Does What Church Matter?

    Since you have taken the time you browse this website, I assume you have some interest in the church.  And I am also fairly certain there are many, many churches in our community.  Why are there so many churches.  And perhaps more importantly, what makes any church a good church?            

While we do not have the space here to talk about what is particular to each denomination or each church, the Bible does provide us with the general guidelines we need to separate all churches into two general groups.  The Bible tells us these two groups can be identified first, as those churches which could be called a true church and second, as those churches which could be called a false church.  This short article will give you those guidelines as well as provide you with some ways you can put these guidelines to use.

I want you to know that I am aware that even talking about guidelines that separate a church from the one down the street will be considered rather harsh and unnecessary by some.  You may think that distinguishing one church from the next is hardly necessary, since people should be free to attend the church of their choice.  While I do not dispute that right in our country, such a right does make their choice a good one.  What the Bible tells us about distinguishing between churches is not only wise, it is absolutely necessary.

What are these guidelines, these standards, I might say, that we use to tell a true or good church from a false or bad church?  One of the confessions our church uses, the Belgic Confession, tells us the first of these is If the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein.   This seems simple enough.  The first way you can tell a true/good church from a false/bad church is by what the church teaches. 

But this might not be as simple as it seems.  We must know what the gospel is before we can evaluate whether or not a particular church embraces it.  The gospel is not first of all about feeling good about who we are, or even about who God is.  The gospel is first and foremost about the life and death of Jesus Christ, God Himself, for sinners.  Again, the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ came to take our sins upon himself so that we might live.  This is the essence of the gospel.  Let there be no mistake.  A church is not a church without the gospel itself.  The Bible says in Galatians 1:9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 

So we must have a clear idea about a church teaches.  There is something to be said for churches that are clear enough about what the Bible says that they agree to write it down and bind themselves to it.  Some churches pride themselves on having no “creed but Christ” and no “book but the Bible.”  While they are well-intending, they do no favor to themselves or those they are seeking to reach with the gospel.  Having a creed or confession can be of tremendous assistance.  These are plain statements about what the church believes the gospel to be–what their doctrine is.

Doctrine is good.  Throughout church history there have been some who have rejected the truth about the gospel by modifying, even ever so slightly, what the Bible says.  By writing down what we believe not only do we help others, we might very well avoid making the same mistakes others made before we came along.   

But to push the envelope a little further here, it is not enough for a church not to disagree with the gospel, or even to privately agree that the gospel is true: the church must also teach it as truth.  A church must be proactive.  The Bible is clear about the most important tool God has given to us in this teaching of the gospel: it is preaching.  Do you hear Bible preaching when you go to church? 

Unfortunately, some people equate preaching with boring.  It is listening to some guy jabber on and on for a half hour or so about things that don’t seem to matter.  Sounds like foolishness.

Even some people in the church are saying this is true: we live in a new age.  People are used to 15 and 30 second TV commercials–they can’t sit around listening to some man talk that long.  People are used to more action.  If you hope get and keep people in the church you will have to use a medium they understand, say . . . acting it out.  Preaching is foolishness. 

You might be surprised to learn that the Bible itself recognizes that the preaching of the gospel might be considered foolishness.  I Cor. 1:21 says For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  We might think that preaching is an outdated way, considering our world today, to tell people about the good news of Jesus Christ.  Even when Paul wrote there were some who said that the preaching of the gospel was a foolish activity.  Yet we never hear the Bible tell us to abandon this method in order to please someone else’s whims.  No, the Bible clearly says in Romans 10:14 that there is a pattern to the way people come to believe in the gospel.  And part of that pattern is preaching: How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher? 

Sadly too many churches have bought into the notion that preaching is outdated.  They have essentially rejected the means God has given for the spread of the gospel, and instead have tried to create their own ways.  But the Bible places so much emphasis on preaching that we must say that if a church claims to be a church and yet does not preach the gospel, that church is in very serious danger.  That is what we might call a false church.  A true church must preach the doctrine of the gospel.  Do the churches that you are familiar with?  

Beside the preaching of the gospel, there are two other ways you can measure any church against what it is supposed to be.  The next of these is if it maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ.  There are two sacraments: the Lord’s Supper and Baptism.  They are important compliments to the first characteristic of a true church, the preaching of the gospel.  While preaching is the tool God uses to create faith in our hearts, the sacraments are used by God to make that faith strong and sure. 

Think for a moment about what this means.  Not every church thinks very much about the sacraments.  Some don’t think they are important at all.  The Lord’s Supper is celebrated seldom if ever–and then only as a way to jog our memories about something Jesus did a couple of thousand years ago.  Baptism is considered nothing more than a sign that the person being baptized has received Jesus as Savior. 

Or, alternatively, there are churches who think the sacraments actually save.  You might have heard of stories of couples who have had their terminally ill child baptized in the neo-natal ward of the hospital because they did not think their child could be saved without the sacrament of baptism.  These same people see the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist as working salvation in itself without any regard for what God might be doing through it. 

Both those who consider the sacraments as doing next to nothing, as well as those who think they do everything, are missing the balance the Bible strikes for us.  The sacraments are very, very important, and they must be understood and practiced correctly.  For this reason Bible tells us that unless the sacraments are practiced properly a church should have serious doubts about whether it does actually belong to the Jesus Christ.