belong

Something in Common

God is pleased when his people read, study, teach, preach, and live by Bible. Who would disagree? Surely this is a no-brainer: God’s people, those who have experienced the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are to center their lives around the Old and New Testaments. Emphasis on the priority of scripture is most certainly integral to the fabric of what it means to be God’s church. From weekly sermons to small group studies to the “B-I-B-L-E” children’s song, one thing is clear: We are people of the Book. This is a truth around which all Christians can rally.

Yet to say that this value finds unique expression in the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) is to say something of a different order. Our understanding of and adherence to the Bible do not overshadow or replace the love of scripture that has marked the church since its founding and especially since the Reformation. We are not somehow more biblical than other Christians. However, our approach to Christian faith and practice influences our relationship with the Bible. And while that relationship is certainly not unique among all Christians, our perspective can influence broader conversations about what it means to be faithful students of the Bible.

My Personal Experience: Preaching

I serve as the senior pastor of a small (attendance: 60-70) congregation. Each Sunday, the people’s expectation is that I bring a sermon that is firmly rooted in biblical truths. Several years ago, I learned a valuable lesson from Dr. Gil Stafford about the priority of scripture, not just in the preparation of a sermon, but also in its delivery and reception.

During an otherwise ordinary seminary chapel service, Dr. Stafford was assigned to read a passage of scripture. I can’t recall the passage he read, but I vividly remember how he read it: Instead of reading from the lectern on the right side of the platform, he stepped down onto the floor of the chapel. As he walked into our midst, he said, “The Word became flesh and made its dwelling among us” (John 1:14 NIV). Then he read the assigned passage and returned to his seat on the platform.

That event formed my practice of preaching. When I began preaching regularly a few years ago, I found myself falling quite naturally into a rhythm of position: from my first Sunday onward, I have stepped onto the floor of the sanctuary to read the sermon text and preach the sermon. On several occasions I have reminded the congregation of my reason for this practice: namely, that the scriptures – and Jesus Christ to whom they point – are intended to be found in our midst, to transform our lives, to take root in our experiences.

Our Historical Approach

From the beginning days of the Church of God in the 1880s, we have stressed the priority of scripture in our preaching, teaching, publishing, writing, and singing. We are a “What the Bible Teaches” church, an identity expressed in a book by that very title, written by an important writer from last century named F.G. Smith. We have upheld “the Bible [as] our rule of faith, and Christ alone is Lord” – lyrics from one of our earliest songs. We have turned to scripture to justify major decisions, to settle disagreements, and to clarify vision for our future. We hold ministers and missionaries to biblical standards, although we sometimes do so in scattered, disconnected ways due to our congregational polity and our humanness.

We view the Bible through the lenses of our fundamental theological values, terms which have, in the past, been emblazoned on local church signs and national publications: salvation, holiness, and unity. The Bible contains the full revelation of God’s redemptive plan through Jesus Christ, and thus it is sufficient and necessary for our salvation. The Bible reveals the holy God and is itself a book set apart from all others because of this revelation, and thus it directs us along the path of holiness. The Bible contains our shared stories of the faith, stories which have informed and transformed generations of God’s people for thousands of years, and thus it tangibly represents the unity we share with all believers, past and present.

Implications

In the early days of the Church of God, we very strongly resisted the notion of “man-rule.” We believed our congregations and spiritual lives were not to be controlled by any central leader or group of leaders. Similarly, we resisted creeds and other written summaries of the faith, because we believed such creeds contained the biases of their writers and reduced the full witness of scripture. These feelings of resistance persist in the Church of God today, but this is to our detriment. For instance, we included the Nicene Creed in our last hymnal (1989) but entitled it “Affirmation of Faith.” Our own seminary has created a Statement of Belief for use in congregations, but this has not yet taken root on the local level. We actually lose unity with other believers and knowledge of scriptural themes by failing to recognize, learn, teach, and rehearse these biblical summaries of the faith. Why not pore over scripture and work actively on explicating our beliefs in summary form?

On the other hand, our approach to the Bible can help Christians avoid twentieth-century aberrations. For example, we steer clear of the debate about biblical inerrancy. From our perspective, God’s Word already speaks clearly into our world; we do not require it to express literal truth in every single word and phrase. Also, we stay away from dispensational interpretations of the Bible, because we understand all of God’s word to be relevant and applicable to all human situations, in all periods of time. Why get bogged down in unnecessary arguments when scripture reveals the gospel of Jesus Christ, something much more grand?

A Way Forward: Contextualization of Life

What does it mean to be “a Bible church” in the twenty-first century? Allow me a brief illustration.

Earlier this week, my small group of Church of God pastors, my “SHAPE group,” had its monthly meeting. One of my colleagues told the story of a funeral he recently attended for a twenty-something who died tragically, and he commented about how the people’s public reflections during the service were all about the young man’s life – and nothing more. His life was not set in any larger context, such as his influence on surviving family and friends, his faithfulness to family heritage, or even his participation in the story of God’s work in the world. My colleague then expressed that he, moving forward, desires to include Psalm 90 in funerals he will officiate: “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God” (NIV). Our lives are to be understood in the context of God’s activity throughout history. For Christians, this context is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Only then do our lives take on the fullest possible meaning.

To be “a Bible church” means that we find the context for our lives in the pages of scripture. We read the narrative of God who always judges and redeems, and we find that our own experiences fit into that broad story of hope. We read the revelation of God who is One and Holy, and we strive to imitate that God through our pursuit of unity and holiness. We are people of the Book, and we believe this attitude – no, this way of life – is pleasing to God.