What Difference Does This Make?
From The Forum Magazine, Fall 2013 - view the full issue here
Dr. John Cooper has written a primer on some of the key terms and tensions that are part of the Reformed tradition—especially as it impacts our understanding of what Scripture teaches about the church and the kingdom and their relationship. For example, he highlighted that Reformed Christians believe in the pervasiveness of sin as part of our understanding the “antithesis”; but we also believe in God’s sovereign rule over all of creation, which forms the background for our understanding of “common grace.”
What does understanding such key terms and tensions mean for us? Does it matter? Does it make a difference?
I write this article as a former church planter. I also write this article knowing that we live in a world where, in the name of toleration, we many times move to a muddled middle rather than clarity based on distinctives. We may even avoid identifying differences and distinctions because we fear that we may be labeled as narrow minded. And yet, differences and distinctions are important not only for our orthodoxy, but also for our orthopraxis.
In this article, I hope to illustrate some of the “So what?” implications flowing out of Dr. Cooper’s article.
Antithesis and Common Grace
The categories of “antithesis” and “common grace” challenge us to be both discerning of and open to the community and world around us.
The taint of sin is everywhere. The outlooks and worldviews of others are not the same as of those who acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The antithesis helps us see the roots of sin and idolatry and the extent of the brokenness that lies beneath the veneer of our culture.
As a new church planter in New Lenox, I investigated the community I was now calling home. As part of my orientation, I met with other pastors and asked them about their ministry and the community. I still remember Pastor Dave saying that New Lenox was infected by “over” disease. He went on to explain that people were overly committed in time as shown by their calendars, overly extended in their finances as shown by their checkbooks—and overly optimistic about how a move to New Lenox was going to fix their problems.
The gods of achievement, consumerism and materialism were alive and well in New Lenox. I saw many a big house with no real furniture inside because people extended their borrowing to buy the house, but did not leave room in their budget to include furniture for their home. Living in their empty houses, people would fill their calendar with activities in an effort to fill their lives. As an illustration of how people chose to fill their calendars, Pastor Dave shared about an early Easter service where a child arrivedin their soccer uniform to attend a game later that day. When asked why coaches would put together a schedule of games for Easter Sunday, the parent’s answer was, “I do not know,” along with an explanation that the parent thought it better to not push the coach on that topic.
The coach was living out the value that sport (and sports achievement) was a great way to find meaning and fulfillment in life. Parents were following along because “good parenting” was seen as making sure that your child was involved in lots of activities, which also coincided with the hopes of many that their child would be good enough to get a college scholarship someday.
The “antithesis” analysis helped me in framing the good news of the gospel to this community that had “over” disease. Understanding the idols of our day and calling people to turn from those idols helped to introduce and teach about biblical themes of ministry like Sabbath, stewardship, and discipleship not as “one more thing to do,” but as the living out of a new life with Christ. Moralism is ultimately about rules and rituals, but the gospel is about a new life, as individuals and within a community, with Jesus.
I could have taken this emphasis on the antithesis and decided that our church was called to be separate from this world, but an understanding of common grace compelled me to also engage our community. It led to conversations with schools and coaches about how to have “space” for children in terms of calendar, including Easter Sunday.
Another outgrowth of our engagement led New Life Church to join the local Chamber of Commerce and eventually led me to be a Chamber of Commerce Board member for nine years. I may have initially been accepted for “pastor’s blessing over meals,” but our church ministry became known for more. Our knowledge of the community and the community’s knowledge of New Life led to cooperation and collaboration in such areas as publicizing recovery ministries and developing a food pantry. New Life Church found favor in the community as we entered into the life of the community.
Church as Institution and Church as Organism
Churches and church leaders are pulled in multiple directions. There are a number of good things to do and be involved in, but the church is tasked with a particular mission.
The distinction between “church as institution” and “church as organism” helps the church to focus, but also empowers the church as the people of God.
A key Bible passage for understanding the role of church leadership is Ephesians 4:11-13:
"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."
Congregations can have an inward focus. Our announcements and calendar tend to be centered on congregational activities. And yet, the church gathers on Sunday to be the church in the world. The church is to do both. We gather for worship, fellowship, and mutual edification as well as to be equipped for life in the world.
A Reformed view of the world of work holds that faith is to frame and inform the work of individual Christians in their various endeavors. Works of service are not just works in the church for the congregation. Works of service are works related to kingdom service. The church as institution is a nurturing environment where the people of God (church as organism) are prepared to enter into kingdom service.
When a church holds a course on creation care, it is meant to affect how we live in the world. When a church acknowledges the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, it lifts up the prophetic voice of the church and calls for church members to combat the effects of racism and social injustice.
When the distinction between church as organism and church as institution is lost, we can slip into a new type of legalism where to be a Christian is also to be on the “right side” of social issues of the day. The church does have a prophetic voice and needs to address, for example, the dangers of individualism, infatuation with pop culture, body images presented for young men and women, hedonism, and inequities in our justice system. However, it needs to frame the issues so that Christians who work in these areas can provide wise discernment and counsel.
Underlying this distinction between church as organism and church as institution is the understanding that the church is distinct from the kingdom of God. The church is the foretaste, vanguard, and agent of the coming kingdom. The organized church is the school where citizens of the kingdom of God are nurtured. The church is made up of God’s people, and the kingdom is his rule over the whole of creation. The focus of church life and teaching is not only to make better Christians, but to disciple Christians who live and work in the world. As Professor Cooper noted, “He wants obedience in all of life—education, vocation, recreation, finances, and citizenship—not just in personal faith, family and church.”
This distinction helps us present a gospel that calls people to live their entire lives and weekly calendar under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As a new church planter, I was calling people to live deep lives of “reformation” and renewal rather than experience a ritual of an hour on Sunday. I was calling them to new life in Christ, which would affect all of their life and work.
Navigating the Tensions: Word & Deed Ministry as well as Gospel & Culture
Professor Cooper rightly notes that it is possible to minister using deeds without words, but we also need to be prepared to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Any time the church and its members slide to one side at the expense of the other, there is a weakening of our witness.
To be proclaimers of the Word and not doers of the Word opens us up to the charge of hypocrisy. The good news means food and justice as well as forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. To be doers of the Word and not proclaimers of the Word risksthe church being likened and limited to any not-forprofit social service agency. The church is more and her message is more. The whole of the gospel is meant to address the whole of life.
And in our presentation of that gospel, it is helpful to have an awareness of how the gospel is affected by a particular culture or is presented in a particular context. Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, at a 2010 Urban Church conference in New York City, noted that the gospel is about presenting a way of living that is both distinctly Christian and yet relevant and helpful. Keller identified that our world tends to seek salvation in self by either the way of licentiousness (do whatever you want) or the way of legalism (follow the rules of someone or some religion). As an alternative, Keller presented the gospel as lived out in a particular culture.
The gospel is certainly presented in a particular context. There are streams of Christian witness that fail to adapt to or interact with the culture and thus increasingly appear to be irrelevant. There are also streams of Christian witness that capitulate or overly adapt to the culture; they are also irrelevant because they are indistinguishable from the culture. The gospel calls for us to seek wisdom about the extent and scope of adaptation while maintaining a distinctively Christian presence and witness.
In a world that seeks to polarize people and positions, Reformed Christianity stands out in both acknowledging the tensions that exist and seeking to navigate between those tensions. The breadth and depth of the Christian witness is flattened when we collapse categories and fail to navigate the tensions. We have a story that takes us through the full range of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. Reformed Christianity seeks to present this full, life-giving gospel— to demonstrate that living by the gospel leads to a full life in this world, not just insurance for the life to come.
Identifying the distinctives matters because getting them right helps us to sound the right notes of the gospel to a world out of rhythm with the Creator of heaven and earth. Understanding the categories can really help us share the “good news” well.
