New Theses, New Reformation

Thesis 66- We must pass down strong churches.

A friend once told me about his first day at seminary. All the young men were gathered together and the president of the institution came to address them. He began, as one might imagine, by extolling the virtues of the institution where he served. Then he took a dramatic turn. “A day is coming” the president said, “when you would be wise to disassociate yourself from this seminary.” Here was a man well acquainted with problem of institutional entropy. Institutional entropy affirms that all institutions tend toward apostasy. Yale University was opened because of dissatisfaction with the turn Harvard was taking. Princeton followed soon on its heels. It stayed faithful for many generations, but eventually it took went the way of all flesh, and Westminster Seminary was formed. My friend’s seminary split off from Westminster. That’s just seminaries. We might also present as exhibit A the Roman Catholic church, circa 1517.

Jesus promised us that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. He also, however, warned that some churches would have their lamp stands removed, that wolves would infiltrate many bodies, that that which was grafted onto to the one tree could in turn be cut off. The church cannot fail. Churches always do. Trouble is, when a church falls, too often she carries saints down with her. Entropy sets in, and we stay glued to our pews.

Our calling is then two-fold. We must labor to be certain that our descendents do not find themselves stuck in the mausoleums built to honor our honorable dreams. We must teach them not to stay in an unfaithful church because their parents were married there or buried there, because they were baptized there, and there came to the Lord’s Table. (Of course, we must also teach them to distinguish between sin common to all churches and gross, institutional infidelity.) We must give our descendents the same warning the seminary president gave to his young charges.

We must also, however, be diligent to build faithful churches, not only for the sake of our own souls, but for the sake of the souls of those who come after us. We must build churches that, for whatever secondary distinctives they might hold to, are defined by their commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must hand down churches built for His glory, rather than our own. We must leave an inheritance of loving fidelity, and a disdain for the things of the world. We must, as we lead the church of today, think through the implications our choices have on the churches of tomorrow.

My father grew up in a neighborhood church. His father served as an elder there. But when my father returned home from college and told his pastor that the good news of Jesus Christ had found him, the pastor replied, “If you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, you’re a d@#^ fool.” The Spirit has left that church, and so has my family. May God be pleased to bless us with institutional churches that are faithful for generations, or descendents who will know when to shake the dust off their feet.