The Essence of the Church - Notes

Craig Van Gelder (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, MI, 2000)

p31 "Church and mission need to be merged into a common concept."

THREE - HISTORICAL VIEWS OF THE CHURCH

Period 1: The Early Centuries of the Church

Nicene Creed "We believe ... one holy catholic and apostolic Church"

p50 Apostles' Creed "I believe a holy catholic church, the communion of saints"
"This latter concept identified the social reality of the church as a spiritual community, an idea that has great relevance for today's discussions about the church."

p51 "The basic image of the church as apostolic conveys that the church is sent into the world authoritatively representative of God in the world".

Period 2: The Protestant Reformation

p55 "none of the Reformation confessions referred directly to an apostolic church ... This was because the Roman Church used the apostolic attribute primarily to legitimize the office of the bishop and the role of the pope based on the authority given to Peter and the other apostles."

p55 "The Reformers' downplaying of the apostolic attribute and their shifting of authority from the pope to the Bible were reinforced by their use of the Constantinian solution - the establishment of state churches within their various nations."

p57 "The two marks ... tended to shift attention from what the church is to what the church does".
With this focus on preaching and the sacraments, worship came to be viewed as the primary ministry of the church".

p58 "This led to an emphasis on defining, developing, organizing, and governing an ordained clergy".

Period 3: The Free Church Movement

v Clear separation of church and state
v emphasis on visible church
v emphasis on "every member ministry"

Period 4: Pietism, Mission Societies, and the Modern Missions Movement

Zinzendorf
Carey

p63 "In [Pietism] , the focus shifted to the individual believer. One's personal experience with God became the center of God's redemptive work in the world. This tended to displace the church to secondary status ..."

"The focus of the ministry of the church was redirected in two ways. First, in pietistic views, ministry was primarily directed toward cultivating means to achieve personal discipleship. Second, in mission-society views, missions was added as a necessary act of obedience for the church, an act which was to be carried out by a few specialized persons".

(NB - How does this last point relate to world missions where the whole church cannot be directly involved?)

p67 "This view of the church as an organization formed by the voluntary association of self-selecting individuals quickly gained wide acceptance".

p67 "they considered an individual's natural rights and rational abilities to be the starting points for constructing a social contract".

cf. John Locke re the church: "I take (the church) to be a voluntary society of men joining themselves of their own accord in a church order to the public worshipping of God in such a manner as they judge acceptable to Him".

p67 "The modern conception of the church as being essentially denominational, organizational, and voluntaristic has profound implications for our understanding of the nature, ministry, and organization of the church".

(NB - Acts shows both Temple worship and house-based worship - both are normal.)

p67 "Because of the voluntary, individualistic nature of joining this social organization, its focus tends to be on the rights and privileges associated with membership, not on a covenantal commitment to the community and its values."

p68 "In terms of the church's ministry, this view tends to focus attention on methodological strategies meeting the needs of individual members".

p68 "Because the church is seen primarily as a social organization, endless attention is invested in developing, redeveloping, and adjusting the form of the organization to achieve ministry effectiveness".



FOUR – THE CHURCH AND THE REDEMPTIVE REIGN OF GOD

p74 "The church must find its core identity in relation to God's redemptive reign as introduced by Jesus in his announcement that "the Kingdom of God has come near" (Mk 1:14-15)"

Basileia = God's dynamic redemptive reign

p.87 ""Receive, Enter, Seek, and Inherit" versus "Build, Extend, Promote, and Establish""

"The biblical language places emphasis on our response to God's redemptive reign." P87

p88 "God's redemptive reign is offered as a gift to the community of faith."

P88 "The church does not possess God's reign, it is to be possessed by it. This makes the church an agent of the kingdom. Its nature, its very existence, stems from the presence of the kingdom."

P89 "The church is a people shaped by the redemptive reign of God. The church is not an end in itself."

The Mission of God as Trinitarian
The son was sent by the Father. The Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son.

The Mission of God as Eschatological:
P98 "In a sinful world, the presence of the church demonstrates that heaven has already begun in terms of the presence and power of the Spirit in our midst."

P98-9 "This missionary nature of the church is captured in several images being used in current mission theology – the images of sign, foretaste, and instrument."


FIVE – THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

P125-6 "This sentness is to be the primary dimension of the apostolic attribute. The institutional dimensions of the church, those related to its teaching content and governance, are to support and mobilize the ministry of sentness.
In the history of the church, these two aspects of the apostolic attribute have often been inverted. Ministry has sometimes been defined as a function of an ordained office. A focus on who has the credentials and proper authority to do ministry has at times overshadowed the work of ministry itself."


SIX – THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH

P143 "The Reformers' intent was to return the Word to the center of life within local congregations. But singling out preaching and the sacraments can produce several problems in how the ministry of the church is understood and practiced. These include a) the tendency to limit the primary communication of the Word to the activity of preaching; b) the tendency to see only ordained persons as qualified to minister through communicating the Word of God and dispensing the sacraments; and c) limiting the focus of worship to the act of preaching."

P145 "First, we need to understand how the Spirit's teaching helps the church formulate confessions and make policy choices.
"Second, we need to understand that the biblical story is inherently translatable.
"Third, we need to place a high value on the diversity of gifts the Spirit gives the church for carrying out ministry.

"Grace-Based and Gift-Shaped Ministry"

p 146 "To say that church life is grace-based means that it is the result of God's working for us and within us."

P149 "Because the church is a community, its ministry is to be not only grace-based and gift-shaped but also community-centered."


SEVEN – THE ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH

P155-6 "The nature of the church provides the basis for understanding the ministry of the church – the church is. The ministry of the church provides the framework for understanding the organization of the church – the church does what it is. The organization of the church provides the structures for the church to carry out its ministry – the church organizes what it does."

P160 "The church in the New Testament was dynamic and diverse in relation to its organizational forms".

Ekklesia used in three ways in the NT:
Local congregation
Regional cluster
The whole church (all who belonged to Christ)

P165 "the developing New Testament church operated out of two distinct structures – local missional congregations and mobile missional structures."

P173 "mobile structures took initiative to develop, strengthen, and supervise the life of local congregations."
P174 "local congregations took initiative to launch and support mobile structures, and continued to monitor their work."

P175-6 Two kinds of processes:
Processes that develop content
- Confession
- Policy Decisions
Processes for governing
- Governing forms
- Governing practices

Assembly – eg Council of Jerusalem – included both congregational leaders and mobile structure leaders.