The Organ of Meaning

First up at Advance09 was Mark Driscoll who is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. From my understanding Seattle is a hard city for the Gospel, people largely view the Church as irrelevant, bigoted and backwards (unfortunately, the caricature is not inaccurate enough).

The title/question is a significant one. It’s important to understand what this messy thing is that we call the Church. Driscoll first covered what differing views throughout history have said, but what was interesting is that there was no written works from 251AD – 1378AD that talked about ecclesiology (the study of the theological understanding of the Christian church) and there is no historically consistent belief on it.

Is it essentially a visible phenomenon which is easy to define, or invisible and undefinable? Is it about apostolic succession or about faith and faithfulness? What if things are done wrong, is it still really the Church as God defines it?

So, May 31st was “Pentecost Sunday” which celebrates what is considered the beginning of the Church, so if that was the beginning what changed on that day that set it apart from the 50 days prior after Jesus had ascended? The Holy Spirit.

Jesus, while he was on earth, was in constant contact with the Holy Spirit and dependent on him for power, Jesus was constantly praying and depending on the Father to guide his steps as well. You’ll see (especially if you read the Gospel of Matthew) that Jesus as a real human was dependent on the Holy Spirit to do anything. So, as he’s preparing to ascend and giving last instructions, what does he tell the disciples? “Wait.”

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5 ESV)

He tells them to wait until they receive the Holy Spirit because if Jesus needed him to do what he did, the apostles would certainly need him all the more. It’s on Pentecost that the Church is born. The Holy Spirit shows up and Peter preaches a sermon in the middle of Jerusalem that convinces 3,000 people that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and able to save every one who believes.

When you look at Peter’s words they’re not all that eloquent, but they’re exactly what was true. Peter focused on Jesus because the Church is totally about Jesus. It is not about a political brand, it’s not about family, it’s not about charity, it’s not about morality, nor power, money, buildings, missions, empire-building, growth, your best life now, hymns or “praise and worship”, missional living or monasticism and asceticism or anything else – it is all about Jesus.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:32, 33, 36 ESV)

Driscoll said this about those of us in the Church: “We’re a one-song band, and we’re going to keep playing it until we see him again.”

Ultimately, the Church is that which comes in the wake of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. If it’s not following those Two (Three, really, since Jesus says that he does everything the Father tells him), it is not the Church.

Finally Driscoll listed (not exclusively) 8 things that mark a real Church that is following God:

1. Regenerated Church Membership
   • Members whom God is working within.
2. Qualified Leadership
   • This should illustrate a reality of the Trinity: ontological equality and functional (voluntary) subordination.
3. Gathering for Teaching/Preaching and Worship.
   • Preaching illustrates the Gospel: God is the giver, I am merely the receiver.
4. Sacraments Rightly Administered
   • Baptism and communion.
5. Unified by the Holy Spirit
   • Distinguish between closed-handed (non-negotiable) beliefs and open-handed beliefs & prioritize important things.
   • Centered around Jesus and proclamation of the Gospel.
6. Discipline for Holiness
   • I’m still not sure what this looks like.
7. Obey the Great Commandment to Love
8. Obey the Great Commission to share the Gospel

It’s not just the Church in its gathered state, but when it scatters into the world it is still the Church. It’s where we’re following in the wake of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week in the Durham, NC area at the Advance09 conference. It was a conference about the resurgance of the local church. I’m not talking about a political power and I’m not talking about something that involves violent war metaphors, protests and bait-and-switch events. In the past decades the Church has failed to take it’s role and responsibility seriously and has largely lost its direction.

The conference included some of the most powerful and cogent pastors and teachers who are bringing the message of Jesus into some significant and historically dificult places. Some of this difficulty comes both apathetic arrogance and from innoculated ignorance, both of which are our own fault. In the north and the west we’ve failed to engage the cultural conversation with anything significant to say and in the south we’ve assumed that everyone should know better and have engaged using blunt arguments that don’t address people’s hearts or minds.

I’ve been thinking and dwelling on some of the messages that I heard and I’m hoping to post a series of reactions to the conference and its implications.

Ran into a road block today on differring views on church, para-church and worship.

I think it will end up being a great discussion. I have strong views on some of the stuff, but I am realizing that I don’t know if I can articulate them or back them up very strongly.

I like having my theology/philosophy/logic side of my brain stretched.

As I read and learn more and more about the history of the basic branches of the Protestant church I find that the pattern of too-hard – too-soft – just-right in almost every run down of their distinctives and doctrines. There are issues of the “real presence” in communion, baptism (both child and believer’s), church political structure and its interaction with the secular politics, defense of the doctrines (or dogmas), the interpretation of the Bible, the nature of God, the nature of salvation and election… I find truth and different kinds of “missing it” in all of them.

Am I Goldilocks with my theology? Will I find the high Papa Church always too big, and hot but with the right firmness? Will the Mama church always be too soft and cold, but the right size? And the infantile church “just right”? And will I find myself thrown out of the house altogether?

Maybe the metaphor of the story breaks down around here – finding the extremes too much but comfort somewhere in the middle. It’s as if I’m looking for the medium sized, hard and cold… and not all of them go with the same system (Papa, Mama, Baby)…

Is it that I just find myself uncomfortable in every house but still welcomed… as if the bears welcomed Miss Locks into their home to stay.

[1/19/08]

It is both fortunate and unfortunate; the occurrences of the past week.

I really feel that within the past week that Carrie and I really have started to connect with and develop some friends in the area that are totally outside of our team. It has been a bit depressing with all of the people that we usually hang out with gone (or at least we didn’t realize that they were still around – sorry Craig). But there were a few things that happened that have helped to maybe remedy that…

First off, honestly, is Twitter. In the past week or so I’ve connected on there with a good number of people that we attend church with or are in a small group with. I figured out the best explanation of its value also… when my wife’s family gets together for dinner or just to spend time they talk mostly about the every-day minutiae of their lives and that is wonderful because they are able to see each other every day because they all live within 15 minutes of each other and talk all the time. It’s very different in a city and especially when you work a job in which you don’t have normal and diverse coworkers (yeah, we interact with college students as well, but I’m really looking at peers) which really prevents you from developing a lot of friendships outside of a small team that you work with. Also, it’s just healthy to have friends who do something different than ministry when you’re in ministry – that’s just reality, but it can be hard to find those friends. Honestly, Twitter has helped. (If you’re on Twitter, find me. I’m at twitter.com/jaysonwhelpley.)

The other things that happened were just plain having fun with people from our small group. A couple had a small cookout and we went and had fun and met people and got to know those friends better. Then tonight small group was really small (including 4 people who were at the cookout) and we just hung out. In addition to all of that, we’re having the cookout couple over for dinner on Tuesday. It’s sad and funny that it’s taken us almost a year to get to this point, but I tell you the job makes it a little harder too… I promise.

The sad thing is that as of Thursday we’re pretty much out of town until about 3 days around the end of July and then gone again for a week or so. So we’re kinda cutting this off right as it’s starting.

On the whole I am socially encouraged. I really am glad to find some people that feel like real friends. I’m hoping the trend continues! The sermon today on community was very well timed.