I have now heard this word more times in the past 48 hours than I ever thought I would. If you are still associated with a SBC church, you might have heard the following phrases:
"doing life together"
"small group"
"authentic community"
Well, I am fed up with this garbage. It seems pastors have figured out something about the Mega-Church model--it is failing. 15,000+ people, and NO DIFFERENCE in any of their lives. So how do you fix this? Not by repenting and returning to teaching the Word; not by honoring the whole counsel of God and worshiping all His attributes. No, you fix this by coming up with a new way for people to interact--you come up with this concept of COMMUNITY.
You talk about the NT Church, you talk about how 'real' they were in the book of Acts, and you determine the only difference between us and them is COMMUNITY. They 'were doing life together' is the catch-phrase.
What do you think? Why this angle? What will this accomplish?
Questions? Comments? Cheap shots?
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The irony of all this is that they might be on the right track although their basis for this and their motive for this new trend is wrong. Traditionally reformed christians have always emphasized "community", but in the Bible (you know, the book god gave us that told us how to do things) it is called Covenant, or The Body of Christ, etc..
Scripture and Reformed theologians have always emphasised the importance of covenant community, but their reasons were entirely different from modern baptists. They saw Covenant as God's way of dealing with his people.
These Modern Baptist are completely man centered in there teaching of "community". There idea is to make people feel "wanted" and "loved" regardless of lifestyle or obedience to a covenant. If you read the reformers both old and new (like Doug Wilson) you will see a definite emphasis on covenantal obedience and unity. Baptist though have been looking for a way to please man and can't find anything with any teeth. Every attempt fizzles out with emptiness (in man's heart and in the pew). Until we return to our reformed roots and begin preaching sound biblical theology we will always be searching for the next best thing. This time though they may have hit on something. I am afraid though since it doesn't stem from an honest study of scripture that they will mess this up too. Instead of coming to together in community to worship, obey, and please our father (a covenant relationship); they will come together to please themselves (i.e. "community").
I just got this email from my pastor. It is about the church's departure from the true gospel. I think it applies to this issue and to many issues in the church today.
The Gospel of Grace
Miscellany of thoughts on the Gospel
By Todd Baucum
"I acknowledge myself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure and without hope, except in his sovereign mercy." (from the vows of church membership- PCA)
In his introduction to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, one of my heroes, J.I. Packer wrote, “one of the most urgent tasks facing evangelical Christendom today… is the recovery of the gospel.”
Perhaps the greatest challenge we have as evangelicals, is the fact that most of what is seen as gospel based ministry or gospel preaching, has in effect moved away from the truth of the gospel. We have substituted pragmatism, or what works and brings results for dependency upon the power of God. We have substituted existentialism, or the exaltation of our own experience for a clear submission to the unchanging counsel of God’s truth.
John Stott likewise sounded the alarm when he wrote, “All around us we see Christians relaxing their grasp on the gospel, fumbling it, and in danger of letting it drop from their hands altogether.”
In the later part of the 19th Century, the Bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle spoke these very pertinent words:
“You may spoil the gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object which the Bible proposes to faith--Jesus Christ--and to substitute another object in His place… and the mischief is done.
“You may spoil the gospel by addition. You have only to add to Christ, the grand object of faith, some other objects as equally worthy of honor, and the mischief is done.
“You may spoil the gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things, and the mischief is done.
“Lastly, but not least, you may completely spoil the gospel by confused and contradictory directions… Confused and disorderly statements about Christianity are almost as bad as no statement at all. Religion of this sort is not evangelical.”
Why are so many in this day, who claim to know the Gospel, so easily beguiled by the false gospels that set themselves up as the real Gospel? Why did the Apostle Paul have the need to write to the Galatians?
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— [7] not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” Galatians 1:6-7 (ESV)
Why is it that we who have been saved by the clear work of God’s grace, find it so easy to leave grace behind? That is the $64,000 question.
It was St. Augustine who wrote, "If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself."
It was Ambrose, the early Church Father, who powerfully declared: “Who of us can survive without divine pity? What can we do that is worthy of heavenly rewards?... we are not justified by the works of the law. Therefore I do not have grounds on which I can glory in my works, I have no grounds on which to boast, and therefore I will glory in Christ. I will glory, not because I am free from sins, but because my sins are forgiven me. I will glory, not because I have done good, …but because Christ is my advocate with the Father, and because Christ’s blood has been shed for me.”
P.T. Forsyth – British theologian - “The fundamental heresy of the day, now deep in Christian belief itself, is humanist…God is there but to promote and crown this development of man, if there be a God at all. To this has come a Gospel of mere Fatherhood, of divine value without divine right, of God as an asset instead of a King, a God of great kindness without absolute Majesty, of swift pity without holy mercy, of sacrificing love without atoning righteousness or reigning power…The Father is the banker of a spendthrift race. He is there to draw upon, to save man’s career at the point where it is most threatened… He is a Father in a sense that leaves no room for love’s severity, its searching judgment, or its absolute sovereignty with the right to make demand on man and no reason given, and no light shown on the spot.” (The Justification of God, pg. 19)
(credit to Reformation21 blogsite for some quotes)
well, I have been reading a book on the new perspective of paul (which is related to this Federal Vision stuff). Anyway, one of the tenants of the NPP is that Paul was not so much about Justification by Faith but more about "community". That is a community where the gentiles, jews, and God all get along. So here is an example of removing the Gospel from "community". Covenant relationship as defined by scripture is relationship with God b/c of our just. by faith. The npp and the new baptist model of "community" both remove the gospel and place the emphasis on community.
It is funny how things tend to come full circle in history isn't. The one thing both of these movements have in common is a huge influence of Liberal theology
let me correct something...
the new baptist model and the npp model don't just place an emphasis on community...
They make Community the basis of our justification instead of our justification being the basis of community
I think you hit they key their when you said:
"they make community the basis of our justification instead of our justification the basis for community"
I dont believe God ever intended for community to be the end all be all. Once again the modern church has turned things on its head so that we can focus on man and his needs. Modern ideas of community center making man feel welcome and invited, and instead of pointing him to the cross where we can say "THAT is where you find value, and we are simply a community of fellow sinners saved by Christ encouraging one another onto maturity", we try and make them a part without being "a part". If that makes any sense.
But in a denomination where church membership means little...where we care very little about fidelity in reporting numbers...where we IGNORE the command to discipline for the sake of godliness...where we demonstrate our utter lack of concern for church health by showing we care more about church "wealth" or numbers....why would we be shocked to see fake community?
We don't take God's community of faith seriously. If we did this discussion would be moot.
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