Or, How Clarity Helps to Cultivate Community
Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Date: September 7, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Ambiguity is to motivation as cheap bubble gum is to flavor: you get a burst for a little bit, usually followed by a mouthful of sadness. In our postmodern world, many professing Christians have co-opted doubt and confusion by wrapping them in the foil called “mystery.” They might say something like, “The more I don’t know about God the more in awe of Him I am.”
But the Beatles never wrote a Billboard Weekly Top 40 love ballad about a blind date. I assume that there is a flash of excitement before the unknown of a blind date, but that excitement is based on distance, not companionship. A long-term relationship based on knowing as little as possible about the other person can’t be called much of a relationship.
For that matter, details, by themselves, don’t cause anyone to “lose the love.” Details lengthen the list of thankfulness. Knowledge of the other person isn’t the same thing as fellowship, but we wouldn’t call two men friends who were totally ignorant about each other.
As Christians, we do recognize that there are limits to our abilities to know an infinite God. But recognizing our constraints is not the same thing as exalting in our ignorance, or even denying that God has distinct contours. Certain things about God are beyond us, above us, and yes, even mysterious to us. We can exalt in His omnis even though we can’t know how He know’s everything. But even our appreciation of what is beyond us depends on clarity. I don’t stop learning about His love, for example, because “the love of Christ surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 2:19). I pray, like Paul, to comprehend more of it AND then accept that it must be even bigger still.
Clarity doesn’t kill motivation or affections or perspective. Clarity compels. I’ve been thinking about how I, and we as a church, can be clear on what we believe, why we believe it, and then what we love to do based on Who we love. Our doctrine defines Who we love and worship and drives us toward good works. Theology energizes the trellis we choose to use to serve the plant.
Three summers ago we submitted a forty-something page statement titled, “What We Believe,” verses included. It’s been official since then, and hopefully not forgotten. Also, on a less official basis, we presented a one-sentence purpose or mission statement to the guys at a Men to Men in July of the same year. Other than Ron, who taped the sentence onto the outside of the box for his Bible, it more or less has been at the back of the filing cabinet. Thinking about clarity, we batted it around among the Life to Life leaders and wives last month and, with a few of their recommendations, and with a couple additional conversations among the elders, it might be a good way to chew over what we’re trying to do.
So tonight I want to introduce a mission statement as an introduction to our doctrinal statement which will be our Sunday evening series for the next eleven months.
It’s not inspired by God, but it is inspired by God’s Word.
We are laboring in joy
to cultivate a Trinitarian community
of worshipping, maturing disciples
who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord
over all the world.
It’s only twenty-four words, but none of them are filler. Walk with me through the lines.
We are laboring . It’s work, an unending work, and “are laboring” stresses the ongoingness of it. The apostle Paul spoke about his work multiple times. For example, after delcaring his vision to present every man complete in Christ, he said “for this I toil, struggling” (ESV), or, “For this purpose…I labor, striving” (NAS). The Greek verb labor (from κοπιάω) has as a dictionary definition, “to be wearied or spent with labor, faint with weariness” (Mounce). It means to “exert oneself, work hard” (BDAG). It isn’t just leaders who labor, each part of the body needs to be working properly (Ephesians 4:16).
Before we go further, we could insert an important set of prepositional phrases such as that we are laboring according to God’s Word alone, by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. These solas belong with the tag line on our website: “Reformed and still reforming disciples of Christ.” The solas and the sovereignty of God that sprang from the 16th Century Reformation are crucial. We’re not ignoring them. We depend on them.
We are laboring in joy . This is our glad work, our willing work, not something that we do under compulsion (see 1 Peter 5:2). The prepositional phrase functions adverbially: laboring joyfully. Numerous times in the New Testament we find the phrase “with joy” such as in Hebrews 13:17 which describes when leaders work with joy. For all of us we want to fight without fussiness. There is a lot of laboring, we want that to be with a lot of whistling.
The next phrase is the key purpose statement and the following lines explain each other. We are laboring in joy to cultivate a Trinitarian community . To cultivate reminds us that this is a living work, like a vine, like shown in our church logo. Cultivation requires careful stewarding for sake of health and fruit. The fruit we seek is Trinitarian community . We’re not the Trinitarian community. We are a small part of the historical and global people of God. And even in our community of Snohomish County, it’s bigger than our small “b” church body. Our responsibility and labor start in this flock, but can’t be completed by staying within our membership directory. This connects to the final line, too.
This Trinitarian community is made up of worshipping, maturing disciples . We are changed as we behold the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). Our corporate Sunday morning assembling together with God and each other begins our week, it begins our laboring as it reshapes us into more faithful and true image-bearers for the next six days. And we’re okay with immaturity in the right place, as long as it is on the path to grow.
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:12–16, ESV)
We eventually should replace ourselves. Reproduction sign of blessing and maturity.
As disciples we want to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord . We went around on what verb would be strong enough for this, more than “see.” We tried “regard.” The “acknowledge” fits with Proverbs 3:5-6.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
To acknowledge here means more than withdrawn assent, but means to “recognize the face or importance of” something and live based on it. I acknowledge the limitations that come with getting older. I also acknowledge the responsibilities of my roles, and that thinking consumes and defines my priorities.
As in Proverbs 3:5-6, we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord over all the world . This doesn’t mean that He isn’t Lord over all things, in heaven and on earth. But He calls us to confess Him as Lord here, to represent Him here. This is our attempt to continue knocking down dualism walls and acknowledge that He cries “Mine” over every-thumb’s width in human existence.
And this applies to all of us, to the We , the first word in the sentence. We are laboring, and that’s a big part of the reason for all of us to work through “What We Believe.”
Everything that we do should be consistent with that purpose statement. That includes this series on “What We Believe.”
Doctrinal clarity excites at least the following four things.
So we have a 45ish page more detailed document, a 2 page summary, and a 24 word concise statement attempting to be clear on what we believe and what we’re trying to do about it.
I’d encourage you to read (reread) the larger document in preparation for each message. Jim is working on preparing a booklet that would fit in the back cover of your Bible. I’d also encourage you to read the Introduction before the main headings begin, along with an explaination below why we started with the document we did.
A doctrinal statement, at least our statement on “What We Believe,” is meant to be more than accurate, more than distinct, but comforting. It should increase affections for sake of worship. It should rally us to work and make and try things for sake of culture and for sake of passing that on to following generations.
There were many options before us in preparing a doctrinal statement for Trinity Evangel Church. We could have started from scratch, or fully adopted a creed or catechism or confession, or mixed and matched. After considering a few possibilities, we decided to start with one and tweak it. With their permission, we chose the Elder Affirmation of Faith from Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, and then added/edited. The following provides some of the reasons we went this direction for detailing What We Believe.
Full of Scripture . Printed without the verses, this statement is less than ten pages. With the verses, the statement grows to over five times as long. Most statements provide references but leave the reader to look up the verses for himself. We loved the verses being readable as footnotes on the same page with the assertions. The online version maximizes the reading experience.
More than Less . As the Introduction to the statement explains, truth understood informs and excites worship and also grows and unites believers. Rather than drift toward the “lowest common doctrinal denominator,” we’re excited to embrace more. Certainly not everything we believe is contained in this statement, but reductionism isn’t the best way to acknowledge the greatness of our infinite God.
Precise and Personal . Not all statements of truth are created equal. We should present our beliefs with accuracy and with more than a “just the facts” attitude. In other words, doctrinal precision should not exclude personal warmth. Our God is three Persons, He created us as persons, and unites us as His people. Truth builds Christ-loving persons and people, not just Christ-correct sentences and paragraphs.
Gospel Storytelling . The flow of the statement asserts the God-Man-Sin-Salvation news. We are an evangel church, and believers never get over their need to grow in the gospel. How great, in addition, is a “what we believe” that works as a (longer) gospel tract for making disciples!
Emphasis on Sanctification . The longest section, by far, in the document concerns personal sanctification (including the section on living God’s Word by meditation and prayer). Some of the length is required to distinguish (and relate) justification and sanctification, but much of it connects to where all of us believers are now. The doctrinal statement itself is meant to strengthen our faith and pursuit of Christlikeness. As such, the emphasis on progressive sanctification fits well with our discipleship and shepherding purposes.
Reformed without (too many) Buzzwords . The cardinal doctrines of the Reformation are mixed throughout the statement, yet there are no Latin words or references to points on any particular flower. While we hold certain Reformed soteriological and doxological beliefs, the statement demonstrates that we are “still reforming” by distinguishing ourselves from certain Reformed eschatological and ecclesiological emphasis, especially as we differentiate Israel from the church and look toward the Millennial Kingdom.
Hopefully you’ll find the whole of this statement, in its parts, posture, and purpose, to the praise of His sovereign, glorious grace.