Marks of a Church

For our church to be successful, we first needed to define what the church is supposed to be doing (and not).  Ultimately, there are 3 or 4 marks of a real church, which are outlined brilliantly in Article 29 of the Belgic Confession and summarized here: [1]

“The marks, by which the true Church is known, are these: if the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin: in short, if all things are managed according to the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the Church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known, from which no man has a right to separate himself.”

The marks then, are the preaching of the Gospel, the administration the sacraments, and church discipline.    The first two are difficult to find.  The third is a real rarity in the west in our time.[2]

Unfortunately, they had a much clearer picture in 1561 than the Baptists did in 2000:

“A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.”[3]

Even the 1689 London Baptist Confession would have been helpful to us, where it says, ”Those thus called, he commands to walk together in particular societies, or churches, for their mutual edification, and the due performance of that public worship, which he requires of them in the world.”

We knew ourselves as an “autonomous local congregation of baptized believers” and felt we met the standards in the BFM2K.     Perhaps we did.  What was missing was a clear understanding of what “…exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested…” meant. and notably that discipline was missing from the BFM2K.   The Belgic Confession makes that clear.  

The marks of a church are sometimes obviously missing.  Perhaps a false gospel is being proclaimed from the pulpit, or the Lord’s Supper is missing or reduced to a “grab and go” meal at the end of service instead of shared and honored as it should be.   Perhaps baptism is administered repeatedly to people, as they “recommit themselves” over and over (and up to 5 times in one case I witnessed).    In our case, we had no pastor to preach the message,  no one educated or ordained to perform the sacraments (called ordinances in the SBC) and a congregation that was quickly shrinking as the last remaining people would leave for other churches – strangely usually wanting to address the deacons about their grievances first in a committee meeting.    Committees and attending deacons’ meetings were seemingly the primary function and only “sacred” act which was not at all what we see in the early church.  Furthermore, like a lot of SBC churches, membership was as simple as a response to the weekly invitation to the altar call.  This, of course, can quickly lead to unregenerate members – perhaps even a majority of unregenerate members in some cases.  Discipline was missing in our church for as long as anyone could remember.  We were a non-functioning church (missing our marks) and despite great intentions, we were a group of people meeting in a building.    The causes were decades old, but the circumstances were quickly combining into a complete meltdown.

If your church isn’t consistently demonstrating the marks of a church, your task is a large one indeed, and this is likely the time to make some very hard decisions.   As a lay leader, you were elected/selected to help run a church. If no church actually exists or can reasonably be expected to exist based on the people and organization at hand, your church may be better of realizing it’s already dead and making appropriate arrangements.    Your situation may vary greatly, but a church without its marks needs radical, heroic treatments, not simply revitalization.  

[1]  Guido deBres and et al, “The Belgic Confession of Faith” (1561).

[2] Bob Smietana, “Church Discipline Rarely Occurs, New Study Finds,” April 5, 2018, https://research.lifeway.com/2018/04/05/church-discipline-rarely-occurs-new-research-finds/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.

[3] “Baptist Faith and Message 2000” (Nashville TN USA, 2000), https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/.