The Essence

Over the last several issues of Presbytery Matters, I have been highlighting some different models for being the Church in our day.  These came from a sabbatical study I undertook in 2010.  I hope that those articles will continue to engage us in prayerful and thoughtful conversations...some of which already have begun to take place.

In the paper I wrote as a result of my sabbatical, I also spent some time examining an overarching look at the nature of the Church.  Specifically, I identified several things that I believe have been Biblical hallmarks of what the Church is to be about. I also reflected on what our Book of Order lists as the "notes of the true Kirk" (distilled from the Scots Confession in our Book of Confessions.)

If an integral part of being a Reformed Christian is taking the written Word seriously, then what does the Bible, and particularly the New Testament, say about what makes a church the Church?  In other words, what are at least some of the biblical marks of the true Church?

There are many words used to describe the Church in the New Testament, of course, but at least these five seem to me to come up often enough that one could argue that they are the key descriptive words for what the Church is and how the Church ought to live in community and in witness.  These words are kerygma, didache, diakonia, koinonia, and agape. These words can have various translations.  As I studied these words, it seemed to me that these five words make up what might be the New Testament "marks" of the Church.  I would translate them as:  proclamation, learning, service, hospitality, and love.

Adopted in 2011, the newest section of the Presbyterian Church's Book of Order affirms these "notes of the true Kirk," as the Scots put it.

"Where Christ is, there is the true Church.  Since the earliest days of the Reformation, Reformed Christians have marked the presence of the true Church wherever:

·      the Word of God is truly preached and heard,

·      the Sacraments are rightly administered, and

·      ecclesiastical discipline is uprightly administered." (F-1.0303)

The Form of Government of the Book of Order continues to emphasize these notes of the Church in its description of the work and witness of all of the various councils of the Church, focusing each one's specific responsibilities and ministries around these three notes.  (See G-3.01 in its general descriptions of councils, and then G-3.0201 concerning the session, G-3.03031 concerning presbyteries, G-3.0401 concerning synods, and G-3.0501 concerning the General Assembly.)

So, true to our heritage, Presbyterians believe that the Church should be about the tasks of making the proclamation and hearing of the Word of God primary in our worship, celebrating the Sacraments as Christ's claiming and nurturing gifts of grace to us, and living out the belief that good order better serves our communal life and witness than does chaos.

My question then was, and continues to be, this... What would it look like if a  congregation (and/or a presbytery), after a period of prayer and reflection and discussion, decided upon what "marks" it would identify as being crucial to its nature, mission, and ministry, and focused solely and exclusively on those things only...that everything - everything - else would be cast aside in order to focus on those key elements?

I pray that this might be worth some further conversations together.