Marginal Christianity

In his Theology of Mission John Howard Yoder points out that the function of the so-called “marks of the church” is to identify where a church is present in a time of confusion or challenge.   The most widely used set of descriptors of the church come from the Nicene Creed of the 4 th century:   “one, holy, catholic, apostolic.” In our age of unprecedented physical, psychic, spiritual, financial, and emotional violence, it is worth reflecting on the contemporary meaning of these marks of the church.   Yoder also notes that these marks are more often used as goals rather than achieved realities.   Though they are true and ours in Christ, we are still living into them and often fall short.   I’ll use them that way too. These marks address violence in many and mutually interlocking and reinforcing ways.   For instance, if we are one, siblings in Christ and daughters and sons of the Father, violence toward one another is unthinkable.   So also ou...

Over at “Jesus Creed” today Scot McKnight revisits the perennial question of the “marks of the church.” Probably the most widely used set of such “marks” is that found in the Nicene Creed: “one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” Unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity – these characteristics make a church “church.” While the church is these things in Christ, it has a long way to go to realize them in practice. Therefore, we confess them in hope, trusting that by God’s mercy and grace, we will be what we already are as Christ’s church. We cannot, therefore, but treat these marks as works in progress in the church. But what might this 4th century language – one, holy, catholic, and apostolic – signify for us today? I think we get a big assist in discerning this significance from the wonderful movie "Remember the Titans." A northern Virginia high school football power is entering its first year of desegregation. It hires a black head coach to replace its popular hea...

Andrew Perriman (http://www.postost.net/2012/07/mark-driscoll-marks-true-church) 09 July 2012 Scot McKnight has provoked copious debate on Jesus Creed in characteristically economical fashion by asking people what they think of the eight marks of a “true church”, by which is meant a church that conforms to the teachings of the New Testament, as defined by Mark Driscoll: • The church is made up of regenerated believers in Jesus • The church is organized under qualified leadership • The church gathers to hear preaching and to respond in worship • The church rightly administers the sacraments • The church is spiritually unified • The church is holy • The church is devoted to fellowship • The church is committed to Jesus’ mission Apart from a hint of neo-Reformed authoritarianism, this is all rather unobjectionable, disappointingly so—at least until you start reading between the lines, as many of Scot’s respondents do. But, unobjectionable though they may be, these eight ma...