Scripture is Enough
Down below I wrote about the three principles I learned at a campus ministry seminar. The first of those principles is that, "The Bible is the Word of God given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." What does this have to do with campus ministry? What does this have to do with church planting?
This first principle is expanded into three sub-points:
- The Scriptures are trustworthy, inerrant, infallible and authoritative.
- The Scriptures are sufficient to reveal God, the way of salvation, and the will of God for men.
- The Scriptures are clear enough to be understood by any Christian using ordinary means with the aid of the Holy Spirit.
None of the above is rocket science; all of the above contain historic Christian teaching about God's Word.
Where I think they particularly apply in today's world is in the sufficiency of Scripture and its capacity to be understood by any Christian. Not that the other ideas in the above three points are any less important, nor are they any less under attack nor all too easily forgotten. But Scripture's sufficiency in telling us what we need to know about God, salvation, and us, and Scripture's clarity to any Christian seem to be most forgotten, abused or neglected in the modern chuch.
We have methods. We have polling. We have marketing techniques. Use them and your church will grow!! But in the methods, in the pollng, in the marketing we too often forget that God promises to work through His Word.
I find it fascinating, as I read through various books and articles on church planting, that the methods proposed so often are bolstered by quotes from Scripture, as if to justify the validity of the method. What is missing is any sense that we should rely on Scripture rather than method. And what is so disappointing is that all the proponents of various methods emphasize that the "success" of a church plant is ultimately dependent on God. That acknowledgement is refreshing and welcome, but disappointing in that it misses the point of how God promises to work.
How has God promised to work? Through His Word. In Isaiah God states that His Word does not return to Him void, but goes out and accomplished what He purposes for it to accomplish. What does Paul instruct young Timothy to do? Preach the Word, in and out of season.
Today's emphasis on method, polling, technique, etc. betrays a lack of faith that God's Word is sufficient as defined in #2 above, and a lack of faith that God's Word can be understood by ordinary means (i.e., it doesn't need special packaging to be understood!).
Rather than technique or method, a new church plant must put its hopes in the sufficiency and "understandability" ("perspicacity" in theological terms) of God's Word. The new church should commit itself to faithful preaching and teaching of God's Word, but that is not all. If all the new church has is a commitment to preaching and teaching God's Word then all it has commited to is another method. The new church and its leaders must also have faith that God will work through the ordinary means of communicating God's Word. James tells us that faith without works is dead; so also are works without faith, no matter how biblical those works are.
One of the speakers at the campus ministry conference related how another campus minister with a different ministry was amazed at how many students attended the RUM sponsored Reformed University Fellowship. The RUF folks didn't aggressively evangelize. They had programs but seemed to have fewer, or at least different (e.g., small group Bible studies as prevalent as fellowship activities) kinds of activities and programs. He wanted to know how the RUF minister got so many kids to come to their weekly large group meetings. What are you doing? (Read: what's your method?)
The speaker's response? We invite kids to come to our weekly meeting, and there I preach the Word.
God's Word was - is - effective.
When/if I am called to plant a church, I pray that it will be a church that focuses on God's Word and has faith that His Word is effective.
Labels: Church Planting, RUF
