Restoring New Testament Christianity – that has been the goal of the American Restoration Movement and Churches of Christ.
Did we set the right goal or has this goal derailed us and is part of why we are a steep decline today?
I want to share three thoughts on this with you and hear your thoughts in the comments. These thoughts are my opinion and you are more than welcome to differ, push back or tell me I am crazy.
#1 – We have to define what it is we are restoring
We said we are restoring New Testament Christianity and by that basically meant restoring the New Testament church (what happens on Sunday + biblical governance). The question is, has God called us to restore that? Is it our job to restore that? Or is there something else more biblically important and pressing that has failed and is in need of restoration that is now easier to spot 200 years into this restoration attempt?
Making a copy of a copy
Have you ever had a photocopy of something and copied the copy? If you copy a copy enough times what you get isn’t really just like the original. It gets distorted.
This is going to get me in trouble but I am going to say it – in the New Testament, the church is the copy and Jesus is the original.
We got caught up on copying the copy instead of reproducing the original. This is why we claim to have success in meeting our restoration goals and yet so many people are not being spiritually formed into Christ-likeness as Paul says repeatedly that we should be. This is why people think they can do all manner of ungodly things because they attend “the Lord’s church” as if that is a cover for their lack of integrity in other areas of their life. But if you are set on becoming like Christ then you know you can’t do those things.
This is also why we can ignore the role of the Holy Spirit because if we just copy the behavior of the first Christians in their gatherings then we have accomplished the goal. And that means that we have often ignored, rejected and relegated the source of life, church, ministry and spiritual formation – the Holy Spirit! It also means we have elevated some scriptures (by sheer repetition) over others (by ignoring them and never teaching on them).
And maybe we did the picking and choosing based on what we thought would make us more like them rather than what would make us more like Christ.
#2 – A Failed Experiment
This is hard to say but I will say it. If you copy a copy rather than copy the original you are going to get distortions. I think this Restoration goal is a failed experiment that can’t really be recovered without getting us right back into sectarianism and division, which are antithetical to the gospel. The harder we try to be that church the more we will alienate those who are just as much Christ followers as we are (copying the original) but aren’t as concerned about copying the copy.
And what is more, we copied a copy of the copy by trying to maintain and reproduce the church of Christ of the 1950s.
Not even the New Testament church was doing it right. Pretty much every letter of Paul was to put out fires and correct how wrong the first Christians got church. And God never gave them the mission we took upon ourselves other than the unity aspect of it, which failed at, imo. If our movement had produced the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of unity then I would be more hopeful but 200 years of fracturing and judgment make it hard to keep pursuing.
I think many have given up on restoring NT Christianity as defined in #1 above (restoring the church). Some are still on board with restoring New Testament Christianity but many have given up on this project altogether. Now, just because people gave up on it doesn’t mean it is wrong or bad. The goodness or badness of it has to come from other metrics like: is this goal aligned with scripture? Is it God’s intent?
The Bible never gives us the mission as we took it on. And if we had pursued Christ-likeness as hard as we pursued church-likeness we would be in a far better position and probably would have impacted millions more than we have.
#3 – What needs restored
There are things bigger than what we do on Sunday that needs to be restored. Here are some things that I believe are worth restoring that we would be better off spending our time on:
- Restoring a church not in charge but a church in submission to the Spirit’s lead
- Restoring a church of elders who biblically shepherd
- Restoring a church that edifies the body rather than judges the body
- Restoring a church that is on mission in the community through making disciples and acts of loving kindness and reconciliation
- Restoring tender hearts…people who are in the Word to connect with God and love each other more deeply
- Restoring repentance from our pride
- Restoring the priesthood of ALL believers and the use of gifts for the building up on the body
- Restoring humility and dependence on God and interdependence in the church body.
- Restoring church as a family not as a business or institution
- Restoring focus on Christ and following Christ (discipleship and making disciples)
- Restoring a mission, not of converting the Baptist but of reaching the lost
- Restoring an acknowledgement of spiritual warfare and the battle we are engaged in that isn’t against flesh and blood (which has been a lot of our battle focus).
Identity Issues
Restoring the church skewed our identity. We became more known for church stuff than Jesus stuff and that will always fail. We need a restored identity.
In short, we must be about restoring our identity as Jesus-people on the Jesus mission with the help and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This takes humility. And that requires repentance.
I think restoring these things makes us more Christ’s church, not less.
Thoughts?
If you want to read more thoughts on this, I wrote a book that will help you work through the core issues and help you see some opportunities to change things looking ahead by calling us back to Jesus’ original mission! You can buy the kindle version below (softcover is out in late February)! Click the image below to find out more. The cost is $5 and that money goes into the non-profit to help more people make disciples and start home churches.
6 Responses
I strongly
Intesting read! All the way – until I read about our focus. I believe, reading through the New Testament, that our focus should be on God. Jesus models that. Paul models that. WE are encouraged to model that. We seem to be afraid of applying what we read when it comes to the Ultimate Focal point.
Jesus: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Ou r “reason for being” is to glorify God…
I did something wrong and you may have received an incomplete response from me. Please remove it as I had not finished nor edited it.
The lack or loss of real shepherding and developing of deep relationships coincides with the church being treated as a business or organization. It’s a corruption of the church if we’re being honest. Of course it’s going decline. We should not be surprised by decline when the leadership is distracted from its mission. Most any “organization” will fail when leadership loses its focus.
Hello this so amazing teachings
I think you’re running more people off that you don’t want to with #2.
People have gone down this road (a similar road?) before you that completely gave up on obedience to Christ outside Matthew – John. They claim to be Christ followers only on the commands about how they act as individuals, but are not Christ followers when it comes to what Christ chose for Sundays, what Christ taught about communion being a life or death matter (John 6:47-59) Christ’s teaching the judgement day is based on our works: Romans 2:6-11. I know evangelical paraphrases that try their hardest to get rid of 1 Peter 3:21. The ESV study Bible outright denies Christ’s teaching through Peter there. We know that all the New Covenant was given by Christ through the Spirit to the apostles and also the apostles were perfectly aligned to Christ the cornerstone they were the foundation.
Following the gospels is a good thing but rejecting a host of Christ’s teachings throughout the rest of the New Covenant that individual can hardly be called a Christ follower.
They’re the inversion of what you’re describing the CoC as.
That’s just as wrong. That’s not a solution.
You also question if God ever gave the mission of restoring the church. That’s precisely what the Spirit warned Timothy that many would depart from “the faith”. The Spirit never wanted that departure of the many. Paul was specifically raised up to “defend the gospel” from several heretical groups: gnostics, judaizers, nicolaitans, etc. When Paul wrote to the Galatians about those teaching a different gospel as accursed he wasn’t talking about 1 Corinthians 15 death, burial, resurrection gospel (which the gnostics denied). The letter was about the judaizers. The judiazers taught a different salvation never denying faith confession repentance baptism and sanctification but they bound the law. THIS different salvation of the judaizers is the context of Paul’s letter.
Christ was not a fan of the judaizers tampering with the “gospel” (in Galatians 1, salvation) enough to speak through Paul and say they are accursed. When I figured that out it hurt but it’s true.
I want to recommend you to read the whole new testament through the lens of what Christ has to say about false teachers, not groups today, but the groups fought against in the 1st century and even in the 2nd and 3rd century. It’s undeniable Christ wants His truth accepted, that includes a number of doctrines that we read today -> because Christ had Paul teach them, writing the letters, to refute the errors of those heretical groups that were against Christ’s truth.
The Spirit wanted them to continue in this full-bodied Christianity that God had created. Not merely what happens on Sunday, but the truths of God as well as given in His word.
Truths like the manifold function of baptism and dire importance of sanctification which happens by sowing to the Spirit and reaping from the Spirit: “doing good” (Galatians 6, Romans 6)(which is a neglected teaching). Needing to obey from faith in the gospel of Christ. The one Foundation which God laid isn’t men’s ideas but Christ the cornerstone and the apostles and prophets. Truths like the worship God selected. And critically deadly truths like binding the law of Moses will sever a person from Christ. I’m sure you’re aware just how many groups still bind the law of Moses whether its the 10 commandments or some other aspect of the law. Christ (who is claimed to be followed) spoke through His Spirit through Paul and bluntly told them they’re severed (Galatians).
I don’t see restoring Sunday morning as the only goal. I see eternal life as the goal and Christ is my Savior guiding me to get there. I see restoration as Josiah and finding the book of the law after a long while of Israel following men’s traditions. Study only that diligently and live it out. Not just the sabbath day but EVERYTHING that’s in there. That’s us with the New Covenant.
You’re right to ask the church to step up to follow ALL the New Covenant, brother please hold onto the rest that has been studied out into solid truths also.