Part One: Theological Integrity — Healthy things grow and bear fruit. A healthy congregation is growing in their understanding of Biblical depth and truth. Seeking alignment with our shared confessions is important to our stability as the Body of Christ.
If you were to ask ten people to answer the question, “What is the Christian church?”, I bet you would get various answers. People might say the church is:
- A place where people worship
- A place where you can find help
- A community where people study their shared beliefs
- A group of people following after Jesus together to fulfill the Great Commission
So how would you answer the question? When you consider ‘church’, what do you believe it to be? Beyond your own thoughts, what understanding, background, and influences shape the way you define church? I wonder how many different answers we might get if we were to ask the same question here at Emmaus.
Of course, what we believe matters. Whether we consciously think about it or not, our theology informs our practices and behavior, guiding our mission, plans, vision, and goals. Here at Emmaus, we belong to the Association of Free Lutheran Churches. This informs our core beliefs, principles, and strategies. Each are based upon the following pillars:
- That we believe in Christ alone and the uniqueness of Jesus as the only Savior and Lord
- That we believe in the doctrine of justification by faith alone
- That we believe that salvation comes by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ
- That we believe in God’s Word alone with the Holy Spirit as the final authority for faith and life
- That we believe that the heart of Christian faith and life is in God’s glory
So how does this affect church health and inform our mission and vision? Let’s go through each point. First, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6 – NIV) We believe that Jesus alone is Messiah, Savior, and King, because He is the only One who has won the victory. Jesus alone offers His life as an atoning sacrifice for our sin which separates us from God. Now, if we compromise this core belief in any way, we compromise what it means to be a ‘Christian’, and Christian means ‘little Christ’. If we are not following Christ, we are not a Christian church.
So how does this affect church health and inform our mission and vision? Let’s go through each point. First, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6 – NIV) We believe that Jesus alone is the Messiah, Savior, and King because He is the only One who has won the victory. Jesus alone offers His life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins which separates us from God. Now, if we compromise this core belief in any way, we compromise what it means to be a ‘Christian’, and Christian means ‘little Christ’. If we are not following Christ, we are not a Christian church.
Next, we read in Romans 3:24 that we, who are all sinners, are justified by God’s grace as a gift: through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross, He took our sins and shame. The only way to receive this grace is through faith. To be justified means that we have been given the righteousness of Christ. So, when God looks upon those who have received Christ by faith, He sees the righteousness of Jesus and not our sins. Now, if we misunderstand or compromise these truths, we are prone to twist, confuse, and manipulate the Good News of the Gospel. Further, we might find ourselves living not in true freedom, but under the burden of the law and the guilt and shame of what we cannot fulfill without Christ.
See, we cannot experience true freedom in our hearts and our lives if we compromise the doctrine of justification by faith alone or the core belief that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. Just as Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” The Apostle Paul goes on to say, God’s love is so great, He offers mercy and grace freely and abundantly. If we compromise this core belief, we compromise the very essence of the Gospel and the one thing that sets true Christianity apart from all other religions and beliefs: that our salvation is not earned, it is freely given through the redemption of Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.
Further, as we consider the crucial pillars of our faiths and beliefs, and why we believe what we do, we must also hold to an authority to have a healthy foundation. We might consider this a bedrock of our theology. Without stability and depth, we will not have stable pillars; and, over time, everything we are and have (through Christ) in His church will erode beneath us. So, we uncompromisingly believe in the complete and authoritative, holy, inerrant, and infallible Bible. We believe it is the revelation of God just as 2 Timothy 3:16 proclaims that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable…” Yes, the Bible ‘is’ the breath of God from His bounty. Think about it, we live in a world that is defined by instability and confusion. In this environment, we need stability and truth. I Corinthians 14:33 tells us that, “God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.” Satan, the Father of Lies, is the robber of peace. His great tactic is confusion, and He seeks to kill and destroy everything He can in order to challenge the will of God. The church must be built on stable ground to stand the test of time and to bear healthy fruit for God’s Kingdom’s purposes. That stable ground is Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Finally, we sum up our core beliefs by acknowledging that we share no greater purpose than living to glorify God for all of eternity. And if we compromise our purpose, we will not live or fulfill what God has purposed for His church; because it’s not about us, it’s about Him.
So just as we are commanded in Hebrews 10:23 – “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Of course, holding fast to a confession requires knowing and understanding what confessions we hold to, if we are going to hang on without wavering. As we consider the importance of our Theological Integrity, along with many other facets of church life and health, I want to encourage you to dig a little deeper especially if you are feeling like this subject is a bit overwhelming. Please take some time to go back and look into the verses that are cited in order to study and reflect upon what they mean and how they fit into their context.
Over the course of the next six months, we will be sharing a series of articles that will focus our attention on a balanced approach to church health and mission. Each month we will consider one of the six specific areas of church organizational ministry including Theological Integrity, Mission Clarity, Cultural Awareness, Spiritual Vitality, Leadership Growth, and Worship Renewal.
In Christ,
Pr. Nick Dyrud