What is the Church and its Mission?

Here is a recent paper that I wrote as a part of my Covenant Ordination. It answers the question, "What is the nature and mission of the Church?" Obviously this is not a "compendium" on ecclesiology...just a handful of insights into my perspective on what Scripture says about the Church...

In attempting to articulate my understanding of the nature of the church, I find two images especially meaningful and helpful. The first is the New Testament (especially Pauline) image of the Body of Christ, and the second is the Evangelical Covenant Church’s affirmation of the church as a fellowship of believers.

The Body of Christ image is a vital reminder that the Christian church is not merely a free association of individuals, like a Kiwanis club or American Legion. It is an objective reality founded and built by Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 16:18) and of which He is the head (Colossians 1:18). Since Christ is both its source and head, the Church can never be found to promote any human agenda (however good or noble), but it must humbly be the servant of His agenda: to reconcile the world to God through His atoning sacrifice on the Cross.

The Scriptural image of “body” also suggests that the church is not merely an institution, certainly not a modern corporation, but a dynamic and living organism graced with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells each believing member and equips him or her with unique gifts and talents so that—like the distinct organs of the human body—each member might contribute uniquely to the body’s life, health, and growth (I Corinthians 12). I believe the church is at its best when each member’s spiritual gifts are acknowledged, encouraged, and utilized for the good of the whole body. The Spirit also calls individuals who—through the preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments—provide spiritual leadership for the church (Acts 6, I Timothy 3). This will be discussed in the paragraphs below.

While in the later Pauline epistles (Ephesians, Colossians) the Body of Christ refers to the universal church, it is clear that Paul applies this image to the local body in his earlier letters (Romans, Corinthians). Therefore it would seem that from a biblical perspective, in some sense the whole Body of Christ is present in each local manifestation of the church. Being careful to recognize the importance of the greater universal church, we must affirm that each congregation of believers is gifted by God with everything necessary to continue Christ’s ministry in its unique setting (Hans Küng, The Church, 292-312).

The Evangelical Covenant Church’s affirmation of the church as a fellowship of believers also finds significant biblical support. The Last Supper narrative in John’s Gospel reveals an intimacy between Jesus and His followers to the point that He refers to them as His “friends” and He commands them to love one another in the same way that He has loved them (John 15:9-15). The early chapters of Acts (see especially 2:42-47) reveal that this intimate friendship was continued by the early church, and Paul consistently reacted against churches in which intimate fellowship was disrupted by faction, false teaching, or sinful behavior. Clearly, the church is not merely an objective reality; it is also a deeply subjective experience of friendship and fellowship with God and with others (Course Reader, 153-154). Jean Lambert challenges us to avoid trivializing this concept through overtly emotional language or sentimentality, and that is why I think this image of church is best seen in creative tension with the more objective image of the Body of Christ (Course Reader, 155).

This sense of church as fellowship is distinct from the authoritarian, power-driven institutional model that has (unfortunately) often manifested itself as church. Christ’s lordship of the Church was secured to Him not through power but through submission and service (Philippians 2:1-11), and those who want to be great must also be willing to serve (Mark 10:42-45). The Greek term for fellowship (koinonia) means more than mere companionship; it is a partnership in which individuals come together and work for a vision that is greater than all of them (Course reader, 157-158; see also William Taylor, Partnership: Philippians. Christian Focus, 2007). Deep relationships are necessary byproducts of such a partnership, but they must not be allowed to distract from the purpose for which the partnership was formed. This is why I find the ECC’s term “mission friends” helpful: it affirms fellowship while placing it within the greater blueprint of the church’s mission in the world.

What is the church’s mission? I believe it is to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ in the world until His return. The practical aspects of this have been understood in many different ways. In my own life and ministry, it has been most helpful to understand the church’s mission in terms of Jesus’ three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. (This approach is helpfully outlined in Mark Driscoll’s recent book, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).

In its prophetic ministry, the church is called to confess the sufficiency and authority of God’s Word over all human wisdom and authority. There are objective truths in Scripture that must be upheld by the church, and these truths do not merely involve right belief (orthodoxy) but also right living (orthopraxy). In upholding these truths, the church must contend against the world’s false teachings that contradict what God has spoken explicitly in His Word. The church must also expose sin (both individual and corporate) for what it is: willful rebellion against the Creator and against our own nature as beings meant to live in relationship with Him. At the root of both false teaching and willful rebellion is the basic sin of idolatry, and here the prophetic church must intentionally combat all idols that lure people’s hearts away from God and His will. This is especially important in contemporary American culture, where the two most destructive idols (sex and money) have caused significant damage inside as well as outside the church.

In my opinion, it is in the prophetic ministry where the issue of ordination is crucial. I believe that every Christian is called to ministry in general, as I will address in the paragraphs below. What distinguishes the ordained minister is only the kind of ministry to which he or she is called: a greater investment in spiritual formation, biblical study, theological inquiry, and practical training, so as to bring God’s Word to bear on the vision and ministry of the local congregation. This call must be recognized and affirmed both by the individual and the local congregation through a process of prayer and discernment. Through Word (preaching) and sign (sacraments), the ordained person proclaims the truths of Scripture to the people and exhorts them to join him or her in living out those truths in a transformational way.

The priestly ministry of the church is a ministry of reconciliation and healing, of experientially living out the grace and love of Jesus Christ in community. It is in this sense that we can speak of a priesthood of all believers, since all Christians must actively participate in such a ministry for it to be fruitful. In this context, all boundaries that would normally divide (economic, racial, gender) are eradicated as all believers stand in solidarity with one another and with Christ (Gal. 3:28-29). As believers encourage one another, exhort and rebuke according to Scripture, and provide care and mercy in times of need, they are truly functioning as priests.

This area of ministry is so important and yet so misunderstood, and the American church in particular has been remiss in faithfully putting it into practice. Our individualistic culture has created a milieu in which genuine community-building is almost impossible. Too many people go to church only to have their own needs met, and many pastors are at fault for caving in to this and becoming (as Bishop Willimon calls them) “quivering masses of availability.” Yet, I believe the priestly ministry of the whole church is more likely to convert people today than any prophetic sermonizing, and Jean Lambert’s thoughts in Amicus Dei would seem to substantiate this (Course Reader, 161-163; see also Matt. 5:14-16). It is high time the church reclaimed the “priesthood of all believers” and put ministry back into the hands of the people.

Finally, Scripture makes clear that in His resurrection and exaltation, Jesus now reigns as king over all creation, and His church is called to proclaim this gospel to every culture in the world (Acts 1:8). Indeed, every church is an “outpost of Christ’s coming kingdom” (Driscoll, 10). This ministry involves the planting of self-sustaining churches into every people-group on the planet (see Winter and Hawthorne, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 248); contextualizing the method of communicating the gospel so that all people may understand and respond in faith; prophetically denouncing worldly powers which—through their dehumanizing and destructive acts—exist in opposition to Christ’s rule; and working on behalf of the poor, oppressed, and children, to whom Jesus said His kingdom belongs.

This is the whole mission of the church. Every local body of believers must prayerfully discern how God is calling them to be invested in this mission at the local, national, and international levels, and they must invest both actively and financially. As Edmund Clowney wrote, “the congregation that ignores mission will atrophy and soon find itself shattered by internal dissension. It will inevitably begin to lose its own young people, disillusioned by hearing the gospel trumpet every Sunday to those who never march” (Clowney, The Church. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1995).

In conclusion, I believe that all three of these functions (prophet, priest, and king) must be present in church ministry for it to be wholly biblical. When a church excels in only one function, to the exclusion of the other two, it will weaken the church’s witness to a world that desperately needs all three. The world needs the truth that only comes from Jesus Christ; it needs communities of love and reconciliation; and finally, it needs the transforming power of God’s Kingdom.