Theology determines Ecclesiology

 Theology determines one’s ecclesiology.  In other words, what one believes about God directly impacts and determines church life and practice.  Let me explain using several examples.  One is the seeker sensitive movement.  Now, basically, the seeker movement is fundamentally well-intended.  It was born out of a heart of pastors and Christians to reach people who did not know Christ, and to reach them and communicate the gospel to them in a way that they would be able to understand.  This is commendable, and frankly Biblical.  However, what has happened is that this movement has become man-centered rather than God-centered.  Why is that?For one, the seeker movement was born out of and found success in Arminian churches, and this theology has driven the seeker movement.  Rick Warren wrote this in his Purpose Driven Church book, “It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart, and the most likely place to start looking for that key is within the person’s felt needs.”  If one believes that they can truly persuade someone to become a Christian, then it follows that they will gear their church and all of its activities toward that persuasion.  It will be marketing-based, and it will be consumer-driven.  Why?  Because if I can truly convince someone to become a Christian, then everything I do must be towards that end.  And if I believe that felt-needs are a key to making that persuasion, then my ministry will revolve around people and meeting their felt-needs.  This is the heart of the seeker movement today.  I can persuade people to become Christian, therefore I must gear my ministry around those means of persuasion.  It is that simple, and makes perfect sense. 

This is an Arminian/Pelagian theology, though.  If I believe that I can convince people to become Christian, and people have the free will to actually make that decision within themselves, then the seeker movement is a logical outcome from this theology.  The problem with this theology is that it is not Biblical.

The marketing and consumer-driven pragmatic philosophies that underlie the seeker movement also drive church practice.  People do not usually respond to negative marketing, but instead respond to selfishly-motivated needs and desires.  As a marketing professional (and I use that term loosely!) I understand that a vast majority of today’s advertising and marketing campaigns are geared towards the fulfillment of a person’s selfish desires.  And Americans are especially gullible to these kinds of marketing schemes.  We are independent, wealthy (compared to the rest of the world), do-it-yourselfers, who all live to climb that corporate ladder, get that better job, make more money, become better people, and save the world.  The focus of all of that is ourselves.  And marketing and advertising pinpoints that selfishness and takes advantage of it. 

The problem is that now, the seeker model of ecclesiology has adopted that marketing model and has essentially replaced a sacrificial Christianity with a selfish Christianity.  The seeker model gets people to come to church by marketing to their selfish base desires.  You can be a better person of you come to church.  You can have financial security if you accept Christ.  Christ will save your marriage if you love Him.  Joel Osteen’s book, Your Best Life Now, is a great expression of this mentality.  It is a best-seller because it markets to the selfish heart of Americans who want to have their best life now, and throws in a few Scriptures to make it spiritual.  But it glorifies man by appealing to his inner nature to be successful and independent now.  Instead of glorifying God, God is used as a marketing tool to enhance the status and success of man. 

Reformed Biblical theology, on the other hand, attempts to place God at the center of all church life and practice.  Soli Deo Gloria, For the Glory of God Alone, was a rallying cry for the Reformation.  Reformational theology holds that man cannot persuade man to become a Christian.  Man is dead in sin, and has no ability to choose God on his own.  Man chooses gods, according to his liking, but suppresses the truth of the Almighty God.  Man’s will must be completely changed before he can see the truth of the gospel.  The Holy Spirit draws people to Christ and opens their eyes, not man.  Only those drawn by the Spirit will come to believe Christ.  And the Spirit only draws certain people based on God’s plan established before the creation of the world. 

The what part does man play?  Yes, man does play a part.  God has not called us to persuade, convince, or save people.  He has called us to preach the gospel message to the world, and He will do the rest.  He has called us to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.  Christians should have a special bond among ourselves as the Body of Christ that is apparent to the rest of the world, but is obviously something they don’t have.  But the bottom line is that Christians, followers of Christ, are called not to persuade with fine sounding arguments, but to preach and proclaim the gospel of Christ to the world and know that the Spirit will do His work. 

If this is the case, then, church practice will look different than the seeker model.  The church will still strive to communicate in a language and way that the culture around it will understand, but it will be adamant about communicating the gospel in its entirety.  The gospel is a hard message in today’s America.  It teaches we are separated from God, and can’t do anything about it.  It teaches judgment from a holy God for those that do not believe, and is therefore not tolerant.  It teaches God chose some people and not others, which is certainly not democratic and often offensive.  It teaches sacrifice rather than selfishness.  It teaches humility and servanthood rather than independence and do-it-yourself for yourself.  It teaches a different definition of success.  It in fact teaches that all will not believe, and that the Bible can only be fully understood by those of the Spirit. 

So churches that follow the Biblical example rather than the seeker example will do things differently.  After all, the Bible teaches that there are no real seekers!  Biblical churches will proclaim and preach the whole Bible and the whole gospel, constantly.  They will proclaim sin, the Holiness of God, the Love of God through His Son, sacrificial atonement, justification, man’s inability and God’s grace, judgment, heaven, and hell, among others.  Christ is the center of the Bible, and every sermon will proclaim Christ.  They will not be entertainment-based because the gospel is serious business, as people’s eternal destinies are involved.  They will be a praying church, because the Holy Spirit is the one that regenerates and changes lives.  They will hold themselves accountable and practice church discipline.  They will evangelize, because that is what God has called His people to do, and faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ.  They will completely depend on God, because He is the one who ultimately does the persuasion and calling.

Therefore, one must be careful if called to preach the Word of God.  Ministers are people who primarily proclaim and defend the Word of God, in its entirety.  Consequently, ministers, but also all Christians, must strive to have a Biblical theology that is consistent with the Word of God.  That theology determines church life and practice, and determines what love is and how we love.  If one’s theology is faulty, then someone may wind up with a church full of people who think they are right with God but in fact believe a different gospel and serve another god.