Love Your Church
By: Claude Atcho and Rob Berreth
Ecclesiological Lust
“The purity of the church is its degree of freedom from wrong doctrine and conduct, and its degree of conformity to God’s revealed will for the church” (Wayne Grudem). This is a full and important sentence. It means, among many things, that if a church is a “true church” then no matter how impure it is, it is Jesus’ Bride. To illustrate this point let me describe a possible church. They preach the Gospel but aren’t Gospel centered. The Gospel is preached almost exclusively for conversion. This church calls people to mission, but by mission they mean something “over there” for those few really committed Christians. They sing songs, some theologically strong and some not. They don’t even have a written statement of faith but if asked they would affirm historic orthodox Christian truths as expressed in the earlier creeds. We could go on but the point is this: this is a true church. She is a church that Jesus bled for and died for. She no doubt has many areas of impurity. They may be massive areas, but if the Gospel is preached and heard, she is a church.
Unfortunately, and far too often, this church is abandoned for another church that is more attractive. Now there may be times and legitimate reasons to leave a true church for another true church, but the occasions should be rare and the decision to move on should be slow, painful, and done in community under the Holy Spirit appointed authority in your local church.
Love Your Church To Make Her Lovely
Instead of leaving, try loving the one you’re with and perhaps she will start to look better. If you’re disappointed by the confessional nature of your local church pray and then try and do something about it. If your local church has a poorly developed understanding of the Holy Spirit then pray and then help. What typically happens, for example, in a church that is “off” mission, is that the few people “on” mission leave for another church that is “on” mission. You know what’s next? The church that is struggling in her missional identity just becomes weaker and more impure. The few people that could have helped change the culture are gone. What would it look like if you loved your local church in such a way that wherever she is impure, and every local church is, she actually started to grow in those areas?
Love the Church to Make Her Lovely
When you recognize the concept of church purity, you will realize this vital truth: if a church is a true church, then there is something to love about her. If a church is a true church, then there are things to celebrate and praise God for about that church.
Personally, understanding the dynamics of church purity has given us a more gracious and loving appreciation for the church that Jesus purchased by His blood. It’s given the young men we disciple a growing heart of humility instead an aura of arrogance toward local churches in our region that aren’t pure in areas that we, by God’s grace, may be pure in.
These young leaders have realized that a church that preaches the Gospel but doesn’t have a plurality of elders is still a true church. And yes, it is a church with areas of impurity that need work—just like our church.
When you recognize these dynamics of church purity, you will pray for the churches that you used to only critique. Why? Because you’ll remember that that church is a true church despite her flaws and she needs Jesus to make her pure.
When you recognize the dynamics of church purity, you’ll be guarded from perpetual discouragement and dissatisfaction when you think about the state of your church and how your church isn’t quite up to par in that “one area” that you tend to really focus on. Instead of falling prone to subjective blanket assessments of your church, the nuanced dynamics of church purity will help you assess purity in your church in a more comprehensive way. This will ultimately help you cultivate love for your church as you see glimpses of Christ’s work in her that you otherwise may have overlooked.
On the flip side, when you recognize the dynamics of church purity, you will be guarded from an arrogance that says your church does everything the way it’s supposed to be done. Instead, you’ll develop a posture of humility as you assess and see that your church has areas of impurity, just like every other church.
No One’s Spotless, Except Jesus
When we see impurity in the local church, we have several subsequent options: we can bail on her, we can diss her, we can get discouraged, we can think we are the only one who knows how to fix her or we can look to the One who has died to make the church to lovely.
We need to remember the glorious truth that there is One who has loved the church and made her lovely despite all of her sin and impurity. Guess what? Jesus loves His church—both the universal and the local—far more than any of us ever will. Guess what? Jesus cares about the purity of His church far more than any of us ever will. Jesus cares about the purity of His church to the point that He—the only pure and spotless one—died on the cross to make the church, a dirty and sinful people, holy and without blemish. As we remember Christ’s work to save His church, we can rejoice that He will sanctify and purify His church.
This means we look to Jesus to bring purity to His church in our areas of impurity. This means we pray, plan, and act remembering that Jesus Christ is the only pure and spotless one. The following church purity audit resource is one of many ways to pray, plan, and assess the varying areas of purity and impurity in your church. This resource is an actual example of how we’ve assessed our church in light of the gospel and God’s Word to see our areas of purity and impurity.
Remember that as we pray, plan, and labor for purity in our churches, we must always appeal and look to Jesus, the spotless one who died to make the church spotless.
Note: In the second part of this post, we’ve included a blank version of this church purity tool linked to above along with tips and questions on how you can use this tool to assess and celebrate the state of your church. Read the second part of this post here.