The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord,” and yet, in this age between Christ’s two advents, the church is “by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.”􏰆􏰂 As the Belgic Confession states, since “all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of ‘the church’,”􏰆􏰆 how can we ensure that a local church is part of the true Church?

The Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith identifies three marks of a true church: “the faithful preaching of the Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and the proper exercise of church discipline.” These three marks are not the only attributes and activities of a true church, but they are the distinguishing marks. Preaching identifies Christ as the head of the church (Eph. 1:22, 4:15, 5:23, Col. 1:18􏰀􏰇), and the sacraments and church discipline identify the church as the body of Christ that is spiritually united to him (Rom. 12􏰀:5, 1 Cor. 􏰀􏰁12:􏰀􏰁12, 27, Eph. 4:12,􏰀 16􏰁, 􏰀􏰃Col. 1:24).

Faithful Preaching of the Word

Jesus is building his church on the foundation of the apostles (Matt. 􏰀􏰃16:18-19, cf. Eph. 􏰁2:20), who “once for all delivered to the saints” “the faith” of the gospel (Jude 3􏰅; cf. Luke1:2; Acts 􏰁2:42􏰂􏰁). A voluntary association that stands on another foundation might be a synagogue, a mosque, a lodge, or a temple, but it is no church. Even if an apostle or an angel from heaven preaches a dierent gospel, we must reject them and their message, for there is no other gospel (Gal. 1:6-9􏰉).

In 􏰀1 Timothy 3􏰅:15􏰀􏰆, Paul uses two metaphors to describe “the church of the living God.” The first one is familiar, “the household of God,” but the second less so, “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” The church exists to prop up “the truth,” namely the mystery that “[Christ] was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (􏰀 1 Tim. 􏰅3:􏰀􏰃16). The church stewards “the knowledge of the truth” by which “people [are] saved,”—that “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (􏰀1 Tim. 5􏰁:􏰆6􏰃). “The word of truth, the gospel of ... salvation” (Eph. 1􏰀:13􏰀􏰅) is the keystone of the church, and a congregation that does not uphold it cannot properly be called a church.

􏰆More broadly, a true church upholds the written, God-breathed Word, the Scriptures—all thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The Bible itself does not save us, but only the Bible leads us to Jesus who alone saves, for it is "able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (􏰁2 Tim. 3􏰅:15􏰀􏰆).

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Shawn Woo, Lead Pastor, Trinity Cambridge Church (Cambridge, MA)

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.

The biblical metaphors used to describe the church teach us that long-term membership in a local congregation ought to be the norm. Yet many strands of contemporary life work against that norm—against putting down roots in one church for decades. The independent, consumer-driven culture we inhabit pulls us away from the kind of “staying” which in turn makes for healthy Christians and healthy churches.

Restless for something new, we leave one church to attend another down the road. Or, drawn by a range of programs better suited to meet our needs, we leave a good church and dear friends, to go where the perceived benefits are greater. Or, experiencing relational diculties, we uproot ourselves from a faithful church to start over again in a place where we are relatively unknown, where little is expected of us, and where church life is, frankly, easier.

Christians and churches are worse-off whenever a casual, impermanent, transitory approach to local church life prevails. Believers benefit from maintaining a long-term church identity and local churches benefit from having long-term members. The fact is, “There’s always a core group of faithful people at the heart of every healthy congregation. Our lives and our churches are better because of them.”􏰇􏰈

The metaphors the Bible uses to describe the church and illustrate church life make the case that we should aspire to be among that core of faithful saints who remain in one church for a long time. For example, the “body” metaphor (􏰀1 Cor. 12􏰀􏰁:27􏰁􏰈) assumes continuity of local church membership—hands and feet don’t jump from one body to another.

The “living stones” metaphor likewise suggests immovability. Once built-together by God (􏰀1 Pet. 2􏰁:5􏰆), the living stones stay put. The “family” metaphor implies continuity of both relationship and identity. In healthy families, one’s family members don’t change even as the family grows.

􏰇􏰈The “planting of the Lord” metaphor (Isa.61􏰃:3􏰅) suggests that putting down roots in God’s house leads to a lifetime of flourishing and fruitfulness. A plant must stay rooted to thrive. Constant transplanting stifles growth.

[The righteous] are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green to declare that the LORD is upright. (Ps. 92:13􏰉􏰁-14).

Those metaphors leave us not with legalistic rules about remaining in one church under all circumstances but with consciences sensitized to the normative ideal–that of a deep-rooted staying.

What are the benefits of spending years, even decades, in one local church?

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Bill Patton, Pastor, Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA)

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.

Every Sunday morning offers an endless variety of opportunities. To-do lists can be attacked. We can finish what we started or never got to on Saturday. Or we can sleep in and enjoy a lazy morning with a fresh brew while we binge on Netflix.

Or if you’re more adventurous, countless locations vie for our attention (and our children’s attention)! Beaches, lakes, sports, pristine golf courses, and hiking trails beckon us to enjoy life to the fullest.

With so many possibilities, it might seem strange that Christians take multiple hours every Sunday morning together in a building with a diverse group of people to sing, pray, read the Bible, listen, and talk to each other. Certainly, we can arrive more aware of duty and obligation than expectation and joy. But that’s only because we might have forgotten what makes the church gathering together so significant. How can we ensure that congregational worship is more than just one good option among many equally appealing options?

Who Is There

First, we want to remember who is there. Of course, we’ll see friends and family, members of our small group, other church members, and guests. But the one whose presence defines, shapes, and fills every meeting of the church is God himself. As we walk through the doors of whatever building this Sunday morning, we aren’t just walking into the presence of other believers but into the very presence of God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Lord of all things.

But isn’t God everywhere? Yes. God is everywhere, but he loves to make his presence especially and graciously known wherever his people gather together to worship him. As Paul points out, it is the Spirit of God that shows up through our speaking and through our singing, all for our good (􏰀1 Cor. 12:7; Eph.5􏰆:􏰀􏰇18-19􏰀􏰉).

In the late seventeenth century, David Clarkson, the co-pastor and eventual successor to John Owen, composed an essay on why public worship is to be preferred before private. He chose as his text Psalm 􏰇􏰈87:2􏰁: “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.”􏰃􏰈 The gates of Zion, Clarkson explains, represent the place where God’s people assemble to worship him. Clarkson writes, “It was the Lord’s delight in aection to his worship, for which he is said to love the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”􏰃􏰇 God is everywhere, but he loves to make his presence known when his people come together to praise his name.

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Devon Kauflin, Lead Pastor, Grace Church (Clarksburg, MD)

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.

In an age when church attendance is considered quaint at best and hateful at worst, faithful Christians continue to gather with the people of God. But sometimes off-key singing, sparsely attended prayer meetings, and odd assortments of people can cause us to wonder, “Is this really worth it?”

In A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church, author Megan Hill answers with a resounding “yes.” She challenges readers “to see the church as God sees the church and then to embrace the privilege of being part of it”. Rather than leaving us with this general goal, she takes us on a tour of the epistles, highlighting the details of our calling as the beloved people of God, the eternal fruitfulness of our simple gatherings, and the importance of being good sheep and good shepherds.

As a longstanding member of a Sovereign Grace church, I assumed this book would be a quick review of what I already knew. However, it accomplished what its subtitle promised and convinced me not simply to like, or to attend, or to serve my local church, but to love it. Why? Because my dear savior loves it with a passion so great he gave his life for it, “And what God loves, we must love”. “Do you want to grow in Christlikeness?” Hill asks. “Come to church and love the people you find there”.

Celebrate Ordinary

When we focus too much on numerical growth or cultural influence, we miss what God is doing all around us.

When people in the church encourage one another, teach one another, serve one another, and pray for one another in dozens of small and large ways, we ought to rejoice. This is a sign of God-given life and a mark of his blessing.

Hill reminds us to move our focus from what the world loves to what God loves: namely, his people united to praise his name. As unimpressive as our gatherings may seem, God delights in them. By aligning our perspective with his, we can embrace what might otherwise discourage us and celebrate the “ordinary” works of God in our “ordinary” churches.

Anticipate Glory

The church is not merely a pastor’s job or a member’s duty, it’s the purpose of God lived out on Earth. As his people unite under his rule and reign, the triune God makes himself known. The smallest earthly gathering resounds in eternity, and each local body, thriving or struggling “can rightly be called a colony of heaven”. The faithful mundane is blindingly glorious.

A Place to Belong cleans our lenses so we can see the church rightly: beloved, precious, glorious, God’s very own. There truly is no better place on earth. Reader, don’t assume with a sigh that you already “get” the local church. Allow this book to refresh your vision so you can throw yourself into building God’s church with a new and appropriate joy.

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Trish Donohue, Director of Women’s Ministries, Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA)

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.

I love the book of Acts, but sometimes my local church experience doesn’t seem to line up with what I read there. My church in Newark, DE is the dearest place on earth to me, but it does not always seem to echo Acts 2:42-44:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

But 􏰀1 Corinthians? First Corinthians is different. This early letter of Paul to the messy and seemingly dysfunctional church in Corinth is exactly what I often need to read. God’s love for these messy people and their local expression of church life is powerful to consider. What we see here is that our sin aects church life. Yet, while the church might not always look like the book of Acts, it is no less a part of God’s powerful plan for this world. God is present in both the shine of revival and in the dirty mess of personal conflict, wrong priorities, prideful spiritualism, and over-realized eschatology.

Lessons from Corinth

Unity Matters

If you were to look for a main idea or thesis statement for 􏰀 Corinthians, a solid choice would be chapter 􏰀 verse 􏰀􏰄 where Paul says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you...” Paul wants the Corinthian church to be united—and for good reason! They were deeply divided by loyalty to dierent leaders, disagreements about liberties, economic division while celebrating communion, one-upmanship with spiritual gifts, and many other issues. This led the church to have more discord than harmony, more conflict than communion, more division than unity.

But Paul earnestly desires them to be united. He appeals to them to be united. And what reasons does he give for them to be united? Well, there are many, but one stands out. The centrality of the cross. All of the secondary and tertiary things that divide our churches are nothing compared to the singular priority of Christ crucified. The world around us is so divided because of its many dierent priorities, but our local churches are able to remain united because the cross has taken center stage in our lives.

Our unity displays the centrality of the cross. In fact, the presence of division often means that the cross is no longer central to us. Paul says that divisions come when we live with worldly wisdom. This is because we quickly focus on ourselves. But unity comes about when we center on the cross because we see there the ultimate example of selflessness and the greatest priority in this world. The cross for Paul is a rallying point. When the cross is at the center of our lives, it draws Christians together. When the cross is displaced, division is not far away.

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Joel Shorey, Lead Pastor, Redeemer Fellowship Church (Newark, DE)

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.

Do you see her? Cast out, maligned, mistreated, and unimpressive by any worldly standard, yet to eyes of faith beautiful, magnificent, and glorious. She is the church, in exile in this world yet chosen and precious in the sight of God. She endures hardship and remains faithful to her Lord. She suers false accusations yet stands approved in him. She is holy in an unholy culture. She is pure despite her past of impurity. She is a warrior, resisting the roar of the satanic lion yet living in weakness under the pagan authorities of this age. She finds honor in reflecting her Savior who bore her sins and cares nothing for the reproach of this age. She is an assembly of living stones, a magnificent temple, standing tall in the sin apocalypse of this age. She is birthed by the Word of God, lives by the grace of God, and hopes in the inheritance of Christ. She is a sojourner with no place to lay her head yet destined for a heavenly inheritance that will never fade. She preaches revolution but not of political power or social control. She holds out the message of a crucified Savior and an eternal invitation.

She is the church of Jesus Christ. Do you see her? And do you love what you see?

How Peter Saw the Church

We must see the church as Peter saw her, as God sees her, lest we fall prey to the false expectations and delusions of phony modern descriptions of the church or become seduced by alternative visions of her mission and identity. Most importantly, this vision must shape how we engage in our own local church. Peter is not writing for philosophical speculation or academic theory, but for real Christians in the real world. He is writing for you and me. And God has sent Peter’s letter through the ages to countless Christians who need this vision to be restored to their soul and to shape their lives.

Peter establishes the ironic definition of the church in his opening greeting. By writing to elect exiles (􏰀:􏰀), he crafts a phrase that communicates both the church’s value and her vulnerability. To be an exile is to be cast out, in the way that Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, or Israel out of the promised land. An exile has no refuge, no protector, no prestige. Yet here there is a change.

We are “elect exiles ... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” We are cast out, but we are known. We are counted as unworthy in the world, but cleansed before God. And far from our exile revealing God’s judgment, Peter believes that “grace and peace” will be multiplied to these dear saints.

The irony of the church is that she is at once outside of the power and prestige of this world, yet chosen and precious in God’s sight. She has no present claim to earthly glory, but she has unparalleled honor as those chosen in Christ. She is at once priceless and powerless. She is in and out at the same time. This irony establishes the main vision of God’s people that will carry through the book and ought to rearrange our view of the church.

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Jon Payne, Senior Pastor, Redemption Hill Church (Round Rock, TX)

Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.