Restoring Christ’s Church
I grew up as a conservative Christian in a conservative Roman Catholic country. Around us were many who belonged to different sects and denominations. We made the acquaintance of members of the Presbyterian, Baptist, Assembly of God, Four Square and many other denominations. It was easy to say “They’re wrong, we’re right.” But my dad gave me a love of the Scripture and a desire to learn more about it. So as I studied the Bible more I started seeing that the way I was raised wasn’t necessarily completely biblical. That is, I was taught many things that had to do with tradition more than with the truth of Scripture.
And then I got to know more about folks in other denominations and whaddaya know? They too had tons of tradition that was at least as important to them as the Bible – if not more so. I saw the Roman traditions around me and started studying a bit about Church History. As I studied I found that many things which we’d inherited from The Reformers were things that THEY had inherited from the Roman Church that they were trying to reform. In other words, they didn’t restore things to “the way Christ taught” but rather restored SOME things – while allowing years (centuries) of tradition to be as important as the Scriptures.
One of the greatest problems we have in attempting to restore Christ’s Church is that none of us were around to say “That’s the way things were.” The Stone-Campbell movement tends to seek “an order of worship” and most of the lamentable schisms in their ranks hail from this desire to “Get Sunday Right”. But do we see an “Order of Worship” in the New Testament? I don’t believe so. At least not the “Three hymns, Four Prayers and a Sermon” type of order. I Corinthians 14 does deal with the meetings, but not to set up some “order” but rather to set order into the way they did things- emphasizing that the meetings were to “edify the church”, that “every thing be done to edify the church”. That was the emphasis they had – to strengthen each other – for each person to have a chance to participate – to strengthen each other. This was important as they often faced cruel repression and even death. Their meetings were set up to help them weather the storms of life around them.
Wouldn’t that be a good goal for our weekly meetings? Most of what I see around the world is geared to the idea that God is some kind of megalomaniac Who has to be humored and praised and made to feel important. Wait a minute! He sent His Son to die for OUR sins. Does He deserve to be worshiped and praised? OF COURSE! And yet, doesn’t He deserve even more to be OBEYED? Perhaps we need to take another look at what God has in mind for us. What goals does He have for our meetings?
One of the major errors is that folks head to the Jewish Scriptures to seek out how to worship God. But we are no longer under the Old Testament. The Jewish forms of worship were built around a temple. And Jesus said clearly that the Father seeks those who will worship Him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. He is seeking not just outward forms of worship – but inward changes which are reflected through our daily lives. To allow the Christ to regenerate us is to allow Him to be reflected in the way we live. This is TRUE worship.
Some folks seek to enslave others through their ideas of “what’s fittin’â€. But Jesus came to make us free – and we’re commanded to not allow ourselves to be enslaved any more. Grace. Have you heard that word before? You can translate it as “unmerited favorâ€. God has saved those of us who TRULY believe in Him because of GRACE, not because of any good works or nobility of our own. How shall we now live? Shouldn’t each waking hour be devoted to honoring our Father through our example? Shouldn’t we seek to make His Name known – by living according to His Will? Or is it enough to dedicate a few hours on Sunday to Him and spend the rest of our lives seeking our own desires?
If we’d like to truly restore the Church that Jesus the Christ died to establish – then we’d better start looking at something other than the outward expressions of “Praise†and “Worshipâ€. I find it very hard to believe that The Son of Man who came not to be served but rather to Serve did so in order for us to stand around on Sunday and sing pretty songs. He came as an example. If we want to be His disciples then we’d better start living like them. “By this will all men know that you are My disciples – if you have love one for another.†That love isn’t shown by singing pretty songs to each other – it is best demonstrated by living a life directed by God’s Spirit.
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