Why I Love the Church, Part 2

Yesterday, I examined one reason why I love the Church. It is vital to the Christian faith.

Another reason I love the Church is that it serves as a visible reminder and outworking of Jesus' prayer that His people would be one (John 17:20-23). The unity of the Church, rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bears witness to the world of the glory of God.

A perceived lack of unity in the Church is often used by believer and unbeliever alike to heap scorn and ridicule upon the Church. I imagine you have all been asked something along the lines of "How can you claim that he Bible is true when there are so many different interpretations of what it says?"

To that, we can respond in confidence that there is a common consensus on matters of basic orthodoxy, even amongst Protestants and Roman Catholics. We all subscribe to the theology of the ancient creeds, for example, and their affirmations of fundamental truths regarding the Trinity and the person and work of Christ. We can also respond in conviction, acknowledging that this essential unity is not often made manifest before the watching world.

But it is not only the unbeliever that heaps scorn and ridicule upon the Church for its perceived lack of unity, for this exactly what many a believer does when he/she decries the prevalence of doctrinal debates and the multitude of denominations. In response to these brothers and sisters, it must be said that since the beginnings of the New Testament Church, doctrinal debates have used to crystallize truth--the truth that Christ prays will be at the heart of Christian unity.

Likewise, instead of decrying the divisive effects of denominations on Church unity when compared the complete unity of all tribes and tongues in Heaven, we should compare the current state of affairs with what the Church would look like if every person was a Church unto himself/herself. This is what many of these same Christians are doing when they ridicule denominations--they are self-consciously avoiding denominations, thus becoming denominations unto themselves. In contrast to this modern multitude of lay-Popes, we have denominations, which draw very diverse people together upon common understandings of God's Word.

Yet, the visible unity of the Church extends beyond the beauty of individual denominations. Many like-minded denominations gather together into larger networks For example, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church in America, and United Reformed Churches, along with several other denominations, are all part of NAPARC--North American Presbyterian and Reformed Churches, which fosters greater unity between them. Likewise, The Gospel Coalition gathers those with broadly-Reformed convictions from across dozens of denominations into greater fellowship.

Even going a step further into the practical relevance of unity in the Church, consider what it is like to be in a relatively un-churched area, like the Pacific Northwest or the Pioneer Valley of New England. My wife and I are currently on vacation in New England, and consider ourselves blessed to find any form of evangelical (Bible-believing) church. On Nantucket, we found the sole evangelical church, which, while not totally in line with our theological preferences, provided us with a place to hear God's Word proclaimed and brothers and sisters with whom to delight in that Word. Consequently, one member of the church volunteered to watch our boy so we could enjoy a date night, and another member took us in for the night when our ferry back to the mainland was cancelled.

Likewise, we found a PCA church in Providence that readily welcomed us in this past Sunday. We were probably greeted by half the people in attendance. In this way, in a world populated by billions of people, and in a Western culture often indifferent to the plight of the stranger, our wold was made a little smaller and we were welcomed as family, though we were strangers.

So this is another reason why I love the Church. Not only do I get to hear from God on a weekly basis, but I get to be a part of a Christ-based family that makes my world larger and makes the broader world smaller, so that I am never alone on this pilgrim journey.