith. Clearly, we have work to do.

Preamble

The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association of autonomous churches united around these theological convictions:

EFCA local churches are autonomous because no official, governing body higher than the local church (e.g., a bishop in Episcopalian government or General Assembly in Presbyterian government) decides matters of dispute, exercises church discipline, and calls pastors. Rather, each local church handles such things (Mt 18:15–17; 2 Cor 2:6). We recently updated our own local church constitution and bylaws, which were adopted long before I arrived. In one place, the document had said we were a “completely autonomous” church (emphasis added), to which I occasionally remarked in elders’ meetings “there is no such thing.” While each local church is in a sense autonomous, churches are interdependent, meaning we function best when we affiliate with other like-minded churches for the many benefits to each other and for the greater witness to Christ locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Additionally, we too quickly forget that every church exists upon the faithful brothers and sisters who have come before us, even those who planted each of our current churches. Every church is a church plant.

There are different structures of congregational government, but each variation holds that the final authority, under Jesus Christ, belongs to the local church membership (Mt 18:18–20; 1 Cor 5:4–5). Membership in a local church is for believers, which is why the pastor-elders of our church listen to the testimony of every person applying for membership. Those reading this paper who regularly listen to membership interviews likely know both the joys of listening to the redeemed of the Lord say so (Ps 107:2) but also the angst that comes when an applicant’s testimony and gospel clarity are fuzzy.

In addition to being in the Bible, congregationalism has particular importance in the EFCA because of its European roots that reach back to the time shortly after the Reformation. The EFCA, although not officially organized and named as such until the 1950s, has strong ties to believers in Europe who sought the freedom to worship God without the constraints of state churches. Today the term free carries a different nuance in the EFCA, but the spirit of freedom continues in the way a local congregation rules its own body and decides on theological matters deemed to be of second- and third-order importance (Acts 6:1–6; 2 Cor 2:6). In our church this means membership must vote on matters such as amending the constitution and bylaws, calling and affirming pastor-elders, affirming deacons and deaconesses, approving the budget, and buying and selling property. A healthy church can thrive when each office—the office of pastor-elder, the office of deacon/deaconess, and the office of member—knows its role and humbly serves within it.

Discussion Questions (created by the EFCA)

Justification

1.  How do you understand “justification” (cf. Romans 3:21-26)?

God’s Grace Through Faith Alone in Christ Alone

2.  Define “grace” and “faith” and explain how grace and faith in Christ are related to justification.

3.  What is the significance of the emphasis on “alone?”

Body of Christ, Jesus Christ as Head of Church

4.  How are the scriptural metaphors of “the body of Christ,” “the bride of Christ,” and “the Head of the Church” to be understood?

True Church and Local Church

5.  What is the relationship between the “true church” and the “local church?”

Local Church

6.  What does it mean to be a “believers’ church?” Why is membership important for a local church? What responsibilities do members have in a local church?

7.  Address the various types of church government. What is the biblical defense of congregationalism?

8.  Within congregationalism, how should the Pastor(s), Church Board (Elders and Deacons), and Congregation function together for effective church ministry?

9.  What is your understanding of the statement that the “EFCA shall be an association and fellowship of autonomous but interdependent congregations of like faith and congregational government?” What does “autonomous but interdependent” mean? Why is denominational affiliation important for you and the congregation?

Ordinances

10.  What is the meaning and purpose of baptism? What are the various modes of baptism?

11.  What is the meaning and purpose of the Lord’s Supper? What are the various ways this is understood?

12.  How do baptism and the Lord’s Supper relate to one another, i.e. is there a biblical order? How do they “confirm and nourish the believer?”

 

* Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash