Kevin DeYoung has a good article entitled
"If We Believe the Same Thing, Why Do Our Churches Seem so Different?" Below is an excerpt of ten things that he says distinguish between what he would call a
vibrant, robust Bible-believing church and one that gets the statement
of faith right but feels totally different (a squishy church). There may be other things, but these 10 seem to be good observations. This would be a good tool to use to evaluate a church before becoming a member.
1. The mission of the church has gotten sidetracked.
Recently I stumbled upon the website for a church in my denomination.
Judging from the information on the site I would say this church thinks
of itself as evangelical, in the loose sense of the word. Their theology
seems to be of the “mere Christianity” variety. But this is their
stated missional aim: “[Our] Missions are designed to connect people and
their resources with opportunities to respond to human need in the name
of Jesus.” A church with this mission will be very different from one
that aims to make disciples of all nations or exists to spread a passion
for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.
2. The church has become over-accommodating. I’m not
thinking of all contextualization (of which there are some good kinds
and some bad). I’m thinking of churches whose first instinct is to shape
their methods (if not their message) to connect with a contemporary
audience. And because of this dominant instinct, they avoid hard
doctrines, cut themselves off from history and tradition, and lean
toward pragmatism.
3. The gospel is assumed. While the right theology
may be affirmed in theory, it rarely gets articulated. No one believes
the wrong things, but they don’t believe much of anything. When pressed,
they will quickly affirm the importance of Jesus’ death and
resurrection, of penal substitution, of justification by faith alone,
but their real passions are elsewhere. What really holds the church
together is a shared conviction about creation care or homeschooling or
soup kitchens or the local fire station.
4. There is no careful doctrinal delineation.
Theology is not seen as the church’s outboard motor. It’s a nasty
barnacle on the hull. You will quickly notice a difference in message
and methods between the church whose operating principle is “doctrine
divides” and the one that believes that doctrine leads to doxology.
5. The ministry of the word is diminished. While
preaching may still be honored in theory, in many churches there is
little confidence that paltry preaching is what ails the church and even
less confidence that dynamic preaching is the proper prescription. No
one wants to explicitly pooh-pooh preaching, teaching, or the ministry
of the word, but when push comes to shove the real solutions are
structural or stylistic. How often do those engaged in church
revitalization begin by looking at the preaching of the word and the
role the Bible plays in the practical outworking of the congregation’s
ministry?
6. People are not called to repentance. It sounds so
simple, and yet it is so easily forgotten. Pastors may call people to
believe in Jesus or call people to serve the community, but unless they
also call them repent of their sins the church’s ministry will lack real
spiritual power. And this should not be done by merely encouraging
people to be authentic about their brokenness. We must use strong
biblical language in calling people to repent and calling them to
Christ.
7. There is no example of carefully handling specific texts of Scripture.
People will not trust the Bible as they should unless they see it
regularly taught with detail and clarity. Churches may still espouse a
high view of Scripture but without a diet of careful exposition they
will not know how to study the Bible for themselves and will not be
discerning when poor theology comes along.
8. There is no functioning ecclesiology. If you put
two churches side by side with the same theology on paper, but one has a
working ecclesiology and the other has a grab-bag of eclectic
practices, you will see a startling difference. Careful shepherding,
elder training, regenerate church membership, a functioning diaconate,
purposeful congregational meetings–these are the things you may not know
you’ve never had. But when you do, it’s a different kind of church.
9. There is an almost complete disregard for church discipline.
If discipline is truly one of the three marks of the church, then many
evangelical congregations are not true churches. All the best theology
in the world won’t help your church or your denomination if you don’t
guard against those who deny it. If we are to be faithful and eternally
fruitful, we must warn against error, confront the spirit of the age,
and discipline the impenitent.
10. The real problem is something other than sin and the real remedy is something other than a Savior.
The best churches stay focused on the basics. And that means sin and
salvation. Sadly, many churches–even if they affirm the right doctrine
on paper–act and preach as if the biggest problem in the world is lack
of education, or material poverty, or the declining morals in our
country, or the threat of global warming. As a result we preach cultural
improvement instead of Christ. We preach justice without Jesus. We lose
sight that the biggest problem (though not the only problem)
confronting the churchgoer every Sunday is that he is a sinner in need
of a Savior.
