This post is written by Andrew Hall as a companion for Unit 34, Session 4 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 12: From This World to the World to Come (Summer 2024).
We are in the age of an identity crisis.
Yes, we’ve heard about people struggling and having a mid-life crisis. And we’ve seen people feel lost after they’ve retired from work. But there is a bigger identity crisis that is going on, and this predicament exists in various spheres of life and organizations. Even the church has not been immune from this trial.
As Western culture continues to undergo a moral shift, the church has spent a great amount of energy trying to figure out its place in the world. During the 90s, many evangelical churches tried to become more “seeker sensitive” by tailoring their ministry in an attractive fashion to draw people into their weekend services. By the mid 2000s, as postmodern relativity had gripped universities and was seeping into workplaces, the “emerging church” tried to find a way to connect with those who were skeptical, even cynical, toward any claims of truth. As objectivity have given way to subjectivity, the world has been wrestling with injustice. And into this void, critical theory has emerged as the dominant voice in workplaces and universities, causing the “woke church” to rise up—a church awakened by the realities of injustice in the world, seeking to rectify wrongs done to those perceived to be without privilege.
Yet in the face of these movements, many churches have returned to the source of their authority—the Bible—to rediscover what the church is to be about. Yes, churches should be sensitive to unbelievers. Yes, Christians need better responses to a world of subjectivity. And yes, the gospel addresses injustices. But each of these movements in recent church history has made their primary identity something other than what the Scriptures call us to do. So what are we called to do?
What is absolutely essential for us to do as a church? What does the Scripture command? The function of the church can be summarized by three pairs: (1) Word and prayer, (2) baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and (3) mutual encouragement and discipline.
In Acts 6:4, in the face of a ministry crisis, the apostles told the church that they must focus on prayer and the Word. Yes, they were to care for the needs of others! Yet mutual ministry could not come at the expense of being devoted to the apostolic teaching and prayer (2:42). Further, the church has understood that the gospel is not just proclaimed but it is seen in baptism (Rom. 6:1-4) and the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23-26). Finally, the daily ministry of the church is “one another” ministry, where every believer uses his or her gifts for the edification of the church (1 Pet. 4:10-11; Rom. 12:9ff) and seeks discipline to form (1 Tim. 4:7) or correct (Matt. 18:15-17).
In the Reformation, those who challenged the church were calling her out of her identity crisis that had led to many abuses and obscured her function. By returning to the source of Scripture, the gospel was placed front and center: in word and prayer, in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the right practice of church discipline.
We stand in this legacy of the Scriptures! We don’t have to reinvent the church! Christ has given us His clear instructions, and He blesses those who walk in obedience to Him. Let’s keep our focus on gospel priorities, believing that as we do so, Christ will build His church, unbelievers will be saved, and the gates of Hades will not prevail (Matt. 16:18).
Andrew Hall is the lead pastor of Community Bible Church, located in Ilderton, Ontario, Canada. He is a graduate from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Melanie, have four children.
