I have a friend who was
called to be the pastor of a rather large
church. When I asked him how he liked his
new responsibility, he replied, “I haven’t
found the church yet. And if I don’t find it
within a year, I am going to leave.”
Almost every minister will
agree that there is a church within the
church—that group of people, often a
minority, in almost every congregation who
have personally met the living Christ and
can never be the same again. The word church
comes from a Greek word, ecclesia.
This is from a verb meaning “to call out.”
The church is composed of all those true
believers from Pentecost onward who are
united together in Christ. The Bible teaches
that we are the Body of Christ, of which He
is the Head (Ephesians 1:22-23). As such,
the true church is a holy temple for the
habitation of God through the Holy Spirit
(Ephesians 2:21-22).
Therefore, within the vast
complexities, bureaucracies, organizations
and institutions of Christendom there exists
the true Body of Christ. The members of this
true Body are, for the most part, known only
to God. They are the ones who have their
names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life
(Revelation 21:27). They are scattered in
all denominations, and many are in no
denomination at all. They are the
“called-out” ones. It is this church within
the church against which Christ promised the
gates of hell would never prevail (Matthew
16:18).
I was asked to write an
article for a leading British magazine on
the subject “What I Would Do to Change the
Church.” I would like to list some changes
that I suggested in that article.
First, I would call
the church back to biblical authority.
The Protestant church today is possibly as
far from the authority of the Scriptures as
was the Roman church in the 16th century. We
desperately need a new reformation within
the Protestant church.
Jeremiah the prophet charged
the people of his generation, saying, “For
you have perverted the words of the living
God” (Jeremiah 23:36). In our generation the
teachings of the Bible are being perverted
by many churchmen. The authority of
Scripture itself is being rejected. Thus the
church is floundering like a ship at sea
that has lost its rudder and compass. We are
like a plane in heavy weather that has lost
radio contact with the tower.
Second, I would
suggest that every member of the church
begin where the disciples began—at genuine
conversion. Jesus said, “By their
fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20).
The very fact that the fruit of the Spirit,
such as love, joy and peace (Galatians
5:22), does not characterize average
professing Christians indicates that they
have never had a genuine experience with
God.
After preaching all over the
world and observing the work of the church,
I am convinced that there are great hordes
of people loosely identified with the church
for various reasons who have never
experienced scriptural conversion. The
distinguishing mark of Christ’s disciples
was that people could tell that “they had
been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Great sections
of the church today have been rendered
sterile and nonproductive because Christ’s
spark of divine light is not resident within
them.
Third, I would teach
the necessity of the infilling of the Holy
Spirit. The disciples were
nothing before Pentecost. They were
everything after it.
When we read about famous
Christians down through the centuries, we
cannot escape the tremendous emphasis of the
Holy Spirit in their lives. The church today
has all the tools for conquest—money,
edifices, organizations, education and
methods. But we lack the God-given spark to
ignite these things into a spiritual fire
that could sweep the world and help bring
peace to our desperate world. That spark is
the personal infilling of the Holy Spirit in
the life of every believer, without which
the church has no spiritual power.
Fourth, I would call
the church back to biblical discipline. I
would not call for a return to Puritanism
with its legalism and excesses. However, we
do need a new Puritanism that will lead to
self-discipline, self-denial and a
willingness to take up the cross of Christ,
while at the same time preserving the great
freedom that we have in Jesus Christ.
The church has drifted into
a dangerous antinomianism—so serious that
those outside the church can discern very
little difference between the Christian and
the non-Christian. The Scripture says that
the Christian is to live a life separated
from the evils of the world.
Fifth, I would teach
the centrality of Christ. “In Him
we live and move and have our being” (Acts
17:28). One cannot read the New Testament
without being impressed that the early
Christians had Christ at the center of every
act, word and deed. Today we have hidden Him
with jargon, borrowed rituals and all kinds
of religious trappings. These need to be
stripped away so that people can see the
genuine, living, redeeming Savior.
Sixth, I would call
the church back to the thrill, excitement,
joy and expectancy of the early church. We
have become dead in orthodoxy and dead in
liberalism. On the day of Pentecost, the
Christians were so excited that the people
thought they were drunk (Acts 2:13, 15). We
go into the average church today and
certainly no one would accuse us of being
drunk; rather, we are accused of being
asleep. Wherever Jesus went, there was
excitement in the community. Wherever the
apostles went, there was a sense of
excitement and expectancy. And we need to
recover it.
Seventh, I would
call the church to a new relevancy.
I would call the church to a proper
perspective in coming to grips with the
staggering social evils of our time.
I would start, however, from
a spiritual point of view. Only a healthy
church can help a sick world. Much social
action today is nothing but sheer humanism.
I am convinced that we cannot save the world
until we ourselves are first saved. We
cannot change the world until we as members
of the church have been transformed by the
power of Christ. We cannot redeem society
until we ourselves have first been redeemed
by Christ.
One of the leaders of a vast
poverty program told me that his experience
in years of social work has led him to the
conviction that men and women’s greatest
need is spiritual. This is precisely why
Christ said, “You must be born again” (John
3:7).
In the church, though, there
are those who hold that evangelism should be
reinterpreted along the lines of social
engineering, political pressure and even
violent revolution. We are told, “That’s the
way to get things done.” We are witnessing
today the greatest emphasis by
ecclesiastical organizations on
pronouncements, lobbying, picketing,
demonstrating and even a call for violence
to bring about social and political change
in America. Certain church leaders feel that
society must be compelled to submit to their
ideas of social change. They say that this
is the major part of the Christian mission.
I believe that the changing
of people’s hearts is the primary mission of
the church. The only way to change men and
women is to get them converted to Christ.
Then they will have the capacity to live up
to the Christian command to “love your
neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).
We as Christians have two
responsibilities: first, to proclaim the
Gospel of Christ as the only answer to
mankind’s deepest needs. Second, to apply as
best we can the principles of Christ to the
social conditions around us. The world may
argue against a creed, but it cannot argue
against changed lives. This is what the
simple Gospel of Christ does when it is
preached and proclaimed in the power and
authority of the Holy Spirit.
I would call the church
today back to its main task of proclaiming
Christ and Him crucified. He can change
lives and meet the deepest spiritual needs
of mankind, as the only panacea for the
problems that face the world. ©1971 BGEA
Scripture quotations
are taken from The Holy Bible, New King
James Version.