Church called to ‘theological, ethical integrity, to confessing Biblical truth’
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, July 24, 2006
TULSA – The Church is called to “theological and ethical integrity, to confessing Biblical truth,” the co-moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative said at the organization’s second annual convocation.
David Henderson, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Ind., cited Ephesians 4 in outlining what he called the “three primary themes of vision of the New Wineskins Initiative.”
He said that verses 1-6 “calls the Church to theological and ethical integrity, to confessing Biblical truth,” then read the passages: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Henderson said verses 7-13 “call the Church to missional faithfulness, to employ gifted leaders to equip the church to fulfill it’s God-given ministry and mission of carrying Jesus into the world.” He again read the verses:
“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.’ (What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 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.”
Verses 14-16, he said, “call the Church to structural effectiveness in order that the Church might be what God calls it to do as his kingdom instrument in this world.” And, again, he read the verses:
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Those last three verses, Henderson said, “are about spiritual growth in the Church – the way in which the Church should organize itself.”
The “essential organizing element of the Church,” he said, “is how we are related to Christ – not how we are related to one another. Jesus is the source, who all life and light emanates from, and the body must be connected to the head in order to thrive.”
He read John 15: 5-8: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
“‘Apart from me, you can do nothing,'” Henderson said. “The head is actively involved in the life of the body. The head has an intention for every aspect of the body, and it is ours to ask and to wait, and to listen and to wait.”
“As humans,” he said, “we are afflicted with a universal case of spiritual amnesia. We are taught something by the Spirit of God and it leaks out of us, and the next day we’ve forgotten what this was.
“We don’t have to look far to see examples of this in the body of Christ. We must remain connected to the head and we must remain open and responsive to the leadings of Jesus. Biblical leadership is not leading – it is following, and following where we are led.”
A healthy structure, Henderson said, comes from “how we are related to Christ, not how we are related to each other. The healthy Church must place greater weight on the words of Christ than on any word of our own.”