The culture is a mess, and it is the church’s fault.
That’s a radical claim, but before you pick up your chair to throw at me—hear me out.
Many churches have been reduced to a social club—a place where the coffee is hotter than the preaching, or a second-rate rock concert, entertaining goats rather than feeding sheep. Things that the Church has done for centuries, like singing Psalms and reciting Creeds and Catechisms, have been jettisoned for novel inventions and programs that produce shallow disciples. It has fallen prey to the trap of consumerism in many ways, thinking that it needs to be “attractional” to lure people in. But what you win people with is what you win them to. As Paul Washer has said, if you draw carnal men by carnal means, you’ll need to keep up the carnival to keep them in.
Henry VanTil famously said that “culture is religion externalized”. It’s in the very root of the word, “cult”. What we worship determines the culture that we produce because culture is simply the product of a society’s values, morals, allegiances and ultimate truth claims. This is why Muslim nations create Islamic culture, Hindu nations produce Hindu culture, and secular nations produce the confusion we find ourselves in today.
If we are to see any hope for reformation in the culture, as Scripture says, “judgment must begin in the household of God” (1 Pet. 4:17). The culture is downstream of the church. If the church is to be salt and light to a decaying and dark world, if it is to be the pillar and buttress of truth to a world lost in lies, if it is to push back the gates of Hell and disciple the nations, then when it fails at those things, we get the culture we have today.
God is not mocked. What a man sows, so shall he reap.
So, this sermon is no mere academic exercise. Understanding and living out what the church is meant to be is world-transforming.
What is the Church?
Scripture says that the Church is Christ’s Bride. So, while we may rightly critique where she needs improvement, we must never disparage or disregard her—Christ loves her, bought her with His own blood and is sanctifying her so that one day she will be glorious and without spot or blemish. So, we too must love Christ’s Bride.
There are two senses of the phrase “the Church”: the Universal or Invisible Church, and Local or Visible Churches.
The Universal and Local Church
The invisible church is the universal body of all the elect—those chosen by God before time began, regenerated by the Spirit, and united to Christ. It’s “invisible” because only God knows its full membership; it spans history, from Abel to the last saint. In this way, the invisible church is pure—since it only contains true believers.
Scripture also speaks of the visible church: the tangible gatherings of professing believers on earth. We read of “the church at Corinth,” “the church at Ephesus,” “the churches of Galatia,” and “the church in Jerusalem.” Plural forms and specific locations (e.g., “the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria”) make clear these are distinct, local bodies, not a single invisible entity.
These local church assemblies include true saints and, sadly, hypocrites, as Jesus warned in Matthew 13:24-30 of the wheat and tares. So, while the invisible church is pure, the visible church is a mixed group of sheep and goats, wheat and tares, true believers and false brethren. Yet, each local church is an imperfect visible outpost and foretaste of that final gathering of true believers.
Why does this matter?
Because confusing the two leads to complacency—thinking “I’m in the invisible church, so visible commitment is optional.” I know people who claim to be Christians but make excuses about why they are not a part of a local church because they have a “personal relationship with Jesus”.
But I have news for those people. God defines the relationship, and he commands us in Hebrews 10:25 not to neglect gathering. Your relationship with Jesus is not merely personal; it is also communal.
Biblically, there is no such thing as an isolated Christian. This is why many theologians throughout church history have said that there is no salvation outside of the church. They weren’t saying that church attendance automatically saves you, but rather that true Christians desire to gather together with other believers in worship and service. Scripture repeatedly commands and assumes that Christians will gather and fellowship together in local assemblies. You cannot fulfill the “one-another” commands of Scripture without gathering in-person.
To really understand the church, we need to know what the word actually means, because many have different ideas when they hear the word “church.”
Meaning of Ekklesia
The word translated as “church” in the New Testament is the Greek word ekklesia.
It appears 114 times and is a compound word derived from ek (ἐκ), meaning “out of,” and kaleo (καλέω), meaning “to call.” Thus, it means “the called out ones”, referring solely to believers. However, this is an etymological fallacy, thinking that the word’s parts dictate its meaning. It would be like saying the word “butterfly” is made up of two words: “butter” and “fly”. Therefore, it must be a stick of butter that can levitate. But that’s not how language works!
The Church Must Assemble
After COVID, it has become popular to talk about “online church” and “virtual gatherings”. This is nonsense. If the church is Christ’s Bride, would you only settle for a virtual or online gathering with your spouse? Why then should we think that Christ would be happy with only meeting virtually with members of his Bride?
Others say that the church is not political. However, while it is true that politics should not dominate a church—preaching about blind support of certain political parties or personalities—the church is political in a very significant sense. Scripture describes it as an embassy of Christ’s Kingdom filled with citizens of this Kingdom who are ambassadors for Christ.
There’s a reason for that political language in the Bible.
In classical Greek usage—familiar to every first-century reader in the Roman Empire—ekklesia referred to the lawful legislative assembly in a free Greek city-state. Scholarly lexicons (like Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon and BDAG) describe it as a “regularly summoned legislative body” of qualified citizens (not a casual crowd) convened for deliberation on public affairs, including military, judicial, and administrative decisions, often in public spaces like theatres. This assembly was democratic in nature, where citizens voted on matters of governance. Thus, ekklesia described the act of assembling itself.
The Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, adapts ekklesia to translate the Hebrew qahal (קָהָל), which refers to the assembly or congregation of Israel as God’s people. Roughly 100 times, it refers especially to solemn convocations: the assembly at Sinai (Deut. 9:10; 18:16), gatherings for worship, covenant renewal, or war. (e.g., Deut. 31:30; Josh. 8:35; 2 Chron. 6:3).
After surveying the writings of multiple scholars on the use of ekklesia in Classical Greek and the Septuagint, Edward H. Overbey summarizes that,
“The opinion is unanimous that the word meant an assembly of citizens of a particular city that met together from time to time to carry on business for their city.”
This helps us make sense of texts like Matthew 18:17 (“tell it to the church”), which commands discipline within a local, decision-making gathering. Or when Paul scolds the Corinthian churches for going to pagan courts and not being able to judge among themselves. This is how the local church exercises the power of the keys, binding and loosing. In this respect, it is very “political”, gathering to make judgments on behalf of its King. Even when applied to an unruly mob in Acts 19, where the Ephesian riot is called an ekklesia, the word still means “assembly,” not something mystical or invisible.
Thus, when the New Testament writers adopted ekklesia, they did not invent a new word. They inherited a term that already meant “the assembled congregation of the Lord.” The term carried political overtones of authority and mutual accountability, which the apostles explained under Christ’s kingship.
Let me be clear: Biblically, a church that does not assemble is not a church. Secondly, it is assembled to carry out the business of its King.
This is why, traditionally, church services opened with a call to worship where God summons His people to gather in worship. This is why we should not casually approach the worship gathering. You are being summoned by the King of kings into His presence—it is a weighty occasion.
This is why Ecclesiastes 5:1—2 warns us,
“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few.”
There is to be a right attitude of awe and reverence. As Hebrews 12:28—29 says,
“Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
This is a very different attitude to church than how many approach it in our day—strolling in 30 minutes late with a Starbucks cup in their hand and no urgency.
In our day of declining attendance and digital substitutes, the term confronts us with urgency: Christ is building assemblies, not abstractions. He calls us out—not merely from the world in theory, but into ordered, covenant life together.
Purpose of the Church
So, the church must assemble, but “What is its purpose and who is it for primarily?”
The examples I give below, while some may be part of what the Church does when it gathers, do not define the whole of the church’s purpose and who it’s for.
Evangelism and the Unbeliever
Many people think that the worship service is primarily for evangelizing the unbeliever. However, while evangelism may happen in a worship service, Biblically, that is not its primary purpose.
Psalm 100:2 says,
“Worship Yahweh with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.”
The Scriptures show us that the object of worship is God. However, in evangelism, the object is man.
The Church evangelizes when its people go out from God’s presence to proclaim the Gospel to the world (Matt. 28:16—20; Acts 1:8). However, the corporate gathering is not primarily about evangelism, because its purpose is to serve believers, not unbelievers.
As Jeffrey Meyers notes on 1 Corinthians 14:24—25,
“…when Paul conjectures about the presence of unbelievers in a Christian service, he does not envision them being ‘comfortable’ or ‘entertained’. On the contrary, when the Church behaves properly in worship, the ‘outsider’ who enters ‘is convicted’ and ‘called to account by all’ so that ‘the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really present’ in the assembly.”
So, the worship service is not tailored to the unbeliever.
This invalidates all “seeker-sensitive” models that put the felt needs of unbelievers as the highest priority of the Sunday service. If unbelievers visit, they will likely hear the Gospel, but it won’t be on their terms—it’ll be on God’s terms and how He desires to be revered in worship.
Note also that the effect the worship service is supposed to have on the unbeliever is that of unmistakeable conviction of sin and the holiness of God—”he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed”, and so, “falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:24-25). However, when was the last time you saw that response during a modern Evangelical worship service singing “Jesus is my boyfriend” style songs or trying to blunt every sharp edge of the Gospel?
While churches may preach on the basics of the faith from time to time, if this is the only focus of the pulpit, it means that the sheep who are already saved are not being fed and taught the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27)—leading to churches full of Christians with a deficient biblical worldview.
Teaching
Others believe that the primary purpose of the worship service is teaching.
So, in their minds, the sermon is the “main event” of the service. However, while teaching is an element of corporate worship, it too is not the primary focus. The Bible’s own emphasis does not seem to be on teaching in worship (e.g. Psa. 95:1—6). Jesus himself defines His Father’s house primarily as a “house of prayer” (Matt. 21:13; Isa. 56:7), not a lecture hall.
If teaching and information exchange are the whole point of the service, then what’s wrong with just attending virtually or only tuning into the podcast? Is that doing “church”? COVID would seem to indicate that this was what a lot of Christians thought.
Yet the church is so much more than just information exchange. So, while solid, faithful, Biblical exposition of the Word is very important, it too is not the whole purpose of the worship gathering.
Experience
Some others think that worship is about the experience—by which they usually mean the emotions they feel in worship. You often hear various events called a “worship experience”. However, you would be hard-pressed to prove from Scripture that this is the primary purpose of the corporate worship gathering.
In the Bible, worshippers gather to perform actions and doing things before God, not necessarily feeling things. They offer sacrifices (Psa. 4:5), they prostrate (Isa. 49:7), they confess (Psa. 32:5), they kneel (Psa. 95:6), they sing (Psa. 95:1), they bring gifts (Exo. 34:20), etc. Ironically, many of these are often removed from even conservative churches—gone are the kneeling benches of yesterday. It is totally out of sync to sing “come let us worship and bow down” standing rigidly. Even in the NT, men are commanded to “lift holy hands” while praying (1 Tim. 2:8). Postures of worship are commanded in Scripture.
Thus, worship is evaluated not based on the effect it may have on the worshipper, but rather on whether or not it was “acceptable” to God or not. The fact that God repeatedly commands our emotional responses (e.g. the repeated commands to “rejoice in the LORD” or “delight” in Him throughout Scripture) should show us that our subjective experiential feelings are not the driving focus. Instead, they are to be brought into subjection to Christ and His Word.
Every one of us has struggled with our “heart not being there” for worship. However, our emotions are to be led, not to lead us. It is not uncommon that when we do the things, the actions that God requires of us in worship, that through the help of the Spirit, our emotions follow. This is a gracious gift of God in our weakness.
Giving
Some think that “we gather for worship to give, not get.” However, this is also wrong-headed. We are dependent creatures. Everything we have is from God. We are not His equals. Dr. Jeffrey Meyers rightly says,
“…there is no such worship in the Bible for the simple fact that we cannot approach God as disinterested, self-sufficient beings. We are created beings. Dependent creatures. Beings who must continually receive both our life and redemption from God. Our ‘worship’ of God, for this reason, necessarily involves our passive reception of His gifts as well as our active thanksgiving and petitions…”
Hughes Oliphant Old explains,
“…God is active in our worship. When we worship God according to His Word, He is at work in the worship of the church. For Calvin, the worship of the church is a matter of divine activity rather than human creativity.”
So, while there is also giving in the corporate worship gathering, it too is not the primary purpose.
What and who is the church for?
The worship service is primarily for God’s people to worship God in response to what they receive from Him. They receive His grace and equipping weekly to go out into the world as His ambassadors.
It is the LORD’s service, not primarily because we serve Him, but rather He serves us! It is a Covenant Renewal Ceremony where God meets with us, over a shared meal, to commune with His people and remind us of His covenant with us, and for us to renew our commitment to be faithful to Him. Thus, a church’s worship service should reflect that.
Ephesians 6:12 shows us that in this age, the church is militant (on earth, engaged in spiritual warfare against sin, the world, and the devil), and Hebrews 12:23 shows us at the same time that it is triumphant (victorious in heaven).
Structure and Function of the Church
Our egalitarian culture hates hierarchy.
However, our God is not a God of confusion, but of order. God has used hierarchy to order the world and His church. The church’s hierarchy is ordered through its offices. Offices are divided into extraordinary and ordinary.
Extraordinary (temporary and foundational)— These are the foundations of the Church, and like any good foundation, it is not repeatedly relaid.
- Apostles (witnesses of resurrection, inspired—Acts 1:21-22)
- Prophets (1 Corinthians 14:3)
- Evangelists (preachers who plant churches like Paul did—Titus 1:5).
Ordinary (permanent and ongoing) — These are the continuing offices of the church today.
- Elders/Overseers (Acts 20:17,28): Govern, teach, and protect the flock. Includes teaching elders (pastors/ministers) focused on preaching (1 Timothy 5:17) and ruling elders for oversight.
- Deacons: Serve practical needs, mercy, and charity (Acts 6:1-6; 1 Timothy 3:8-13).
The key functions of the Church’s officers include:
- Edification of believers: Building up saints through teaching, fellowship, and mutual encouragement (Ephesians 4:11-13; Hebrews 10:24-25).
- Evangelism and missions: Discipling all nations (Matthew 28:19-20), converting sinners, and expanding God’s kingdom. It is missionary by nature, witnessing internally (to members) and externally (to the world).
- Administration of means of grace: Preaching the Word, baptizing, and observing the Lord’s Supper to nourish faith.
- Discipline and holiness: Maintaining purity by reproving sin, correcting errant doctrine and restoring repentant members (Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:4-5).
- Worship and benevolence: Offering praise to God (John 4:24) and caring for the needy (Matthew 25:31-40; Acts 6:1-6).
3 Marks of a True Church
How do we know a true and healthy church from a false church?
The Belgic Confession states that,
“The marks by which the true Church is known are these: ‘If the pure doctrine of the Gospel is preached therein; if it maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if Church discipline is exercised in punishing sin; in short, if all things are managed according to the pure Word of God; all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the Church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known, from which no man has a right to separate himself.’”
Let’s briefly look at these 3 marks.
1. Preaching
The faithful exposition of Scripture, centring on Christ and salvation by grace through faith. This is primary, as the Word creates and sustains faith (Romans 10:17).
As Martin Luther said, “Where there is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, there is the church.”
Louis Berkhof writes in his Systematic Theology,
“By giving His Word to the Church, God constituted the Church the keeper of the precious deposit of the truth… It has the great and responsible task of maintaining and defending the truth against all the forces of unbelief and error… The duty of the Church to preach the Word is plainly taught in many passages of Scripture.”
Thus, a true church proclaims the whole counsel of God faithfully, unapologetically and in its entirety.
2. Sacraments or Ordinances
The two Biblical Sacraments or Ordinances are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Berkhof notes that,
“The ministry of the sacraments must, of course, go hand in hand with the ministry of the Word. It is merely the symbolical presentation of the gospel, addressed to the eye rather than to the ear… The sacraments should never be divorced from the Word, for they have no content of their own, but derive their content from the Word of God; they are, in fact, a visible preaching of the Word.”
As John Calvin wrote, “Wherever we find the word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there, it is not to be doubted, is a Church of God.”
A true church faithfully preaches the Word and administers the sacraments.
3. Discipline
We see the need for church discipline of unrepentant members in passages like Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 5:1–13, Galatians 6:1, 2 Corinthians 2:5–8, Titus 1:10–11 and Hebrews 12:5–11. It is not optional.
The purpose of discipline in the Church is twofold:
- It seeks to carry into effect the law of Christ concerning the admission and exclusion of members.
- It aims at promoting the spiritual edification of the members of the Church.
Both of these aims are subservient to a higher end, namely, the maintenance of the holiness of the Church of Jesus Christ.
As the late Dr. R.C. Sproul notes,
“Discipline is one of the necessary conditions for a true church.”
J.L. Dagg notes that, “When discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it.”
“If a Christian community does not exercise and submit to discipline to some extent, then no true church exists.”
—Dr. Robert Godfrey
Sadly, churches that actually exercise church discipline are few and far between these days.
4 Marks of a Healthy Church
At this point, it is important to note that you may have true churches that are not healthy churches. I believe this is the case in many Evangelical churches today. They are true churches, filled with true believers who love the Lord Jesus, but they have many unhealthy doctrines and practices.
We’ll briefly go through 4 marks of healthy churches.
1. Biblically Qualified Elders
The Bible gives the qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Elders must be men who faithfully expound the Word, are of good reputation and character, have their households in order and have believing children.
That they must be men means that it disqualifies women of both genders. Pastors are to be men who are not effeminate because their role carries authority that requires conflict in addressing sin. That they must understand and study the Word is basic to their role of teaching and admonishing in the church. That they must have a good reputation and character is essential to not bring shame to the Name of Christ. They should have their households in order because Paul in 1 Timothy 3:4–5 says that if they can’t manage their own households, they have no business trying to manage the household of God. They must have submissive and believing children because if their own children don’t care what he has to say, why would others?
As 1 Peter 5:3 says, elders are to be an example to the flock to emulate. If a man’s home life is not worthy of emulation, he has no business being an elder. The home is the basic training and proving ground for eldership.
Sadly, these qualifications are often ignored today, and pulpits are filled with unqualified men who should step down and get their own house in order first.
2. Orderly Worship
1 Corinthians 14:33 says that God is not a god of confusion but of order. He doesn’t leave us without instruction on how He wants to be worshipped and how a church should be ordered.
This is known as the Regulative Principle of Worship: that a church’s worship should be regulated strictly by God’s Word. Only those elements commanded or implied in Scripture are permissible; anything else is forbidden, as it risks introducing human inventions that dishonour God. Remember that in Leviticus 10, fire consumed Nadab and Abihu because they offered “strange fire” that the Lord had not commanded them. God does not want us to “get creative” with worship.
This is simply the natural outworking of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura—that God’s Word is the sole infallible and sufficient guide to life and faith.
The elements of the church’s worship service which God has commanded us to do are:
- Reading and preaching Scripture (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2).
- Prayer (1 Tim. 2:1; Phil. 4:6)—Communal petitions and thanksgivings.
- Singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).
- Sacraments: Baptism (Matt. 28:19) and the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23–29).
- Occasional elements: Oaths, vows, fasting, or thanksgiving.
The beauty of the simplicity of this sort of worship is that it is something you can do anywhere and in any time. There’s no need for megachurches, fog machines and lights, a big band, and a thousand different programs.
If we don’t adhere to this, by what standard would you say that something like a puppet show, or fireworks, or a waterslide is not allowed in the corporate worship gathering? What retort other than “it’s not our preference” or a vague appeal to “wisdom” would one have to prevent such inventions and innovations in worship?
When believers are trained on a diet of pop-worship songs with emotional and repetitive lyrics and sermons that are more like short TedTalks, it is shaping them. Like the influence of social media, or junk food, it alters their tastes. They get addicted to the dopamine hits of shallow but entertaining content, and the sugar rush of sweet but not particularly nourishing food. Believers trained on this sort of “worship” often will struggle to “get into theology”, finding it hard to concentrate and read or understand extended arguments.
The worship service is meant to move us from milk to meat, towards spiritual maturity.
3. Confessing the Historic Faith
Throughout the ages, the church has used Creeds, Confessions and Catechisms as a way to confess the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). It is a way that the church obeys the command to hold fast to the traditions handed down to us either by word of mouth or written documents (2 Thessalonians 2:15).
Faithful churches are not innovators. We confess old truths faithfully. The test of faithfulness is not some sort of manufactured link of apostolic succession like the Roman Catholics claim, but rather faithfulness to the truths of God’s Word that have been confessed by the church throughout time.
Creeds like the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed preserve the core essentials of the Gospel. Confessions like the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession expound the key doctrines of the faith. Catechisms help train children and new believers in these truths using historically verified resources that have stood the test of time.
Churches would be wise to make use of these resources. They guard against error and root the church historically in a common faith that has been passed down for generations and is bigger than any time period or individual.
4. Community & Mission
Jesus said that the world will know us by our love for one another (John 13:34–35). The church must be a community that actually knows, cares and loves each other in practical and tangible ways. This love should be visible and obvious to outsiders. Yet in many churches, people barely know the person in the pew next to them.
The Church is also given a mission in Matthew 28:19-20, to disciple the nations. When we leave those doors on Sunday morning, we are entering the mission field. We must be a community on mission, to win the world to Christ and declare His Kingdom’s reign over all things.
A church that is not on mission is a church that is on its way to die. It is tasteless salt and a hidden light.
5 Marks of a False Church
The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (26.3) states that,
“The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan…”
Some churches are false churches. Donald Bloesch, in his book on the church, helpfully lists 5 marks of a false church. We’ll mention them briefly.
1. Insularism
This is the desire to enjoy the benefits the church confers without reaching out in sacrificial love to a world groping in darkness. Insularism often takes the form of exclusivism, in which the grace of God is confined to the rites and pronouncements of the church, and the message of God is limited to those who share common values and social allegiances.
2. Inclusivism
An opposite danger is inclusivism, which characterizes a church without enduring standards and goals. We often see these churches marked with rainbow flags. In the inclusivist mentality, all are welcomed into membership, whatever their creed or style of life. To insist on a moral code as a requirement for membership is considered a throwback to legalism. Inclusivist churches affirm and celebrate all sorts of degenerate lifestyles and unbiblical beliefs. While we are not justified by our works, our works attest a justification already won for us by Jesus Christ on the cross.
3. Extreme Ecumenicism
This deformation often takes the form of a false peace, in which we extend the hand of fellowship indiscriminately without demanding acceptance of the gospel tenets and submission to the Bible as the Word of God. This is prominent in the Ecumenical Movement, the desire to bring denominations together without agreeing beforehand on what is essential and nonessential in our doctrine. Such a church is willing to bend principles in order to remain at peace with other churches and with the world.
However, Jesus said he did not come to bring peace, but a sword. The truth divides.
4. Heterodoxism
A heretical church will blatantly champion stances that contradict the norms of both sacred Scripture and tradition. It will contend that there are indeed other ways to salvation and will more than likely find these in other religions or in a syncretistic hodgepodge of religions. A heretical church will openly promote its own plan of salvation, which patently contradicts the biblical model.
5. Experimentalism
So-called contemporary worship prides itself on its free adaptation of the gospel to current fashions in music and drama, but what too often results is a spirituality that mirrors the uncertainties and idolatries of the times rather than one that glories in the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14). A church that rushes to embrace the fads and fashions of the age and eagerly lets go of the richness of the past under the cover of a quest for relevance is one that clearly reveals itself to be a false church. What is required today is not an innovative church but a faithful church, one that gives priority to the truth of the gospel over church growth.
Why does this matter to you?
We are always being discipled. It is just a matter of by whom and for which kingdom. There are only two choices: the Kingdom of light or the dominion of darkness, Christ or chaos. The church is the primary place where disciples are formed and prepared to go out into the world.
These are no mere abstract principles.
How we worship on Sunday will necessarily shape the rest of our lives as we are shaped into a particular people who desire a certain Kingdom.
Society is not made up of unrelated, isolated individuals.
The individual finds himself in a primary relationship with the family. A church is a covenant community of families, and as we saw, the culture is downstream of the church. The foundation of all government is self-government.
So, as self-disciplined men lead their families and churches, biblically healthy churches flourish and form a Gospel culture. And as pastor Doug Wilson has said, we are in a culture war. And just as you cannot fight a tank war without tanks, you cannot fight a culture war without a culture. Biblically healthy churches are the frontlines in this culture war. We cannot export what we do not have, and churches must build a biblically thick culture to stand against the onslaught of our present day and be faithful as salt and light to the world.
If we really want to see the LORD start a revival in our land, let us pray and work for revival and reformation in us, our families and our churches. Commit yourself to a local church, love Christ’s Bride and desire to see her made pure and spotless, a shining light to a world lost in darkness.
