the purpose of the church

i must admit that i have been holding off on writing because i haven't been able to formulate my ideas into a readable and respectable presentation. i am not concerned with that here because my mind is boiling over with ideas that i need to start turning over. These ideas are all a work in progress. i'm sure i will add/remove/change the content of what i write as many times as the days i have yet to live.

i have written a few times about how my study of church history has broadened and challenged my understanding of the church. the question that currently presses me the most is how do i account for the reality that a majority of the church's existence was different than what i have experienced in my 28 years of life. in other words, the last 400 years or so have produced a wide variety of denominations since the Reformation and the make-up of these churches has always been considered "the right way" for me. but this "right way" has existed for a minority (far minority) of the church's lifespan. how do i reconcile this with my church experience today? the better question is, how can i learn from the church's history spanning 1600 or so years before the Reformation? how can i reassess my experience based on the church's pendulum swings over the years?

This question plays out in five areas (in no specific order or importance):
1. purpose of the church
2. view of the Lord's Supper
3. deification or co-redeeming
4. baptism
5. role of tradition


First, i will consider the purpose of the church. the Catholic view of a follower of Christ, from what i have gathered in my readings, is they are a Christian because they are part of the church. contrarily, the Protestant view is an individual becomes a Christian by putting their faith in Jesus Christ and then they join a church. this shift has contributed to the weakening of the community of faith because the recent focus fuels the consumer culture of the church. why should a individual believer stay with a church if the church (local body of believers located in a building with a specific set of programs, worship style(s), and pastor with a level of 'quality') does not serve them? in contrast, if a person's is faith is more closely tied with the local body of Christ, then doesn't that remove the personal taste test and shift the focus to the body of Christ? the difference is subtle but very eye-opening. the view that ties a person's faith more closely with the community and not merely with the individual's "personal walk" provides a stronger foundation for the body of Christ being salt and light of the world (sharing the gospel) as well as being a set of people who love each other and lay their lives down for one another.

my immediate response, based on my years in the church, asks how does this shift back to the church-first view account for an individual's salvation. i think that this is not the most pertinent question for this discussion. the issue in question, at least for me in this discussion, is not how to get more people saved but how the church should be the body of Christ to a dying world.

i believe that the Protestant church has a lot to learn from the prior 1600 years of the church's existence and that I shouldn't blow off those 1600 years due to my lack of understanding of three or four controversial issues that i haven't taken the time or energy to investigate, namely, the form of bread/wine at communion, 'worship' of Mary, prayer formulas for forgiveness, and worship of statues that shed blood or tears. i have started to understand the background of these issues through my study of church history and i can already see how they are not as divisive as i have always thought.

in summary of my first subject, the purpose of the church needs to be re-examined in light of more than the past 400 years and the notion of a person being a Christian because they are part of the church as opposed to becoming a Christian and then joining a church should be considered again.

could this be part of the explanation i have been looking for to account for my recent internal frustrations with salvation campaigns that are run to convert people like market-experts look to convert people to their products? does this provide further backing to the notion of the Christian life being a long race instead of merely crossing the starting line (see Missing the Point by Campolo/McLaren)? is the church's only purpose to save as many individuals as possible or is it also to then be salt and light to the world? in many ways the answer is both but in the Protestant world it is more likely that they focus on the former while the latter suffers. the pendulum has swung toward the individualized view of faith. this swing should be questioned and balanced by incorporating a focus on the church as also playing a role in salvation.

the other four topics will have to wait for another time (2. view of the Lord's Supper, 3. deification or co-redeeming, 4. baptism, 5. role of tradition)