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The Nanny Church?

If we wander from the gathered assembly of believers, we will put ourselves in the exceedingly dangerous place of spiritual drift and ultimately abandonment of our professing of faith in Christ. God has so instituted the visible church that it is said to be “the house of God,” and “the pillar and ground of truth.” Our spiritual life and vitality are, in some real sense, dependent on the work of God through His appointed means (e.g., the word, sacraments, prayer, discipline, and fellowship) through the shepherding oversight and care of His ministers. It is for this reason that the early church theologian, Cyprian, rightly stated, “He cannot have God for his father who has not the church for his mother.”

The church of Christ is to have a biblically-defined ministry commitment. The church gathered (i.e., the visible church gathered together as the worshiping community) is not called to engage in political or social activism or reform. It is the task of the gathered church to worship, witness, and walk in love toward one another. It is the God-given task of the members of the church to think outside of themselves and to how they can spiritually and physically care for the needs of others. We must learn to distinguish between the role of the church gathered and the role of individual Christians who comprise the church scattered. Kevin DeYoung explains,

We want to avoid the danger of making our mission too broad. Some well-meaning Christians act like everything counts as mission. They put all their efforts into improving job skills, digging wells, setting up medical centers, establishing great schools, and working for better crop yields—all of which can be wonderful expressions of Christian love, but bear little resemblance to what we see Paul and Barnabas sent out to do on their mission in Acts.

Just as well-meaning Christians can mistakenly make the outward mission of the church too broad; Christians can make the programmatic ministry of the local church too ultimate. There are numerous tangible ways in which we see how professing believers can start to fall into churchism, in this respect.

When individuals in a church get upset about not connecting enough to others in the same church, without themselves seeking to develop community with believers in the same local body, they have probably begun to embrace the misconception of a nanny church. When particular individuals suggest that they should have more influence in the leadership of a church, they have wrongly fallen into churchism. When believers allow ministers to bind their consciences with unbiblical rules and regulations, they have allowed themselves to be subject to the misplaced concept of the nanny church. When certain segments of Christians criticize visible churches–rather than individual Christians–broadly for not caring about certain social issues, they have embraced the idea of a nanny church.

Every visible church is subject to the criticism of the word of God and the all-searching eye of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rev. 2-3). However, many of the criticisms that individuals level at visible churches today are illegitimate critiques of the gathered church driven by the mistaken notion of a nanny church. Though the church is the bride of Christ and is to be held in the highest regard, she has been given a very particular task by the King and Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Lord, and He and He alone determines what the mission and ministry of the church is in the world.

May we hold the church and its ministry in the highest esteem while acknowledging that the church and its ministries are not to live the Christian life for believers or tackle all the societal needs in the world around it.

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.