#ecclessiology

When we consider the basis for the identity of the Church, we should begin with our identity as God’s covenant people.  Once we understand what it means to be God’s covenant people, then we can understand what God’s covenant people look like as his Church (i.e. Assembly).

PAST COVENANT

Deuteronomy 7:7-9 (CSB)“The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous…

I’ve been asked by some to explain and to write down something about “senior seminar”. So here it goes. 

Senior seminar is currently a part of our overall Sunday school catalog and system. Every Spring semester we offer a special class just for our graduating seniors called senior seminar. It’s typically a 4 month class that goes from January to the end of April. 

You can find our 2016 syllabus here:

 http://cbchouston.org/youthdocs/Calendar%20Spring%202016%20(SS).pdf

Our hopes for this class was that our seniors would get a final semester with their own class before graduation and before they exit the youth group. (Side note: i’ll post another blog about our structure of SS if you’re interested). But as for the curriculum, we try to cover everything that be believe a senior needs to be familiar with prior to entering college. So the first half of the class is basic and fundamental theology and doctrine such as: biblical hermeneutics, worldview training, and ecclesiology. The back half of the semester is more practical things such as: love, sex, and marriage, money and work, and college and christianity. 

Also, integrated in the course we go off-campus about 4 times to different churches in the area. We try to choose churches that are fairly different than our church here at CBC just so they can get a different view of culture and liturgy. Prior to attending these churches, each senior is responsible for completing a pre-project that directs students to do some research of the churches. They look at their doctrine, system of government, ecclesiology, denomination, history, etc. And on the day of, students are given an observation sheet to record their findings. It covers things like atmosphere, the church culture there, sermon, liturgy, and people. 

Our hopes were to get the seniors to seriously consider what church attendance and membership actually looked like. Once in college and even out of college, do they know how to faithfully and fairly find a church? My prayer for these youth today is life-long discipleship within the proper context of a healthy church and right doctrine. It is why we want to prep them for the next step...senior seminar is just one of the many ways that we prep here.

Something Greater Than Marriage

Rosaria Butterfield & Christopher Yuan write: The Supreme Court of the United States of America has made gay marriage legal in all 50 states, and much of our country celebrates. The world with its rainbow flags waving proudly and plentifully was our world. We locked arms with our LGBT loved ones and friends and believed they were truly and honestly our family of choice. This is the world that we,…

"Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching." — Proverbs 1:7

Our Father is God and our Mother is the Church. "The Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother." [Gal. 4:26] This is so because Christians are born of the Father by the power of the Spirit through the ministry of preaching, which is the office of Christ's bride. Further, we are nurtured at the breast of Christ's church, for here we find the milk of the gospel, expressed in preaching and sacraments, to sustain us. Thus true wisdom comes from God's word, not independently, but as interpreted through the lens of sound ministers through the ages. "Forsake not your mother's teaching," but weigh it carefully.

My pastor happens to wear a plain black robe. Coming from Hawaiian Shirt Evangelicalism, I admit the gown was "different" to me at first. Over time, however, I've come to deeply appreciate what it doesn't say: anything about the pastor's personal style, wealth, or popular trends. Some may argue the bible says nothing about ministers wearing distinct clothing, or that doing so is "Catholic". While I can see where they are coming from—I was there, too—I encourage everyone to consider the matter a bit more. 

As for whether the Apostles wore distinct clothing, the fact is they likely did, provided they weren't stripped and fleeing for their lives. Early Christian art may be taken as a testimony here, as well as the witness of first and second century fathers such as Cyril, who noted that Christians followed the ordinary customs of dress which typically included teachers and magistrates signifying their office through suitable garb. These leaders were only a generation removed from the Apostles and received their example. Furthermore, the mentioning of Christ's seamless robe is believed by some to indicate a form of dress particular to rabbis. So while the bible is not explicit in the affirmative regarding certain vestments, neither does it candidly deny their place from antiquity. 

There is no doubt pastors have freedom to wear a variety of styles of clothing in the pulpit. However, we ought to go further to examine what is most healthy for the church. "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." [1 Cor. 10:23-24] Freedom from Levitical codes of costume does not free Christians from using wisdom when choosing their clothes. How pastors dress influences how the body perceives their own role and posture before God's ordained means. 

For instance, a $1000 Armani suit may in fact be "what the pastor owns," perhaps it was even a gift, but in most cultures haute-couture is likely to send an unnecessary message that cuts across what the minister is trying to communicate. Likewise, a pastor wearing flip flops and a tee shirt on Sunday—when everyone knows he just wore a business suit to a congregant's wedding—suggests he thinks worship is informal, a "non-event," even nonchalant. Hardly a visible nod to "reverence and awe." Then there are those who meticulously follow new trends. Perhaps adopting popular patterns and styles with each season may be a well-intentioned attempt to "contextualize," but the reality is most people see it as vain posturing, a marketing ploy to sell the message of the gospel on something other than its own merit.

To my judgment—and might I add, many scripturally and historically saturated forebears as Luther, Calvin, Owen, Whitefield, Edwards, and Lloyd-Jones—the black robe succeeds admirably in being cross-cultural, inexpensive, simple, and does not replicate fads. It bespeaks authority without pomp, the spiritual ministry without priestcraft, and is ultimately less concerned with self-identity as it is with the weighty role a minister bears in the pulpit: to bring the word of God to us. For these reasons, while I can happily acknowledge a broad variety of pastoral dress, I prefer the Geneva gown to most others.

In point of historical fact, black gowns are distinctly non-Roman Catholic. In contrast to ornate priestly vestments of Rome, pastors of the Protestant Reformation chose to adopt plain dress signifying the important but humble office into which they had been placed. Just as modern robes of judges hark back to this practice of revering offices vested with authority, the black robe communicates that ministers are more than "life coaches": they are solemnly charged to preach the whole counsel of God, and will give an account for it in eternity.