Editor’s Note: The following essay is the sixth in a series dealing with topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians. Author Johnson explains: “The report from the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church provides us both the occasion and the urgency for theological dialogue within the PC(USA). This and succeeding essays are offered as a constructive effort in that direction.”
The marks of the true Church become important when (a) the Christian community is deeply divided over issues of its peace, purity, and unity; (b) some members and congregations talk openly about separating from the denomination; and (c) the Church or denomination is reconfiguring its polity, The Book of Order. All of these dynamics are now in play for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The PC(USA) Constitution contains three sets of marks for the true Church: from the early Church (200-600/1500), the Protestant Reformation (1500-1650), and the Modern-Pietist era (1650-1950/present). The current polarization within the PC(USA) sets these marks at odds with one another.
The Church’s mission is the distinctive Pietist mark of the true Church.1 The Church’s proper mission has divided American Presbyterians since at least World War II. One side says evangelistic outreach, the other side says social justice is the mission of the Church, but mission is the primary aim of both sides. Current discussions of mission, including the proposed revisions to the PC(USA) Form of Government, seek to ally mission with the marks of the early Christian Church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic),2 especially “apostolicity” (root meaning, “send out”).
Missing altogether from these discussions are the Reformation marks of the true Church, the very foundations of the Presbyterian form of government. The omission is more striking because the bulk of The PC(USA) Book of Confessions (seven out of 11 documents) comes from Reformation confessions, which declare that the true Church exists wherever the Word is purely proclaimed, the Sacraments rightly observed, and church discipline or discipleship (root word, “disciple”) is practiced.3
Can these different marks of the true Church be reconciled? And can the combination lead us beyond our current, self-defeating polarization into a better future–together–in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? I believe they can. This essay reviews each set of marks for the true Church, how they interact, and how combined they can make us stronger than ever. Let us begin with the earliest.
The Nicene Creed (325, 381) states plainly, “we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church” (BC 1.3). Following Paul (I Cor. 12:27+), the early Christians said that the Church is the mystical body of Christ (J.N.D. Kelly, Eric Jay). For the Eastern wing of the Church, being drawn into the body of Christ meant that the Christian believer participates in the divinity of Jesus Christ. For the Western wing, being drawn into the body of Christ meant that Jesus Christ is incarnate in the Christian believer. In the Nicene Creed, however, East and West agreed:
“¢ Since the body of Christ is one, the true Church has to be one, a unity within itself and the sole reality of God’s saving grace.
“¢ Because Christ is holy, the true Church united with Christ must also be holy, set aside as the realm of God’s work and pure in belief and morals.
“¢ Since the risen Christ knows no geographical limits, the true Church is catholic or universal in the scope of its truth and in its reach to all people.
“¢ The true Church always will follow in the footsteps of the biblical prophets and apostles, hence apostolicity, or leaders chosen to preserve the truth of the Gospel against false starts and misdirections.
“Where the bishop is, there is the Church” locates the true Church (Cyprian, died 258; Augustine, 354-430).
For the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation–Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican–worship is an interactive event between God and God’s people, and the first two marks of the true Church are the keys to the kingdom of God (Matt. 16:19). The Word proclaimed and the Sacraments administered–always in the power of the Spirit–set forth Christ at the center of the Church’s life, her worship. The Word proclaims what Scripture says about Jesus Christ. The Word thus redefines our lives by Christ’s life, whose forgiving love thrusts us into the presence and activity of the living God, and the Spirit moves us to take that Word to heart. In Baptism and the Lord’s Supper we act out the Gospel in all its simplicity. The Sacraments sift the proclamation of its dross, then confirm, consolidate, and seal the true faith stirred by the Word proclaimed. In the power of the Spirit, Jesus Christ gathers Christians together for worship, and with Word and Sacrament Christ thus governs the assembly of believers himself directly and immediately. Reformed churches add a third mark, the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline (root word, “disciple”), which connects worship with our lives in discipleship and service.
A number of crucial elements flow together around these marks of the true Church:
“¢ Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord over all of life
“¢ The authority of Scripture (in its use)
“¢ The worship of God as an end in itself
“¢ The covenant community joined together in Jesus Christ (“in his name”)
“¢ Believers actively “priesting” for one another (“communion of the saints”)
“¢ Vigorous discipleship, following Christ wherever he leads, and
“¢ The polity of the Church (“the government will be on his shoulders”)
Presbyterian theology, polity structures, and practice revolve around these elements. The quality of the Word preached (“purely”) and the Sacraments administered (“rightly”) make the care and feeding of ministers crucial, which explains why ordination to Church office is such a pivotal issue. Nonetheless, the worship event is the place where, together with these marks, Christ governs the Church directly and immediately in the power of the Spirit. The resulting polity structure is an upside down pyramid, point down, where the long edge (local occasions of worship and service) is the place of governance. “Where Christ is, there is the Church” locates the true Church (Calvin, Barth, Bonhoeffer, Moltmann).
The Pietist-Modernist era, 1650-1950/present, elevates a single mark of the true Church, mission. With its emphasis on the condition of the believer and the experience of the inner self, Pietism came into its own in the 18th century. The main question/concern of Pietism is: “Who’s saved and who isn’t saved, and how do we get saved?” Jesus Christ is the principal means of our salvation. By his birth, deeds of love and mercy, teachings, and sacrificial death on the cross, God redeems us for eternal life and/or entry into the kingdom of God. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, Christ himself–or the kingdom of God, or the Spirit–comes to dwell in our hearts, work in and through us incarnationally, and transform our lives. God gathers the saved into the Church as an association of believers, leaving the unsaved at large in the World. “Where the believers are, there is the Church” locates the true Church.
The mission of the Church arises at this point. As the incarnation of Christ in the believers, the Church is to carry out God’s saving purposes in and to the World: outreach to the unsaved, liberation for the oppressed, manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth, and/or exemplary goodness. For Pietism, the Church is unthinkable apart from its mission to the World.
The Pietist accent on mission has certain affinities with the early Christian marks of the Church. Modern Christians are deeply interested in the faith they have in common with other believers, that is, what makes them one with other Christians across denominational and other lines that divide us. Holiness, or sanctification, is a vital feature of Pietism, too (“faith without works is dead”). For Pietists, the Gospel has catholic or universal appeal and truth-value. And apostolicity turned toward its natural meaning, “sending out,” would coincide with mission. But mission in the modern sense only fits the pre-Nicene Church, when Christians were part of an energetic movement rapidly reaching out in all directions, often persecuted, and blessed by God for their selfless efforts.
In fact, the Nicene marks of the Church blend better with the so-called “Christendom” model of the Church (Loren Mead), which contemporary Pietists denounce. For almost 18 centuries after the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in 318 A.D., the institutional features highlighted by the Nicene marks of the Church made the Christian Church a companion of the State. Frankly, these same corporate, institutional features belong to the highly successful churches of modern Pietism. The big-scale rallies, revivals, media operations, mega-churches, and denominations all require self-perpetuating buildings, money, staff, and membership in large numbers.
Above all, Pietism shares the embodiment notion of the Nicene Church, Christ incarnate in the people of the Church as believers and/or as leaders. Through these people Christ goes about his redemptive, healing, revelatory work in the World. Embodiment and mission together make the Church overwhelmingly a utilitarian instrument of God. The worship of God is important for its usefulness to mission–converting the sinner, teaching the saint, equipping the witness, inspiring the faithful, motivating greater efforts, and building up the kingdom of God. Herein lies the reason why Pietism overlooks the Reformation marks of the true Church.
For the Reformation, to the contrary, the worship of God is an end in itself, as is the service of God. There is no higher aim than to be in the presence of the living God or to share in God’s activity at the center of our lives. God’s presence and activity–the Word of God–puts an entirely different light on our frantically busy, purpose-driven, goal-oriented, outcome-based, quantitatively-measured lives. The question of Job rings loud and clear: Will a person serve God for nothing, for its own sake, without calculating costs and benefits, or efficiency? The Christian life and the true Church put us in fellowship with God for God’s sake, not our own. So, where Pietism prefers the language of instrumentality (“Christ is in us working through us”), the Reformation prefers the language of participation (“in Christ we participate in his on-going, active life”).
How can the Reformation marks of the true Church help us at the present time? Several things come to mind. First, the Reformation confessions have a whole different take on grace and salvation. Faith, they say, is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it. The chief end of the Christian life is to glorify and enjoy God forever, not to be saved for its own sake (Mark 8:34f). To glorify God is to serve God in all of life, whatever the cost. To enjoy God is to commune with the living God at every moment of our lives. Glorifying and enjoying God, our Presbyterian forebears often expended themselves selflessly and heroically in following Jesus Christ (Bainton).
Second, setting forth Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit, the Reformation confessions highlight a key, biblical insight. The mission of the Church really is the mission OF Jesus Christ. As God with us (Emmanuel) Christ both utters the Great Commission (Matt. 28: 19-20a) and carries it out. “All authority/power (exousia) in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18) precedes the Great Commission. “Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (28:20b) follows it. Therefore (28:19) we go, baptize, and teach, as participants in Christ’s activity more than as instruments of it. Therefore also the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church (Matt. 16:18), because Christ cannot fail.
Third, the Reformation marks of the true Church point fundamentally away from an embodiment notion of the Church. Christ at work in the power of the Spirit does not set up the Church as a depository of the saved. The Church cannot contain, funnel, or otherwise domesticate the grace of God. When amazing things happen in the Church–which they certainly do!–they still belong to God. Of course, being touched by the Spirit, we would not want to be anywhere else than where Christ is manifestly at work, whether the Church gathered or the Church scattered. The service of Christ is our greatest joy in life wherever that may lead.
I believe the various marks of the Church within our Book of Confessions and Book of Order can be reconciled. Focusing the primary activity upon Jesus Christ, not ourselves, greatly strengthens mission as a mark of the true Church in both evangelism and social action. In Christ the oneness, holiness, catholicity, and sentness of the Church stand out even more as marks of the true Church. And the worship of God with Jesus Christ at the center–the service of God as an end in itself–is the place where Christ truly governs the Christian community, both scattered and gathered, in all of life.
These marks of the true Church are not missing from the PC(USA) right now. Combined, they also look like a recipe for a vibrant, imaginative, flexible, and faithful movement of God’s people into the future God has for us Presbyterians.
Merwyn S. Johnson currently is professor of historical and systematic theology emeritus at Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, S.C., and visiting professor of theology at Union-PSCE in Charlotte, N.C.
1 Mission is explicit in the Confession of 1967 (BC 9) and A Brief Statement of Faith (1996, BC 10); in the 1903 chapters added to The Westminster Confession of Faith (BC 6.051-58); and in The Book of Order, notably the “Six Great Ends of the Church” (BO G-1.0200) and “The Church and Its Mission” (BO G- 3.000).
2 These marks are listed in the Nicene Creed (325, 381, BC 1.3). “Holy” and “catholic” are also found in the Apostles Creed (BC 2.3).
3 For the Reformation marks see Scots Confession, Chapt. 18 (BC 3.18); Heidelberg Catechism, qq. 65, 67, 83-85 (BC 4.065, 4.067, 4.083-5); Second Helvetic Confession (BC 5.096, 5.134-5); Westminster Confession, Chapt. 25 (BC 6.140-45, especially 6.142-3); Shorter Catechism, qq. 86, 88-91 (BC 7.086, 7.088-91); Larger Catechism, qq. 154-161 (BC 7.254-71); Barmen Declaration (BC 8.10-21, esp. 8.16-18); the French Confession of 1559, Chapts. 23-38, esp. 25-29; and the Preface or beginning of any Presbyterian Book of Order (so, BO 1.0100). Barmen belongs in this list because, written by Karl Barth in 1934, it draws the line confessionally in terms of the Reformation marks of the true Church.
