Short Take #4: The Purposes and Priorities of the Church

Here is another short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. I want to read a quote from another very well-known evangelical, Rick Warren.

I can't remember the news source for this, but I'm reading this. In a recent interview, Pastor Rick Warren of the California-based Saddleback Church said he rejects the notion that churches are being discriminated against during COVID. He posited that COVID-19 revealed what he said is a, quote, fundamental weakness in the church, unquote, which was that most churches see worship, that's the word you used, Eric, as their sole purpose, quote, and if you take worship away, you've got nothing.

They're in a hurry to get back to worship because that's all they got, he said. But the 20,000 member Saddleback Church is built not on one purpose, but on five, Warren explained. Quote, you take one circle out, I guess that means worship, you've still got four other circles. We've got ministry going on, we've got mission going on, we've got fellowship going on, we've got discipleship going on, they all stand on their own, unquote. That from Rick Warren, one of the most influential evangelicals. So, sort of in the same ballpark, you could say, as Andy Stanley with regard to the staying away, don't meet in person, and so forth. What are the purposes of the church, Eric?

Maybe you could list them in order of priority. Yeah, that's a great question, and without knowing more of the context there, that's sort of a discouraging comment as well, because if you take worship away, you've got nothing. They're in a hurry to get back to worshiping because that's all they have. Oh, David, our God is a great God. He is a great God. The psalmist says, clap your hands all people, shout to God with a voice of joy, for the Lord most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. Psalm 95, come bow down, let us worship the Lord our God. Again, I just, that idea, it just seems foreign to the scripture, because worship is the launch pad for all of the Christian life. Without worship, we have nothing.

We can still share the gospel. Theoretically, if we didn't go to church on Sunday, we can still share the gospel and must and get to with our not yet believing neighbors and family and friends, and do missions and have informal fellowship. But when you read the scripture cover to cover, it's always about worship. Worship is the starting point, the midpoint, the end point. Evangelism is worship, and everything else in the Christian life is to flow from worship. And really, again, our Christian life and all the other duties flow from worship. So the church is to be a worshiping community. It's to be a witnessing community as well.

As you talk about the purposes of the church, Jesus lays it out in Matthew 28, 18 to 20, where he says, you as a church are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything they commanded you. I'm with you. And so we are to do that. But to say that, well, we don't need to gather for worship to do that. I mean, that's like saying, I don't need to eat to go to work, to go for a jog, to function. I mean, worship is the main thing, David.

It's everything. From Genesis to Revelation, we're to worship. And so our strength and alignment and even our biblical doctrine, the know-how, the knowledge of how to do everything else, and the motivation and the joy in it comes from worship, preeminently as God has commanded in this day, corporate worship. As to the idea that churches aren't being discriminated against, I just, I can't really agree with that. Again, God has given government the authority to bear the sword against evil, that's actual evil as God defines, to collect taxes for doing so, to reward the righteous. He has not given secular authorities the right, the jurisdiction, to regulate Christian worship.

And when they attempt to, they are overstepping their God-given bounds, whether or not that country is a constitutional republic or not. So it certainly is. It certainly is discrimination.

And yes, light persecution, much lighter than some of our brothers and sisters face now and have faith. But nevertheless, it absolutely is overstepping their bounds and therefore discrimination. Now we don't make a, we don't riot over it. We don't cause a ruckus.

Well, why? Because well, in 1 Timothy 2, 1 to 2, God says, hey, I want you to be quiet, dignified. I want you to pray for your authorities and keep the mission the main thing, which is evangelizing the law, teaching those who are saved to follow Christ. But nevertheless, it still would be qualified as overstepping their bounds against God's churches. This has been a short take from the Christian worldview with David Wheaton.

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