Mohler urges churches’ return to ‘truth, power & authority’

By Bryan Cribb

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–“Weak” and “directionless” churches must be
remedied by a biblical doctrine of the church, said R. Albert
Mohler Jr. in a March 30 chapel message at Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

“Ecclesiastical carelessness” has resulted in a cultural and
societal marginalization of the church, Mohler said.

“Our understanding of the church is absolutely fundamental to our
understanding of the Christian life and indeed to God’s
redemptive purpose in Christ and his ultimate purpose in
glorifying himself. It matters so much,” said Mohler.

Noting 70 percent of Southern Baptist churches have plateaued or
are declining, Mohler urged that faltering churches recapture the
marks of a true church as found in Matthew 16:13-19.

Preaching from the passage, he cited three essential and eternal
marks of the church: truth, power and authority.

The mark of truth — of who Jesus is — creates as much of a
problem now as when Jesus asked the disciples: “Who do people say
the Son of Man is?”

That resembles a pollster’s question, Mohler said. And people’s
answers then, as now, reflect a general confusion.

Statistics show that only 42 percent of the public believe Jesus
was God living among men, said Mohler, citing a recent Gallup
poll. Still, the pollsters report that opinions concerning Jesus
are “overwhelmingly favorable.”

But, whether Jesus is identified as a prophet, as “the dominant
figure in Western culture” as a recent “Newsweek” magazine
article said, as an ideal or even as someone “people want on
their team,” Mohler said these remain merely “false compliments.”

The true Christian church must answer as Peter: “‘You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God,'” Mohler said.

“This confession is absolutely central and foundational. It means
that there are many organizations calling themselves churches
which we must say are no churches at all.”

Peter’s truthful confession, said Mohler, reveals the authentic
church’s second mark — power.

This power prevails even against the gates of hell. “Jesus gave
his church a promise, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church and
the gates of hell will not overpower it.’ That’s an unconditional
promise,” Mohler said.

Two extremes exist concerning this issue in today’s church. Some
churches fear power, while others worship it, he said.

While the church should not seek power for its own sake,
Christians should not run from power that comes from the gospel
and the authority of God’s Word. “There’s nothing more pathetic
than seeing a timid, scared and cowering church,” Mohler said.

Christ entrusted the church with the power of a gospel witness,
the power of light in the midst of darkness and even the power
over death, he said.

“The church of Jesus Christ is the only institution, the only
organization, the only body, to which you can belong which will
endure after death,” Mohler said.

With power comes responsibility, he said, for Christ gave “a
power for the church to stand before the world without cowering
and without compromising and say, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’

“And ‘if the whole world be against us,’ as it was said by
Athanasius [an early church father], then ‘I shall be against the
world.'”

Regarding the church’s viability, Mohler cited a recent book by
George Barna, “The Second Coming of the Church: A Blueprint for
Survival.” Mohler read a statement from the book’s cover:
“Today’s church is incapable of responding to the present moral
crisis. It must reinvent itself or face virtual oblivion by the
mid-21st century.”

“You would think that the church is destined for the dust bin of
history unless a good marketing expert is on the case quickly,”
Mohler quipped. “But the Lord said, ‘Upon this rock, I will build
my church. You’re not going to build it. I’m going to use you to
build my church.’ We are not the chief cornerstone, we are not
the builder. We are the stones being built up into a holy
habitation,” Mohler said.

Mohler said the final mark of the true church is authority, which
is based on the rock of the Peter’s confession of Christ as the
Son of God.

What this confession does not indicate, said Mohler, is the Roman
Catholic claim of papal authority based on apostolic succession
from Peter.

The text teaches that church authority includes the keys to the
kingdom of heaven and the power to bind and loose, Mohler said.

“The church must, with the power of the keys given by the Lord
himself and on the basis of his Word, bind and loose on the power
and on the sole authority of his Word. To fail to do this is to
fail to be the church.”

Binding and loosing, said Mohler, means living and discerning by
the Word of God as authority.

This authority does not put God at our disposal such that God
will ratify anything that Christians do. Instead, said Mohler,
“We are approving on earth what has already been approved in
heaven, and we are disallowing on earth what has already been
disallowed in heaven.”

Despite the Christian’s presence in a world which despises
authority and extols autonomy, the church must not avoid its
proper role as possessor of authority, said Mohler. “The church
cannot and must not neglect this responsibility of judging on the
basis of God’s Word.

“The church is too submissive to the culture, too submissive to
the state, to the media, to political powers, to the financial
authorities, to the marketing experts. Many churches have
forfeited authority altogether.

“There are many churches today that are living in fear of their
own church members. If they actually demonstrated these three
marks — truth, power and authority — they might actually lose
some members,” Mohler said.

“The church after all is not merely a volunteer organization,
although many congregations and many church members think it is
basically that. It is the body of Christ being built up into a
holy habitation.”

And, the church will prevail because of Christ and not individual
Christians, said Mohler. Concluding by reading the hymn, “The
Church’s One Foundation,” Mohler declared, “May we not rest until
the church militant is the church triumphant.”

Kingdom of God principles key to church growth, says LifeWay exec

By Byron Scott McMillan

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)–The church must reclaim kingdom of God
principles if it is to advance the cause of Christ in the 21st
century, a Southern Baptist church growth leader said during
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Spring Lecture Series
March 23-25.

“There is little difference between what’s inside and what’s
outside the church today because we have lost an understanding of
the kingdom of God and the God who reigns over it,” said Gene
Mims, vice president of the church resources division of LifeWay
Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“The kingdom of God is something that is lost on the modern
evangelical conscience, and we don’t seek it like we should,”
Mims said during his lectures at Southeastern’s Wake Forest,
N.C., campus.

The kingdom of God manifests itself in “the reign of God in the
lives of believers and … by his activity in their lives, and
through their lives and all around their lives,” Mims said.

Without a proper understanding of the kingdom of God, Christians
fail to fulfill God’s calling on their lives by applying biblical
principles such as the Lordship of Christ and Christian service,
Mims said.

“We don’t want to go to the hard places,” he said. “We want to go
to the nice white suburbs where growing a church is easy. We
don’t want to stay and grind it out when the forces of evil come
against us in the little local church or community.”

When kingdom of God perspectives are absent, transformed lives
are replaced by “sin management, the gospel of success, health
and wealth and prosperity,” he said.

“There can be no true missiology or evangelism, discipleship or
church growth without proper understanding of the kingdom of
God,” Mims said.

Acknowledging that Christ only mentioned the church twice in the
Gospels, compared to numerous references to God’s kingdom, Mims
said the kingdom of God “was what captured his imagination. Over
70 times he articulated it. It was the focus of his ministry.”

Mims said Christians must realize that they are completely
dependent upon Christ their King, and that he is ready to supply
their needs according to his purpose of extending his kingdom.

Quoting Matthew 6:33, Mims said, “Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to
you.”

Mims is also the author of several books, including: “God’s Call
to a Corrupt Nation;” “Kingdom Principles for Church Growth;” and
“Thine Is the Kingdom.”

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