The Doctrine of the Church

I’m sitting here in front of my television and struggling to know what to write in my pastor’s blog for this week.  My mind is on my day-job work, but it is also on my sermon for this coming Sunday, on my sermon for the Sunday after that, and if I were honest, on the sermon for the week after that.   

I’m in the middle of a series called We Are The Church.  Truthfully, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that this whole series on the church is one of the most important series I’ve preached in the few short months I’ve been at Pawnee Baptist Church.  Pastors rightfully spend a great deal of time on the personal aspects of the gospel, but very rarely do we speak to the corporate aspects of the gospel – that is, The Doctrine of the Church.  The Doctrine of the Church is every bit as important as any of the other doctrines of the gospel.  In fact, in our current state of the American culture, it may be one of the more important doctrines.

There was a time in American culture not too terribly long ago – especially here in the Deep South - when the question as to whether or not one should go to church was actually not even a question.  It was a given. In fact, someone who did not go to church was generally the exception to the rule, rather than the norm.  Talking about how committed a person should be to the church was a bit academic because, culturally speaking, everyone was already committed to the church – at least physically.

That was both good and bad.  It was good because high attendance meant more people were getting a regular exposure to God’s word and, hopefully, good gospel-oriented preaching.   In many respects, that constant exposure to the gospel had a preserving affect on our culture.   However, it was also bad because the commitment to the church – if you could really call it commitment – was often cultural and not truly from the heart.

Over time, that has changed.   I heard a national church growth specialist say recently that years ago commitment to a church meant attending church at least 3 times a week – Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.  Now, however, being committed to a church apparently means you are there 3 times a month.  In addition, more and more people are finding themselves among those who go to church rarely – or not at all.  And without that constant biblical influence in the lives of the masses, culture has begun to degrade – morally and otherwise.

I’ve thought a good bit about why this shift has taken place – asking myself why people have stopped going to church.  Is it really because less people are saved?  I don’t think so.  Maybe I should have asked why they went in the first place.  I tend to believe that many years ago, people needed the church.  It was the center of community activity.  It was the social hub.  It was where you went to make connections.  In other words, there weren’t more true Christians, there were just more members because being involved in church was advantageous socially and in business.  In return, the moral influence of the church was ever present across a broad spectrum of society. 

Apparently, that need is being met by other sources now.  In my own simple and limited wisdom, I place a good bit of the blame on the ubiquitous nature of information and entertainment.   Between the internet, social media, hundreds of TV channels, and our endless obsession with self-indulgent activities, why should I go to church for these connections – I can get them in so many other places now – without the inconvenience (and perhaps the conviction) of church.   Even within “Christian” circles, more and more people are shunning traditional church “religion” – and in the process are throwing out the baby with the bath water.

With fewer and fewer people going to church, where is the moral influence and compass for society?  Who is being the salt and the light?  Is it the media?  Is it the government?  What is the basis on which culture decides what is right and wrong?  Left to its own devices, society is doomed to plunge into moral relativism – which is exactly what has happened.

I heard a prominent preacher of a large Birmingham church say the other day that as a result of this shift, the church itself is going through a big shift.  According to this pastor, the larger mainline protestant denominations – because of their liberal theology and their apparent lack of focus on the Doctrine of the Church – are essentially destined to go the way of many of the churches in Europe. They will be empty relics of bygone days.  The rest of the evangelical protestant churches will then have two choices – either isolate themselves from culture and so eventually be forced out of existence as well… or engage the culture in a biblical fashion and so truly become light and salt in a lost and dying world.

This is where the Doctrine of the Church becomes so important.  The Doctrine of the Church tells us why we are to remain faithful and committed to the church when everything else in society and culture says doing so is foolish.  The Doctrine of the Church reminds us to whom we are betrothed (we are the Bride of Christ) and what our role should be as part of the Body of Christ.  The Doctrine of the Church tells us how to engage society – and how the church helps us do that. The Doctrine of the Church gives us our mission.

So what exactly are those details?  Well maybe you should come to church this Sunday and find out.  After all, if you are going to be faithful to Christ, you ought also to be faithful to his bride – the church.  We will be there waiting to welcome you back.

And if you can't make it in person, then at least listen to the sermon series.  Here is a link...

http://pawneeaudio.blogspot.com/