By Terry O”Casey
I have a pedigree. It”s not quite as good as our yellow Lab”s. Still, it”s a great starting point for this article prior to my stoning. My greatest mentor, my father, John Casey, was mentored in the 1940s by Cincinnati (Ohio) Bible Seminary”s R.C. Foster, who was mentored by Robert Milligan, who was mentored by Alexander Campbell. Therefore, I am “AKC-certified” with near apostolic succession. (Of course, Paul had something to say about my boasting in 2 Corinthians 11:17.)
Near my home sits a congregation and her forlorn building beside a bustling interstate. The church advertises its angle in the local paper, “We are the only New Testament church in town.” The ad sits next to a large church listings page.
This group speaks of their unique doctrinal trinity saying: (1) “We baptize for the remissions of sins.”
(When asked, “How”s that working for you?” the church responds, “We haven”t had many baptisms. Come to think of it, it”s been over two years . . . and that was one of our own kids who was baptized. He doesn”t attend any more. Calls our organ “˜Dracula music.” But, if we were doing baptisms, at least we would say the right formula!”)
(2) “We celebrate the Lord”s Supper weekly, and (3) we have an elder and two aged deacons. Yep, we are the only New Testament church in town.”
The Problem with “Only”
Now, if someone said, “We”re the town”s only Thai restaurant,” and the menu listed merely tom kha gai, pad kra prow, and ped siam, while the other 30 items were American, how Thai would such an eatery be?
Or picture this Yellow Pages entry among five companies listed as offering “emergency services”: “We are the only true ambulance service in the community.” The image that accompanies the listing shows the company”s “state-of-the-art” 1962 white Cadillac with huge tailfins, lots of chrome, and a rotating single red cherry on the roof. Such boasts might cause us to ponder whether we are dealing with a delusional person, or perhaps Rip Van Winkle”s slumbering offspring who is also lost in time.
What if a church is missing one of these triune pillars: baptism, the Lord”s Supper, or elders? When the Jerusalem or Antioch churches were planted, how many years before the congregations had elders and deacons (Acts 6; 11:30; 14:23)? Without elders, were they a “New Testament church”?
Because the Corinthian congregation started to practice the Lord”s Supper incorrectly (1 Corinthians 11), were they no longer a “New Testament church”?
Did the disciples who had not yet been baptized correctly (in Acts 19) have their discipleship sunk?
How many years did it take for Thomas and Alexander Campbell to have their now we get the importance of baptism moment?
Important pillars? Certainly. The only ones? No way!
Let me bring a little Christlike audacity to the table and baptistery and board by asking a very noncontroversial question. Is there more to being a “New Testament church” than a couple of very important pillars that got twisted into hobby horses for Christians to pretend they are going somewhere?
And, since we love to call Bible things by Bible names (a good idea), where is the phrase “New Testament church” or “New Testament Christianity” in either testament? One more benign question: How many younger members of the Christian church have we alienated by misusing the phrase?
The New Testament Church””Really!
So . . . if we really are New Testament churches then perhaps:
“¢ We will start our reading in the Gospels. There is a temptation to focus on Acts and the Letters (great material) to seek out institutional structures of the church, rather than beginning with the relational discipleship of the Gospels and then moving to Acts. Our goal is a church family that is more relational, less institutional. One that is less interested in bylaws or board selection and more passionate about behaving like Jesus in community.
“¢ We will fall in love with the whole Bible, understanding we are under a new covenant as Hebrews 8 and 9 teach us. Consider how Matthew pens his “Discipleship Manual Gospel.” We see his love for the Jewish Scriptures, for in the course of 28 chapters he quotes or alludes to 13 of his spiritual grandparents” writings (the Old Testament). Our goal is to be whole Bible Christians. Simply, the early CHRISTians were in love with the whole of the Old(er) and the emerging New Testament.
“¢ We will exercise church discipline for the elder”s matriarchal, just-ate-a-lemon looking wife who is a malicious gossip. Let”s not forget discipline, also, for the bully elder who intimidates and spiritually abuses his wife and the children of God (and who, by the way, ran off the last four ministers). We need more Acts 11:23 Barnabases who are sons and daughters of encouragement, not jealous Jezebels and domineering Diotrepheses (see 2 John). Our goal is a well-disciplined Salvation Army. Semper Fi!
“¢ We really will have people being added daily through immersion (Acts 2:47) and not just piously spouting a formula, “baptism for the remissions of sins,” while rarely immersing anyone. Consider the phrase, “We would rather do it the biblical way we are doing it than the legalistic way you are not doing it.” Our goal is to regularly witness baptisms.
“¢ We will recapture the key values of the greatest elders listed in the New Testament“”their names are in Revelation. Take a moment and read these passages found in the Apocalypse: Revelation 4:10, 11; 5:5; 11:16, 17. Biblical elders, like these we discover here, are passionate about worship, knowing it is not about their music preferences but about the Father and Son. They express that focus by humbly dropping to their knees and, gulp, singing praise songs over and over! Our goal is for our congregations to be led by praised-filled, kneeling-in-prayer, worship-FULL elders.
“¢ We give murmerers ministry instead of medals. The complainers in Acts 6 were tasked with fixing what was broken. Squeaky wheels don”t get attention; they get mission. Our goal is to see ministry teams hand-delivering food to our shut-ins who are out there, in the world.
“¢ We will ask key leaders in the church to focus on two areas, prayer and teaching/preaching. They are not to go calling on Aunt Ethyl (who is in the hospital with an ingrown toenail at the end of her prosthetic leg). They are not compelled to attend yet another “pull me away from my family on Saturday morning or Thursday night church club meeting,” part of an already too-crowded church calendar.
Our goal is to have congregations building cathedrals in time. We enter unrushed into fellowship with the timeless I Am. Our pastors will no longer be yarded out of such a glorious Shekinah time to take care of administrivia. We would then have churches led by holy men and women, not exhausted managers.
“¢ We realize the beautiful word Christian is used only three great times in all of the New Testament. Disciple, in its various forms, is found more than 260 times. A disciple of Christ must not be seen as a denominational battle term from a century ago. It is a biblical phrase from Jesus himself. Our goal is to take on and live out the radical lifestyle of Jesus, emulating everything Rabbi Jesus does.
“¢ We accept that unmarried, married, and widowed women rushed to preach on Sunday, to men, in the upper room of the church because Christ commanded the women to do so on Easter Sunday! (Matthew 28:8 and 1 John 1:2 use the same word, though the translators water down Matthew 28:8). Lt. Paul is not countermanding his Commander and Chief in 1 Timothy 2. Rather Paul is banning domineering women.
Our goal is a priesthood of all believers becoming a wonderful reality with young and old, men and women, Thai, Guatemalan, Irish, and South African.
The aged John verbally paints an awe-inspiring, multifaceted portrait of King Jesus in Revelation 1. In Revelation 2 and 3, each church is given a portion of the King”s portrait. No one church has the full picture. All the churches working together do. May we all, in humility, recover that complete magnificent portrait of Jesus.
And remember, simply Jesus, simply the Bible, and a simpler way of being, and doing, the church.
Since 2007, Terry O”Casey has served in a joint partnership with Oregon Christian Evangelistic Fellowship and High Lakes Christian Church to reenergize the small, 25-year-old church plant in one of the fastest-growing areas in Oregon””the Bend-La Pine region.
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