Church Practice

By TS

There are four subjects which primarily characterize a Christian church and its form of worship:

1) its doctrine,  including teachings on the Lord’s table and baptism.

2) its understanding of the Biblical rules of life for the Christian,

3) a formal agreement among a body of believers to function as a church in accordance with New Testament principles and to submit to the church’s authority; those making this agreement constitute the church’s members, and

4) its perspective on the kind of music appropriate for use in church worship.

It is important for Christians who join together to form a church to be in agreement on these issues. God desires unity in a church. He also desires that the entire counsel of Scripture be preached. For a number of reasons, there exists in our society a wide range  of belief and understanding on extremely important issues. It is impossible for a church to have both internal unity and the strong Biblical teaching God desires without a formal declaration of agreement about where it stands on key issues.  This stand is defined in its doctrinal statement and church covenant.

Doctrinal statement.  TRBC is in agreement with the Articles of Faith (doctrinal statement) of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC). It has adopted these Articles of Faith with further clarification on a few items. TRBC is an officially-recognized church plant of the GARBC (www.garbc.org).

To Read the TRBC Doctrinal Statement, click here:  Doctrinal Statement

Church covenant. A church covenant summarizes the quality of spiritual life that God desires of those in the church body. Spirituality is the product of an intimate relationship with God, it is not produced by living up to a list of regulations. However, the Bible teaches that God does have standards of attitudes and behavior He expects from His children; a person who claims He is close to God while rejecting God’s standards only deceives himself.  The TRBC Church Covenant defines what the church believes God has as these basic standards. The TRBC Church Covenant is based on historical Baptist church covenants with a few modifications for more current vocabulary and grammar.

To read the TRBC Church Covenant, Click here: Church Covenant

Church Membership. The New Testament establishes local churches as God’s plan for carrying out His work in this dispensation. It was taken for granted in the early church that one who professed faith in Christ would become active in a local church and this is commanded for all Christians in Hebrews 10:24-25. All of the churches in the New Testament were autonomous; no church in the New Testament had any authority over the affairs of any other church. In the days of the early church, the apostles had the authority to set up individual, independent, local churches and set officers over them. They established a model of local church structure for us to follow today. There are no apostles alive today.

Some people today claim to have apostolic authority over all churches. However, their doctrinal teaching contradicts New Testament teaching on many essential issues, issues so essential that God commands us not to associate with those who deviate from proper teaching regarding them. Thus, their false teaching shows their claim to apostolic authority is not legitimate. Furthermore, a careful analysis of the New Testament shows that apostolic authority was not handed down to successors, but applied only to those to whom it was directly given. For instance, Jesus gave Peter certain keys to the Kingdom in Matthew 16:17. Later, in Matthew 18:18-20 the privileges associated with the keys are given to all of His disciples. Furthermore, this was done in a setting in which even children were present. The presence of children indicates that the audience was not limited to the Twelve Disciples but applies to all believers as a whole. This is significant: Jesus Himself gave the privileges to all believers as a whole. Notice, Jesus did not go through Peter to do this, but directly gave this authority Himself to the disciples as a whole, bypassing Peter by doing it in this manner. Furthermore, He added to this the teaching that whenever any two or more believers were in agreement, He, the Lord Jesus Christ, would be in their midst. Peter’s approval was irrelevant.

Matthew 18:15-20 is important. Verses 15-18 talk about discipline procedures within the church. The next two verses, 19-20, talk about Christ being in the midst of two or more believers in agreement gathered together in His name.  Now that the apostles are no longer with us, how does a new church form? The starting  point  is to have at least two believers gathering together in agreement. However, a church is more than a loose group of believers doing a Bible study and Christian service. A church must has leadership with authority (see 1 Timothy 3 and Hebrews 13:17). There needs to be agreement by at least two people on four things in order to establish a Biblical church:

1) agreement on basic doctrine, such as TRBC expresses in its doctrinal statement.

2) agreement on basic standards of Christian living, such as TRBC expresses in ithe TRBC Church Covenenant.

3) Leadership meeting the Scriptural qualifications of 1 Timothy 3.

4)  Willingness for the members to submit to God in serving Him in accordance with the organizational structure of the church, including serving God under the authority of its leaders. The organization structure of TRBC is expressed in its Bye-laws.

So, Matthew 18:15-20 provides a solid foundation for the principle that a group of believers agreeing together have the Scriptural authority to function as a church. Christ is directly in their midst. They do not  need approval from anyone else. Importantly, there is nothing elsewhere in Scripture that teaches against this.

TRBC is in agreement with the historical Baptist position concerning the formation of churches. We believe that when a group of two or more believers formally resolve to form an independent, local church, structured in line with principles revealed in the New Testament,  and agree to submit to its authority, that God recognizes the church as legitimate. By legitimate, we mean that serving God as part of such a church satisfies Biblical commands to an individual believer concerning church participation.

Those signing the initial, formal resolution establishing the church constitute the original church membership. New member candidates are received into the church by affirmative vote of existing members after the candidate has met the requirements for membership established by the existing members, typically as a minimum that the new member candidates are in agreement with the above four items. Also, the Bible teaches that when a member is no longer in agreement with any of the above three items, that the church has the right to remove the person from membership.  

Music. God made man with the capacity to appreciate music. Moreover, both the Old Testament and the New Testament record many songs sung to God as an act of worship. An analysis of the songs shows that the primary emphasis of a song of worship is directed to God in praise of His works and His character. Congregational singing in praise to God characterizes the church of the New Testament. The Christian sings “a new song,” making melody in his heart to God. The Bible presents true worship in song (as well as in prayer) as the expression of clear, organized thinking under the control of the Holy Spirit,

Unfortunately, contemporary “Christian” music does not reflect Biblical principles. The modern approach to many churches is to have music which will reputedly attract unbelievers.  Unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling with them and do not relate to the new song God places in a believer’s heart. The only way to appeal to an unbeliever is to entertain his flesh. Yet, according to Galatians 5:17, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

Music which appeals to the unsaved person will have its attention focused on the feelings of man, not the clear recognition of the attributes of God and the works He has done. Loud, hypnotic, repetitious drum beats will dominate over melody and harmony. One verse with vague phrases sung five times in a row is preferred over five verses sung in order with each having a clear, distinct message. Singing led by a “praise group” with hardly anyone from the congregation participating is preferred over a song director leading a congregation in robust, heartfelt singing. Hymn books offend and are no longer used.   

It is the desire of TRBC to use music in its worship services which are representative of Biblical principles and focus on the worship of God, not  to have standards set by unsaved men who do not worship God in their hearts. Traditional, protestant church music is thus preferred over modern contemporary “Christian” music.

A pastor may wish to preach a thorough, spiritual exposition of Scripture in his sermon, complete with teaching, rebuke, correction, and training in righteousness as commended by the Lord in 2 Timothy 3:16-4:5. The music should be focused on preparing their hearts for this kind of message. By contrast, when the service leading up to the message has been focused on gratifying the flesh, it will be very difficult to get people to endure sound preaching, even as we should expect from Galatians 5:17. So, we have the situation as described in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” It is to be expected that as the music in a worship service strays further and further away from Biblical principles and makes more and more appeal to the congregation’s flesh, that those in the congregation will have a harder and harder time submitting to sound teaching. This is not good for the spiritual welfare of a church. Current experience confirms this.