 |
|---|
Resources - Leadership
December 2004
Liberty and Order
Studies on the Church Order
Church Order with a Mission Focus?
Rev. Geoff van Schie
How can an on going series of articles on the subject of the Church Order assist us in the task of ‘reforming to reach the lost for Christ?’ The pitfall would be to have lifeless rule focussed articles with a bit of Gospel artificially added on. That is an approach we are very aware of and will be working very hard to avoid.
It is our intention to provide a resource to churches that integrates the Gospel and our mission vision into our understanding of the Church Order. To achieve this we need to remember that the main thrust of the Church Order is all about relationships:
-
The relationship of office bearers to the congregation and those with one another in the session / council.
-
The inter relationship of the various assemblies of the church: Session/Council, Classis and Synod.
-
Relationships as evidenced in worship, faith nurture, pastoral care, missions, admonition and discipline.
If viewed correctly, the Church Order should assist us in the application of Jesus’ teaching in John’s Gospel: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other." (John 15:16-17, NIV)
It is as the church behaves in Christlike love in all its relationship that it continues to ‘reform’ and becomes by God’s grace, more effective in bearing fruit that will last – that is – ‘reaching the lost for Christ’. This is demonstrated in what we find in the following report from Scripture: "Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:45-47, NIV)
Similarly we find that Gospel at work in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and its outcome. What amounted to a doctrinal issue (must new converts be circumcised) could easily have descended into a purely academic exercise. However with the Spirit’s leading (“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..” – Acts 15:28) the leaders of the church gathered in a meeting seen by many to have been the first synod and made their decisions with an eye to the call of God on the church to be “reforming to reach the lost for Christ”. In the case of the church in Acts that ‘reforming’ meant a new understanding of the place of circumcision as a sign and seal of the covenant and the meaning of the superior ministry of Christ (Hebrews 8:1-6) by which Old Testament patterns gave way to the reality of the new covenant. So it was that while so much could have been laid down by way of rules and requirements, what was passed on to the new converts was amazingly brief: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell." (Acts 15:28-29, NIV)
I. Della and M. Monsma in their Revised Church Order Commentary (Zondervan 1974) reflect this in their observation as to our forebears who wrote the original Church Order: “Our fathers purposely steered in the direction of brevity. They believed that the best interests of the churches and the cause of God would be served by a limited number of rules. They feared "rule upon rule and precept upon precept…. They felt that multiple and detailed rules would bind the churches needlessly. They loved their liberties, and believed that each church group (Classis) or church should retain as much of its inherent freedom as the true welfare of the Church of Christ would warrant”.[underlining my own].
Join us then in 2005 as we take a fresh look at the
Church Order recently revised and seek to understand it as a wonderful
tool to assist us to retain loving order that we might remain at liberty
to pursue our vision to continue ‘reforming to reach the lost for
Christ’.
Back to top
Back to 2004 Index
Return to Resource Leadership Archive Year Selector
All material on this site © 2004 Trowel & Sword