What the Church Is and Does

In the chapter entitled Sacramental Ecclesiology, Ellen T. Charry, professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, laments over the fact that many theological students (would-be pastors) do not have a biblical understanding of the church. She writes:

I am increasingly realizing that a number of our ministerial students have no ecclesiology to speak of. For them, the church is a voluntary not-for-profit organization run like a local franchise. Like other organizations, the mission is to meet the needs of its target population in order to grow. Ministry means designing programs that address the widest array of tastes and needs as possible. Its watchword is hospitality, also known as inclusivity.

These students do not know what ecclesiology is, and would be suspicious of it if they did, because a theology of the church threatens the individualism that is the bedrock of this model, and the voluntarism of our students’ identity. A theological understanding of the church is prior to the self-concept of the individual and that runs counter to the highly individualistic notion of selfhood that our students bring with them. It is not surprising that they resist ecclesiology, because it seeks to define its members rather than the other way round, now natural to us [in The Community of the Word: Toward an Evangelical Ecclesiology, edited by Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press; Leicester: Apollos, 2005), p. 201.]. 

I think her observation is absolutely right. Theological students are usually concerned about the doctrines of the Word, God, Christ, Spirit, the end time, etc…When you read a theological textbook, the study of the church is usually discussed at the end, right before eschatology. It gives a wrong impression that ecclesiology is less important than other doctrines. It is true that ecclesiology is usually neglected in theological studies. The church is just a place where we practice what we know. The church is a place where a bunch of Christians gather together to do something in a Christian way. What is the church? What is the nature or essence of the church? What the church is is important to what the church does. If students/pastors do not pay enough attention to what the church is, what the church does will be inevitably done according to human needs or wishes. If so, the church “seeks to define its members.” The result of that is that the church is dominated and also captivated by our human-centered wishes of the church, which no longer reflects the nature and character of God.

Charry’s observation invites Christian leaders to revisit what the church is. Church leaders often place the emphasis on serving as servant-leaders. But they often serve without a strong sense of purpose in terms of leading the church to a specific direction. I think that servant leadership is a Christ-like attitude toward ministry. It is a must for all Christians. However, it does not offer us a clue on what the church is and what the church does in the light of what the church is. Church leaders are called to serve the church as Christ-like servants. Church leaders are also called to be ecclesial theologians as overseers of the church who help the church know what the church is and does.