Church Planting

I've been away from this blog for the past month helping my wife care for my newborn daughter and preparing to lead the birth of a new church in Fremont, a suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area. I've been asked many times about whether Fremont really needs another church.

We live in a culture that values individualism. We cheer for the person who is able to defy the naysayers and succeed by digging deep within. We celebrate those who challenge the establishment and stand against the majority. We distrust the authority of popes and princes.

A recent study shows that 71% of American adults say that they are "more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches."

The problem with individualistic religion is that while it may feel more "authentic" it can not possibly be more true. Everyone can not possibly be equally right, especially when they hold contrary views about matters of ultimate importance like God, morality, meaning, and purpose.

Even while breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, the protestant reformer, John Calvin understood how indispensable the church is to the spiritual well-being of believers. He did not make the mistake of rejecting the human authority of a pope for an individualistic religion where each person is his/her own pope. Calvin wrote,

"For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like angels. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all of our lives...By these words God's fatherly favor and the especial witness of spiritual life are limited to his flock, so that it is always disastrous to leave the church."

At one point in Jesus' ministry, he asked his disciples who they thought he was. Simon Peter brazenly answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" Peter was convinced that Jesus was not merely the messenger of salvation, but the Savior. To this, Jesus responded, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Then Jesus declared, "...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18).

Some have interpreted this to mean that Jesus was establishing Peter to be the first pope (after all Peter comes from petros, Greek for rock). Notice, however that Jesus did not give Peter the credit for his profession of faith. Jesus gave credit to his "Father who is in heaven." The church would not stand on human authority, but on God's authority.

If the church is just another human institution, there are way too many churches in the world today and I don't want to have anything to do with it. But I believe Jesus when he says that he will build his church. Like Peter, the church's authority does not come from within (its human leadership), but rests on God's Word and Spirit. I can disagree with other believers about which church is interpreting and applying the Bible most faithfully, but I can not imagine life as a believer apart from the church.

In an age of individualistic religion, I believe in one holy catholic [universal] and apostolic church. That is why I am taking my family and leaving a secure pastorate at a church that we love to establish a new church in Fremont. You can read more about this church planting project at my other blog.

How have you resolved the tension between the authority of the church with the fallibility of the people leading them?