What is the vision for this church?
By vision we do not mean “what is the organized weekly meeting structure of the church”, or “what is the business plan of this church”, but instead we mean “what are the essential truths that drive those who make up this body of believers?” There is a central passion and subsequent distinctives that lay at the heart of the vision of this church, all of which flow from the truths that are dearest to our hearts.
The vision-
To give no place to anything that fights to steal the spotlight from Christ. To stir one another to burn with jealousy over Him. To build all upon this- Christ is everything. His Word is sufficient. His means laid out in His Word are sufficient. (Col. 1:15-18; 1 Cor. 16:22; Luke 10:38-42; 2 Tim. 3:16-17, 2 Cor. 3:18-4:6).
That sounds like something everyone would agree with.
So, as to be clear, those distinctives about which we are passionate –
· To hold up Christ in all things in such a way that the aroma of Christ is clear and present, so much so that those who are being saved find it an aroma of life to life, but those who are perishing find it the smell of death to death. (2 Cor. 2:14-17)
· To rebel against the culture at every point where it tries to instill in us a worldview that is not in line with the Word. (1 John 2:15-17, Acts 17, James 4:4)
· To love the Bride of Christ enough to name idols and bring them to Him to slay, trusting that He will. (1 Cor. 5:12, James 4:1-5, 1 John 5:21, 1 Cor. 10:7,14)
· To preach repentance from sin and dead works, and call people to run from the works of death. (Acts 17:30, Mark 1:15, 2 Cor. 7:9, Rev. 3:19)
· To preach grace upon grace, all through Christ, in such a way that the sin we see in each other is not shocking or surprising, and does not lead us to condemn the struggling and repenting brother or sister (which is all of us), but instead push each other toward the unending mercies of Jesus at the cross, believing that seeing the Glory of Jesus dying for wretches like us will bring change. (1 Cor. 6:11, Gal. 6:1, Rom. 8:1, 2 Cor. 3:18, Hebrews)
· To come up with no programs or strategies designed to push professing believers to do what only true believers do when they have Christ set before their eyes- enjoy God more, and show Him more to the world around them. Believers will naturally be all that the church is meant to be as they set their eyes on the Head, Christ. (1 Cor. 1:23-29)
· To live in a world not our home, side by side, setting each other’s eyes on the future reward of Christ, and living as strangers and aliens, radically different from the world around us in our affections and hope. Our focus together shall not be mere entertainment or fun, but fighting the war we are left here to fight. We will be joyfully serious in the work our Father has left us to do, the work we long to do- the work of the church! (1 Pet. 1:13, Col 3:1-4, 2 Tim. 2:4, Hebrews 11)
· To jealousy protect the Bride of Christ as we heed Jesus’ command in Matthew 18 to carry out proper church discipline.
What is the work of the church?
To glorify God by building up the believers, that they might enjoy God more, and show Him more to the world. (Is. 60:21, 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31, Rev. 4:11)
How does the church do this?
Through God’s appointed means of grace. (Matt. 28:18-20. Acts 2:41-42)
What are the means through which the grace of God comes to the body?
God gives the church the Word, the Sacraments (Baptism, The Lord’s Table), and Prayer. (Matt. 28:18-20. Acts 2:41-42) (We recognize that God also uses His gifts given to the body, and suffering, to conform His saints.)
What does it mean that we receive grace through these means?
It means that all of the means above serve to make Christ and His gospel known to us. (See Scripture references below)
How do these means make Christ and His gospel known?
The Word is primary in this task. All of these means serve us in submission to and in relation to the Word. In the Word we have God’s perfect revelation to us of Himself and His Son, and the Work of the Son. This Word, through the Holy Spirit, is made clear to our weak and dark minds. The Word is complete, sufficient, and powerful. It is through the Word alone that salvific grace comes, especially as it is preached.
Romans 10:14-17
· 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Acts 20:32
· 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
From the Westminster shorter Catechism- Q. 89. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.
The rest of the means serve us in submission to the Word.
· The Lord’s Supper- as it proclaims the Word of the gospel to us as we with faith partake. (1 Cor. 11:26)
· Prayer, in which we, according to the Word which tells us of the revealed character and promises of God, ask Him for grace. (1 John 5:14)
· The gifts that each member of the body has through the Holy Spirit- only inasmuch as these gifts remind the beneficiary of the gift of the truth of who God is as revealed in the Word. The gifts do not teach new things apart from the Word, and should not be looked upon as a means of learning the gospel, but as reminders of it, and encouragement to continue in it. These gifts are empowered by the Word preached, since without the word they have nothing to “show.” The Word informs the gifts, since Christ is the head of the body, and Christ is found in the Word. (Eph. 4:15-16)
· It is important to note that all things in the life of the church work in submission to the Word. This means that everything we do that is not connected to the Word of God preached will not be a means of grace to the elect, but will at best bring common grace to the world.
The church, built up through these means, then naturally proclaims to the world the Jesus that they see and love. No program, incentive, or technique is needed, only Jesus held up to believers through the Word. Through these means of grace the church is equipped to do all that it is called upon to do- the Word brought forth through these appointed means is all that is needed. (2 Cor. 4:2)
The church, equipped in this fashion, then appeals to the lost through the gospel message- by proclaiming a message of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5)
All of this determines what times together would look like.
The weekly church meeting
The weekly church meetings would consist of hearing the gospel proclaimed in song together, praying in song together, preaching the Word, prayer, reading of the scriptures, and the Lord’s supper. As the body meets as a large gathering, and as the body meets as smaller gatherings, this will be the focus.
What about outreach, feeding the poor, caring for one another, and using our gifts? What will be the strategy for these things?
These are things that those who are being ministered to through the means of grace love and long to do, and no strategy will be needed to make them do it. All that the body is meant to be will flow from the body, as Christ is made the head. Ample opportunity for doing these things side by side will be available as the body meets in smaller groups each week.
We confess agreement with the findings of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, as laid out in The Cambridge Declaration (attached).
THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION
of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
April 20, 1996
Evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith.
In the course of history words change. In our day this has happened to the word “evangelical.” In the past it served as a bond of unity between Christians from a wide diversity of church traditions. Historic evangelicalism was confessional. It embraced the essential truths of Christianity as those were defined by the great ecumenical councils of the church. In addition, evangelicals also shared a common heritage in the “solas” of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.
Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed. The consequence is that the word “evangelical” has become so inclusive as to have lost its meaning. We face the peril of losing the unity it has taken centuries to achieve. Because of this crisis and because of our love of Christ, his gospel and his church, we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism. These truths we affirm not because of their role in our traditions, but because we believe that they are central to the Bible.
Sola Scriptura: The Erosion Of Authority
Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church’s life, but the evangelical church today has separated Scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is guided, far too often, by the culture. Therapeutic technique, marketing strategies, and the beat of the entertainment world often have far more to say about what the church wants, how it functions and what it offers, than does the Word of God. Pastors have neglected their rightful oversight of worship, including the doctrinal content of the music. As biblical authority has been abandoned in practice, as its truths have faded from Christian consciousness, and as its doctrines have lost their saliency, the church has been increasingly emptied of its integrity, moral authority and direction.
Rather than adapting Christian faith to satisfy the felt needs of consumers, we must proclaim the law as the only measure of true righteousness and the gospel as the only announcement of saving truth. Biblical truth is indispensable to the church’s understanding, nurture and discipline.
Scripture must take us beyond our perceived needs to our real needs and liberate us from seeing ourselves through the seductive images, cliche’s, promises, and priorities of mass culture. It is only in the light of God’s truth that we understand ourselves aright and see God’s provision for our need. The Bible, therefore, must be taught and preached in the church. Sermons must be expositions of the Bible and its teachings, not expressions of the preachers opinions or the ideas of the age. We must settle for nothing less than what God has given.
The work of the Holy Spirit in personal experience cannot be disengaged from Scripture. The Spirit does not speak in ways that are independent of Scripture. Apart from Scripture we would never have known of God’s grace in Christ. The biblical Word, rather than spiritual experience, is the test of truth.
Thesis One: Sola Scriptura
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured. We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian’s conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.
Solus Christus: The Erosion Of Christ-Centered Faith
As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and his cross have moved from the center of our vision.
Thesis Two: Solus Christus
We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.
We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.
Sola Gratia: The Erosion Of The Gospel
Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature. This false confidence now fills the evangelical world; from the self-esteem gospel, to the health and wealth gospel, from those who have transformed the gospel into a product to be sold and sinners into consumers who want to buy, to others who treat Christian faith as being true simply because it works. This silences the doctrine of justification regardless of the official commitments of our churches.
God’s grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace.
Thesis Three: Sola Gratia
We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God’s wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.
We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.
Sola Fide: The Erosion Of The Chief Article
Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. This is the article by which the church stands or falls. Today this article is often ignored, distorted or sometimes even denied by leaders, scholars and pastors who claim to be evangelical. Although fallen human nature has always recoiled from recognizing its need for Christ’s imputed righteousness, modernity greatly fuels the fires of this discontent with the biblical Gospel. We have allowed this discontent to dictate the nature of our ministry and what it is we are preaching.
Many in the church growth movement believe that sociological understanding of those in the pew is as important to the success of the gospel as is the biblical truth which is proclaimed. As a result, theological convictions are frequently divorced from the work of the ministry. The marketing orientation in many churches takes this even further, erasing the distinction between the biblical Word and the world, robbing Christ’s cross of its offense, and reducing Christian faith to the principles and methods which bring success to secular corporations.
While the theology of the cross may be believed, these movements are actually emptying it of its meaning. There is no gospel except that of Christ’s substitution in our place whereby God imputed to him our sin and imputed to us his righteousness. Because he bore our judgment, we now walk in his grace as those who are forever pardoned, accepted and adopted as God’s children. There is no basis for our acceptance before God except in Christ’s saving work, not in our patriotism, churchly devotion or moral decency. The gospel declares what God has done for us in Christ. It is not about what we can do to reach him.
Thesis Four: Sola Fide
We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God’s perfect justice.
We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ’s righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.
Soli Deo Gloria: The Erosion Of God-Centered Worship
Wherever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God’s and we are doing his work in our way. The loss of God’s centrality in the life of today’s church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.
God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God’s kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success.
Thesis Five: Soli Deo Gloria
We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God’s glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone. We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self- fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.
Call To Repentance And Reformation
The faithfulness of the evangelical church in the past contrasts sharply with its unfaithfulness in the present. Earlier in this century, evangelical churches sustained a remarkable missionary endeavor, and built many religious institutions to serve the cause of biblical truth and Christ’s kingdom. That was a time when Christian behavior and expectations were markedly different from those in the culture. Today they often are not. The evangelical world today is losing its biblical fidelity, moral compass and missionary zeal.
We repent of our worldliness. We have been influenced by the “gospels” of our secular culture, which are no gospels. We have weakened the church by our own lack of serious repentance, our blindness to the sins in ourselves which we see so clearly in others, and our inexcusable failure adequately to tell others about God’s saving work in Jesus Christ.
We also earnestly call back erring professing evangelicals who have deviated from God’s Word in the matters discussed in this Declaration. This includes those who declare that there is hope of eternal life apart from explicit faith in Jesus Christ, who claim that those who reject Christ in this life will be annihilated rather than endure the just judgment of God through eternal suffering, or who claim that evangelicals and Roman Catholics are one in Jesus Christ even where the biblical doctrine of justification is not believed.
The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals asks all Christians to give consideration to implementing this Declaration in the church’s worship, ministry, policies, life and evangelism. For Christ’s sake. Amen.
ACE Council Members:
Dr. John Armstrong
Rev. Alistair Begg
Dr. James M. Boice
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey
Dr. John D. Hannah
Dr. Michael S. Horton
Mrs. Rosemary Jensen
Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Dr. Robert M. Norris
Dr. R. C. Sproul
Dr. G. Edward Veith
Dr. David Wells
Dr. Luder Whitlock
Dr. J. A. O. Preus, III
Alliance Council Members
The Rev. Mr. Eric Alexander, Former Senior Pastor, St. George’s Tron Church, Glasgow, Scotland. Presbyterian (Church of Scotland)
The Rev. Dr. Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio; Speaker, Truth for Life. Independent (Parkside Church)
The Rev. Dr. Gerald Bray, Anglican Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama. Anglican/Episcopal (Church of England)
Mr. Jerry Bridges, Author and Bible teacher, long-time staff member with the Navigators, where he served as Vice President. Presbyterian (PCA)
The Rev. Dr. Donald Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois. Independent (Evangelical Free Church)
The Rev. Dr. Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington D.C; Author/Speaker, 9 Marks Ministries. Baptist (Southern Baptist)
The Rev. Dr. Ligon Duncan, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, and Adjunct Professor of Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary. Presbyterian (PCA)
The Rev. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas. Church of Scotland
The Rev. Dr. Robert Godfrey, President, Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, California. Reformed (URC)
The Rev. Dr. John Hannah, Department Chairman and Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary. Independent (Scofield Memorial Church)
Dr. Paul Jones, Music Director and Organist, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Presbyterian (PCA)
The Rev. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., Pastor-Teacher, Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California; President of The Master’s College and Seminary; Speaker, Grace to You. Independent (Grace Community Church)
The Rev. Mr. C. J. Mahaney, President, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Former Senior Pastor, Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg. Maryland. Independent (Sovereign Grace)
The Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler, President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky; Author/Speaker, The Al Mohler Show. Baptist (Southern Baptist)
The Rev. Mr. Richard Phillips, Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church Coral Springs, Margate, Florida. Presbyterian (PCA)
The Rev. Dr. John Piper, Senior Pastor, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Author/Speaker, Desiring God Ministries. Baptist (Baptist General Conference)
The Rev. Dr. Philip Ryken, Senior Minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Preacher, Every Last Word. Presbyterian (PCA)
The Rev. Dr. R. C. Sproul, Chairman, Ligonier Ministries, Orlando, Florida; Senior Minister for Preaching, St. Andrews Chapel, Orlando, Florida; Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Knox Theological Seminary, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Presbyterian (PCA)
The Rev. Dr. Derek Thomas, John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi; Minister of Teaching, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi. Presbyterian (PCA)
Dr. Carl Trueman, Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Presbyterian (Orthodox Presbyterian Church)
Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Jr., Professor of English, Concordia University – Wisconsin; Cultural Editor, WORLD magazine. Lutheran (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod)
The Rev. Dr. David F. Wells, Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Congregationalist (Conservative Congregational Christian Conference)