(Printed in The ARP Magazine. Read the full article by clicking here.)
By: Rob Roy McGregor III
Our theme over the past year has been Building Healthy Churches and Birthing Healthy Christians. At last year’s meeting of Synod, our Moderator, Dr. Leslie Holmes, laid out the three-fold mandate the Bible gives healthy churches: Exalt the Lord in Worship, Equip the Laity for Work, and Evangelize the Lost through Witness. Healthy Christians, Dr. Holmes pointed out, take on the responsibility passed along to them by the visible church. The theme I have chosen for this year is “Preparing the Church for the Return of Christ Jesus.” It follows naturally from Dr. Holmes’s theme because building healthy churches and birthing healthy Christians prepare individual believers, congregations, and the Church Universal for the return of Christ Jesus.
Last year, in his challenge to us to birth healthy Christians, Dr. Holmes pointed us to the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), which affirms that “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” outside of the visible church (WCF 25.2). This year’s theme places the emphasis on a subsequent statement in the Confession: “Unto this catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life, to the end of the world; and doth by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto” (WCF 25:3). This is an affirmation of what Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-13, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Those who are appointed to leadership, then, have the responsibility of shepherding and instructing the flock so that God’s people are effectively prepared to participate in the Final Event. To that end, in short, a true hearing of the word leads to godly action. It is as simple and as difficult as James teaches (1:22): “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” The ultimate end in view for both Paul and James is that the Church come of age and attain completeness in Christ.
The Westminster Confession of Faith further confirms that the “catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (WCF 25.1). That is in agreement with Paul’s statement in Ephesians 5:26-27: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” The image Paul presents here is that of a bride adorned for her husband, who is Christ himself. This image is emphasized most forcefully in Revelation 19:6-10 as the foreordained conclusion of Christ’s assigned and accomplished work on Earth.
The purpose of the theme “Preparing the Church for the Return of Christ Jesus,” then, is to focus our attention on faith as Christ-like deeds over against faith as mere confession. Jesus has called us the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” and charged us to “let [our] light shine before men, that they may see [our] good deeds and praise [our] Father in Heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16). This only works if our lives demonstrate the difference our confession of faith in Christ makes as a witness to the power of the Gospel in our daily lives. Therefore, the theme of this year’s Moderator’s Challenge is to engage our faith and explore the extended meanings of our confession as we prepare for the appearance of the Bride and the Victor of Calvary.
Dr. Rob Roy McGregor III is Professor of Economics at UNC Charlotte and an elder at Back Creek ARP Church in Charlotte, NC.