The Church in America part 2: The Role of Scripture in the Church

It's time now for the second post on The Church in America. Last time we looked at what the word "church" means literally and how that should lead us to view the church, or better yet behave as the church. Quick note: I say that we are the church because, as the saying goes, in the OT (Old Testament) God had a Temple for His people, but in the NT (New Testament) He has a people for His temple. The church is not a building but it is the people of God. That was something that you may have gotten from the first post if you read between the lines, but something I wanted to state clearly to start out this second post. On to the new post....

With us being a people saved by Grace alone, by Faith alone, through Christ alone, separated from the world by God and filled with the Holy Spirit; we now have a lot of responsibilities to this God who has so freely justified us. One of are main responsibilities besides looking and acting like a pilgrim or sojourner in this land is to be a faithful people to His Word. Therefore, the most crucial point to a church being healthy, God-centered, and truly worthy of even labeling itself a church is how is handles the Holy Word of God. That said, the rest of this post will be dedicated to lifting up the importance of having the Bible front and center in all we say and do in our churches.

The Bible is the most sacred document ever written. That may seem like a bold statement to some, but to most true Christians it really should be a "no-brainer". Everything that we are as Christians comes from our understanding of the Holy Writ. At least that is the thought. However, too many times today our morals, ethics, principles and world-view are not shaped by how we view the scripture, but instead it is shaped by experiences, peer-pressure and what the world tells us is acceptable or not.

Think about this for a moment. 66 books make up the Holy Bible, 39 OT books and 27 NT. The Bible took over 1500 years to write by over 40 different men on 3 separate continents, and yet through all that time and distance the Holy Scripture has ONE central theme: Righteous God Uniting Himself with Unrighteous man Through the life, death, and resurrection of His perfect Son. Now that is amazing! Of course there are many who deny this theme or any notion that the Bible has any true importance at all, but Christianity has always come with its detractors, and when this happens I just think of the words of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 1:26-31, "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The next important point to make about the Bible, which is really the most important point, is that is an Inspired book. Now by inspired I don't simply mean inspired in the since that say an athlete gets inspired emotionally to go out and compete in his/her respected sport, nor do I mean the way a song writer might be inspired to write a song or how a certain song may inspire its listener. What we mean when we say the Bible is inspired is that it is actually God-breathed. Read the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy about this point, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Paul was not the only one to make this claim about the scripture though. In Peter's second letter he makes it clear that the Bible comes from God, "And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:19-21) Also, later in the letter Peter even goes as far to tell the people that Paul's writings were inspired by God as well. (2 Peter 3:15-16)

This point is very crucial to the Biblical story because if the words of the Bible are not Inspired or God-breathed then you cannot make the case of the Bible being Inerrant. Which goes right along with it being inspired because if the Bible comes from a Holy perfect God then surely His Word must be Holy and Perfect as well. A belief in inerrancy and a clear understanding of this doctrine are both very important for Christians to get a good grip on today, because it seems like once again the battle over this is being fought in many places. Now there is much more I can say about this, but this is running long so let me sum everything up.

The main question we must ask after considering all the information given above is, "If we see the scripture for what it truly is The Holy Inspired Inerrant Word of God, then how should we handle its content?" This is the question the church must be asking herself in these pragmatic/ ultimate truth denying days. The scripture must become central in all we do. As I heard one preacher recently say, "we must sing the Bible, pray the Bible and preach the Bible" in our churches. And if we do that then certainly we must be a people who follow the Bible. Not just some of it either, but all of it. It must become "a lamp to our feet and a light to our path". We must quit living by cultural dictates and whims and start living by The Word of God. The Bible message is plain and the proof is clear, today more than ever our churches must become Bible-centered places of worship or else we will lose the fight in rescuing the church in America. Don't misunderstand me though, the church will be victorious in the end the Bible is clear about that. It just might not be the church in America participating in the victory because she has put away her Sword and traded it in for the poison of cultural relevancy.

The Church in America

For my first "REAL" post I thought I would start the conversation going with thoughts on the church in America today. This first post will have several parts to it, and I will try to keep each segment as short as possible. (like around 1,500 words HA HA!) There are many areas we could start with like the condition of church members, the styles of services, the preaching that comes from many pulpits, and how churches hold their members accountable. We could also look into topics like the church's role in society today, how involved it should be in politics, and how we should go about engaging the culture. All of these are great topics and will be discussed in some form along the way but I thought I would start today with more of a Theology of the church to kind of get us going.

The church was started by Christ during His personal ministry when he first began calling disciples to himself. This is evidenced by the Matthew 18 passage when dealing with fellow believers who have fallen into sin, he tells His followers to take it to the church if they have not responded to individual or group counseling on the matter. Of course, we know that the church became fully functioning and active at Pentecost, where 5,000 were added to her number.

But to get even more specific, why the word "church". For those that don't know the word "church" comes from the Greek word "ecclesia" meaning an assembly. More particularly this was a common word in the Greek world because for most Greeks the ecclesia represented what we might call today a type of City Council. These were people who had been elected by a group of people to represent them in meetings to discuss what needed to be done for the betterment of the town. So, why does Christ desire to use this word when beginning to build His ecclesia of believers. Well I believe the answer is obvious because what Christ intended His ecclesia (church) to be was a body of elected (called out/saved) people coming together to do His and the Father's work. That is praying; reading the scriptures; giving of tithes and offerings; singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; and finally caring out the Gospel (The Good News) to the rest of the world.

My reasoning for beginning here is that I think today the church has lost sight as of what it initially was even brought together for. She was not brought together for coffee and donuts (not that having coffee and donuts is wrong but that's not her main concern). She was not called together for big productions that entertain the masses. She was not brought together to fix all of the social misfortunes outside her doors. ( I know this is a hot topic so I will clarify my stance on this later) What the church was called out to do was and still very much is the work of God. It was called out to minister to the sick, it was called out to preach the Gospel, it was called out to observe the ordinances, it was called out to be a light in a dark world.

Why people today have such a bad view of the church in general today is because we have not looked like a called out people. We instead have distorted the words of Paul when he said, "I have become all things to all people so that by some means I may save some..." into thinking that we have to lose our true identity in Christ for a more worldly image. In doing this we have lost the first importance of what the word "church" even means. We no longer resemble a peculiar people set apart by God through the death of His Son. We no longer resemble an assembly of Christ followers coming together to do His work for the Glory of God. Instead we look like ( and by that I mean act like) the very people we are suppose to be set apart from.

It's interesting to note that when Christian got to the wicket gate and began his journey on the narrow path that he was first given new clothes that would set him apart from the others he might meet on his journey. This helped him remember that he too had been set apart from the rest of the world, and it also helped others to see that he was in some ways different from them. Now, I am not saying that we all should wear only white garments everyday (even though I do prefer only white dress shirts with my suits, hmm), but the purpose it does serve is in showing us the importance of being a people who have been genuinely set apart.

For the church in America today I believe that this is the first step in rescuing our lost reputation. We must look like a people and act like a people who have been called out, separated, and saved from the rest of the world. We are the ecclesia of God and should be a people about His business.

Welcome

Dear Reader,
Well, this is my first post on my brand new blog site, and man am I excited. First let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jason Goodwin, I am married to the beautiful and vivacious Jessica Goodwin (formerly Jameson) my wife of almost 6 years now (July 20th will be our anniversary), and we have two beautiful children. Kennedy Claire is our oldest she is 3 years old, and she is the big sister to our son Cooper Wade (Wade is in honor of my grandfather on my mother's side) who is looking forward to his first birthday in August. We live in Sherwood, Arkansas a suburb of sorts to North Little Rock. ( It truly is better on the North side) It is here that I pastor Cherrywood Baptist Church a small baptist congregation right off of Kiehl Avenue in Sherwood. We have lived here for almost 4 years now and have enjoyed our time in Central Arkansas.
Now to the purpose of this blog. I have named it "A 21st Century Pilgrim" because in reading John Bunyan's great work The Pilgrim's Progress I have come to see more clearly the path that I am on as a professor of Christ, and realize more and more the greatness of the path that Christ has set me on. Now please don't misunderstand me. I am not over hyping the experience of the journey that I am on as a Christian over the final destination or the ultimate truth of what Christ has done in my life through his death and resurrection. What I am merely trying to do is show the goodness of God in my life through all the trials and tribulations that He has put in my path to point others to His Grace and Mercy that flow from Calvary. So while this blog is about my experiences as a Christian, husband, father, pastor, and son. It is also an avenue for me to communicate Biblical truth to the those who might stumble across this blog and find it worth checking out.
Finally, let me give you a brief warning. I am an opinionated person, and I love sharing my opinions with whomever will listen. Also I love debate (healthy debate that is) and getting the conversation going on any numbers of topics. The things that will be discussed in this blog will range from Religious to secular, from politics to sports, from local issues to world wide issues. I am not a journalist nor do I pretend to be, but I do enjoy sharing my convictions on certain things and hopefully through that we can start some good conversations. So, I hope that this first post finds all of you out there doing well and living for the Glory of God, and if not then it is my prayer that God's Glorious Grace would give you comfort and guidance as you too progress on your pilgrimage.