It has been God’s plan from the beginning for his people to associate together, help one another, and assemble for worship and service in a community of a local church. In short, the church is God’s will for your life. The high mark of the believer’s life should be centered in and through the local church rather than politics or any other humanitarian outlet or organization.

[Editorial Note: This is the eighth post in a series of posts in which we have invited the authors of “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” to expound upon the statement’s affirmations and denials. We encourage our readers to take the time to read through our prefatory editorial note at the beginning of the first post prior to reading through subsequent posts in the series.]

Article 8: The Church

WE AFFIRM that the primary role of the church is to worship God through the preaching of his word, teaching sound doctrine, observing baptism and the Lord’s Supper, refuting those who contradict, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost. We affirm that when the primacy of the gospel is maintained that this often has a positive effect on the culture in which various societal ills are mollified. We affirm that, under the lordship of Christ, we are to obey the governing authorities established by God and pray for civil leaders.

WE DENY that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church. Though believers can and should utilize all lawful means that God has providentially established to have some effect on the laws of a society, we deny that these activities are either evidence of saving faith or constitute a central part of the church’s mission given to her by Jesus Christ, her head. We deny that laws or regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts.

The church (ἐκκλησία) is the assembly of God’s people who are saved by faith alone in Christ alone and gather together in local assemblies for both service and worship. In a literal rendering of the Greek – the term means a called out assembly. Christ founded his Church and made a definitive statement – “The gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). It has been God’s plan from the beginning for his people to associate together, help one another, and assemble for worship and service in a community of a local church. In short, the church is God’s will for your life. The high mark of the believer’s life should be centered in and through the local church rather than politics or any other humanitarian outlet or organization.

In recent days, Russell Moore has suggested that the goal of “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” was primarily about race. In fact, Russell Moore talked to Laruen Green of Fox News and in that interview he stated the following about the Statement:

What we’re really talking about is race. And so, I think we have a long lasting issue within evangelicalism of people saying ‘Let’s not talk about issues of racial reconciliation, unity, and justice–that would be a distraction from the gospel. That’s exactly what was happening in the 19th century as it related to human slavery. That’s exactly what was happening in the 1920s and 1950s as it related to Jim Crow and it persists among us.

The main focus of the Statement is not centered on race. Out of the fourteen articles, the Statement contains two that focus on race and twelve others that focus on other matters including biblical manhood and womanhood and the mission of the Church which is Christocentric with the gospel at the center.

In fact, the main reason for the need for the Statement in the beginning was based upon three really important issues that need to be addressed–and it’s not all about race. While race and the idea of systemic racism and systemic oppression is certainly one issue we want to address in the Statement–there are other issues such as the rise of egalitarian methods within evangelicalism and the category of LGBT Christianity. In may ways, biblical manhood and womanhood are the focus of the Statement.

Each of these subjects, within evangelicalism, are impacted by our culture with a shallow and often skewed understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ. For that reason we included an article in the Statement that helps unpack the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ.

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