Dear Alumni,
There are three great idols that all ministers must tear down
daily cast into the fire for scrap: buildings, bodies, and
budgets. These are the three things that almost invariably come
up in conversation with pastors and I must confess that too
often I have been a part of the problem. When I attend classis
(presbytery) meetings (the regional assembly of pastors and
elders) I have often asked pastors, “So, how is it going?” By
which they and I both know that I intend to ask, “How is your
attendance?”
Even though I feel guilty when I ask such
questions, I ask because I want to know and I want to know
because that is how we diagnose how well or ill things are in a
congregation. The other two, of course, flow from the first. If
the pastor reports good attendance then the budget should be in
good order and building plans in the offing. Worse, I have
coveted nice church buildings and complained to and against the
Head of the Church for not providing more richly for the select
of elect. Why does he provide so abundantly for congregations
that seem to have so few (or none at all) of the marks of a true
church? If attendance is high then everything is thought to be
in order. Never mind the pure preaching of the gospel, the
sanctification of the people, or the mission of the church.
Is “idol” too strong a word? Well, one way
to diagnose the status of these three icons is challenge the
importance of any of them, especially of attendance figures and
watch the fallout. Propose something that might affect adversely
building, bodies, or budget one is likely to be met with stern
resistance. Another way to see the centrality of buildings,
bodies, and budgets is to observe the proportion of time that is
spent on them relative to other issues in ecclesiastical
assemblies. Do consistories (session) and classes (presbyteries)
spend their time on matters of ministry of the Word, sacraments,
and discipline, i.e. on the spiritual well being of the
congregation(s) or upon “business.” To be sure, there are bodies
that are to address the daily business of the congregation that
work is important and necessary.
I submit, however, that buildings, bodies,
and budgets often eclipse Word, sacrament, and discipline
because this is often how congregations and ministers define
themselves. It is hard to say who started it, whether ministers
value those things because congregations do, because those are
the sorts of things for which they are rewarded by the
congregation or vice-versa. Ultimately it does not matter why
we do it. What matters is that we do it. These are the
status symbols that we covet: a growing budget, increasing
attendance, and a bigger building. These are the idols that
shape the program-driven church. These are the gods that drive
the liturgy of the church-growth movement. These gods offer a
covenant of works: do “this and prosper.” They promise tangible
rewards to those who serve them faithfully.
On that level it is hard for the covenant
of grace and the kingdom of God to compete. There is no such quid pro quo promised in the covenant of grace. Indeed, the
organizing principle of the covenant of grace is not our
performance but righteousness and deliverance from judgment
freely given to those who trust in One who has already performed
perfectly for us. The rewards are real but not always very
tangible.
Consider the plight of the Apostle Paul.
The Corinthians valued things quite like buildings, bodies, and
budgets. The Corinthian congregation was enthralled with
so-called “Super-Apostles” who had all manner of impressive
external credentials (2 Cor 11:5; 12:11). Compared to them Paul
was nothing. The “Super-Apostles” complained that he was
hypocritical, that he was “bold” by letter and timid in person
(2 Cor 10:1). They alleged that the fact that he had been
imprisoned, stoned, three-times beaten, three-times shipwrecked,
starved, and was in constant danger as evidence that Paul was
not a very good apostle at all. Paul had no buildings, bodies,
or budgets. All he had was tales of suffering and woe. What kind
of a minister could he possibly be?
Paul replied that he was Christ’s kind of
minister. On the basis of their evaluation of Paul the
Super-Apostles must also conclude that Jesus was not a very good
Savior. After all, “Foxes have holes,
and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere
to lay his head” (Matt 8:20).
Like Paul, Martin
Luther analyzed these different paradigms this way: he described
the theology of the Super-Apostles (of Paul’s day and his) as
the “theology of glory.” This theology is measured by what one
can see, by what seems reasonable and sensible to use. Christian
theology he said, however, is a “theology of the cross.” It
relies on God’s Word. It is a theology of trust in the free
promises of God. It looks to him who came down to us rather than
trying to find a way to climb up to God.
The Apostle Paul
also taught a “theology of the cross.” He called the
self-described “Super-Apostles” as “false apostles and deceitful
workmen” (2 Cor 11:3). He turned against them the very evidence
they used against him. Paul’s ministry was much more like Jesus’
ministry. Our Lord was a suffering Savior. He did not appear in
triumph and glory. He appeared in humiliation. He consistently
refused offers of earthly power. He was offered at all the
kingdoms of this world and chose an eternal kingdom. He could
have called down legions but he did not. He bore taunts and took
up the cross. In a similar way, “filling up” in his own
sufferings “what is lacking in Christ’s affliction…for the sake
of the church “(Col 1:24) the Apostle Paul appealed to the
beatings, and other sufferings as evidence of God’s blessing,
that Christ was with him, that he was doing Christ’s work in
Christ’s Spirit and according to Christ’s Word.
Before you dismiss this meditation as the
ramblings of another “TR” in search of justification for failure
or perhaps even as evidence of envy, I confess it may be partly
so. To the degree it is so, God forgive me. I may be jealous
and I might even find a way to rationalize the killer Bs should
someone give them to me, but my sins do not make right what is
essentially the theology of the “Super Apostles” the “theology
of glory.”
The biblical, historical, and confessional
truth is that buildings, bodies, and budgets are a very poor
indicator of blessing. On the basis of the killer Bs we should
never have left the Roman communion for she had all the Bs. If
they are what matter then the Reformed churches have largely
been a colossal failure in the modern period since, for much of
this period, the story of Reformed theology has been the story
of exile, and the loss of the buildings, bodies, and budgets. To
conclude that, therefore, that the confessional Reformed
churches are a failure would be a truly superficial judgment and
it would be also to indict our Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and
the rest of the Apostles. There’s little evidence that, despite
the hyperbole of the Jewish authorities, the New Testament
church was actually turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6).
Indeed, the consistent teaching of the NT is that believers
ought to live quiet, godly lives (Rom 13; 1 Tim 2:2; 1 Peter 3).
In other words, apart from being known for following a
controversial crucified rabbi, whom they claimed was
resurrected, there was little that attracted attention to the
Christians. They were certainly not known for buildings, bodies,
and budgets. Those things came to dominate much of high and late
medieval church life but the Reformation was, in certain
respects, a return to apostolic form. The Reformed churches in
the Francophone Lowlands suffered mightily for the sake of the
faith, so much so that they became known as the “churches under
the cross.” They had no buildings or budgets even if they had,
in the providence of God, a fair number of bodies. Frequently,
however those churches under the cross were small and socially
insignificant.
Finally it is worth noting that when it
comes to describing what it is that makes a church a “true
church” the Reformed have agreed that there are at least two and
perhaps three marks: the pure preaching of the Word, the pure
administration of the sacraments and the exercise of church
discipline (Scots Confession Ch. 18; Belgic Confession Art. 29;
French Confession Art. 27–28). Never have we considered
numerical or financial or material success to be a mark of a
true church. If God blesses a congregation with these things, as
she is faithful to the marks we do confess, those even more
gifts for which to be to be thankful. We do long to see Christ’s
church full. We long to see the nations streaming into the
kingdom of God as represented by true churches everywhere, in
all languages. Those blessings, however, cannot be manufactured.
In the nature of things blessings belong to the Lord of the
church to add or to deny as he sees fit. It belongs to us to
serve the king faithfully, as those who must give account of
their labors. It belongs to us to announce the advent of the
kingdom, to announce to the two words of the kingdom (law and
gospel), to announce the King of the kingdom and to administer
the signs and seals of the kingdom.
As much as we ought to be opposed to a
theology of glory, it is not that we ought to be opposed to
glory per se. The glory to which we are heartily
committed is the glory of God in Christ (Westminster Shorter
Catechism 1). Ministers must never confuse the killer Bs for the
glory of God as he does not need them. His habit, if you will,
is to work through the lowly, the unsuspecting and unlikely (ask
Mary) to achieve his ends. Rather than serving the killer Bs let
us, sola gratia et sola fide trust him who sent his Son
for his people, of whom he lost none (John 18:9). Rather than
material glory let us be among the innumerable and unknown hosts
who have had the improbable joy of being heralds of the King and
kingdom that this world still cannot see but which, in due time,
it will see in true and everlasting glory.
R. Scott Clark
Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology
Ó
2008 Westminster Seminary California All rights reserved
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