Mark 2: Active in the Worship and Fellowship of the Church

The following is the second installment in a 10-part series on the 10 Marks of a Mature Anglican Christian.

The Second Mark: A Mature Anglican Christian is active in the worship and fellowship of the Church.

In order to have a solid, robust understanding of what this mark means, it is very important to have an adequate, Biblical understanding of what worship really means.  In our current culture, I believe many churches in general have become nothing more than entertainment complexes.  Let’s take a look at this more close.

The word worship is merely a contraction of the word “worthship.”  In our worship, it is simply a display of how much God is worth to us.  Soren Kierkegaard has a great analogy that I believe still rings true today.  In most churches on a Sunday morning, the pastor and the praise team are the performers, and the people are the audience.  They are there to be entertained, and when the “worship” loses its entertainment value, the people leave.  For Kierkegaard, worship was something very different.  The clergy and the musicians are directors, the people in the pews are the actors, and God is the audience.  We as Christian disciples should ask the very important question that places this in context: are we seeking worship that is pleasing to us, or are we seeking worship that is pleasing to God?

One of my favorite Scripture verses comes from the Psalm 96:6-9 (BCP 726).

6              Oh, the majesty and magnificence of his presence! *

Oh, the power and the splendor of his sanctuary!

7              Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples; *

ascribe to the Lord honor and power.

8              Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his Name; *

bring offerings and come into his courts.

9              Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; *

let the whole earth tremble before him.

I want to focus in for a moment specifically on verse 9.  The Psalmist gives us two attributes that must be present in our worship, beauty and holiness.  Worshipping in beauty means that there should be an aesthetic quality to our worship that draws our attention upward toward God, instead of downward toward earth.  We accomplish this, only by God’s Grace, by treating our worship with seriousness, reverence, and a sense of the importance that should be placed on worship.  Worship should have a transcendent quality that makes us feel like we just experienced a foretaste of heaven.

Worshipping in holiness means that our worship should achieve something different than what the world is offering.  The theological definition of “holy” is “set apart.”  Anything that is holy should be different in that it should point people away from a sinful, suffering world and toward a holy God who is a retreat, a sanctuary, from the world.  In short, our worship should be different from what the world is offering.

This Scripture from Psalm 96, as well as the idea that our worship should be beautiful and holy, will be at the center of our discernment and our future plans as we follow the course God has in store for us at Christ the King Anglican Church.  May God always help us to keep our focus on Him, not only in our worship, but in everything that we do.

Mark 1: Personal Commitment to Jesus Christ

The following is the first installment in a 10-part season on the 10 Marks of a Mature Anglican Christian.

The First Mark: A mature adult Anglican Christian has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (baptized and confirmed).

There is a very particular reason that this mark is listed first, because it is clearly the most important.  If there is a breakdown in this mark, then all else falls apart, which is why I love a particular passage that St. Paul wrote to the Romans.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ” Romans 10:9-10

Paul makes it very clear that there are two things that are most important to a Christian seeking the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ – confession with our mouth, and belief with all of our heart.  He makes it clear that this is a both/and, not an either/or scenario.  Let’s look at each of these two important things in Scripture that makes the first mark so important, and I’m going to reverse the order that Paul has it.

Believe in Your Heart

Paul is very clear here about what exactly we should believe in.  We should believe that “God raised (Jesus) from the dead.”  If we can’t believe this very important, central tenet of the Christian faith, then we will not be justified, and justification is the initial action that leads to salvation.  In other words, no belief in the Resurrection means no salvation.  We live in a day and age in which the resurrection is considered by many Christians to be impossible to explain by science, and therefore unessential to the faith.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Paul wanted it to be very clear that belief in the Resurrection is not only absolutely essential to the faith, but that without it, the entire Christian faith falls apart.  We should absolutely believe it without question and when we do, we are justified, or made righteous.

Confess With Your Mouth

The next part of Paul’s exhortation in Romans 10:9-10 is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.  I choose to address this in this order because, if we do not believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, then we can never really be effective in in confessing the same with our mouth.  We would be hypocrites, inviting people to “do as I say, not as I do” and there’s no integrity in that.  This also sends a direct slap in the face to an oft-quoted saying attributable to St. Francis: “Proclaim the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.”  If one looks at this statement in light of Romans 10:9-10, words are absolutely necessary for salvation.  It is justification, or belief, or faith, that is the initial action that kick-starts the process by which we are saved, but we are also judged on our lives and our entire body of work – works that emanate out of our faith in Jesus Christ.  By believing, we are justified, but by confessing that Jesus is Lord, we are saved.

Baptism and Confirmation

For the mature Anglican Christian, the sacramental sign of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ is baptism (as an adult) and Confirmation.  Remember that a Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.  At the center of both Baptism and confirmation is that really important part where the Christian disciple makes the ultimate confession of faith in Jesus Christ.  It is something that the baptismal or confirmation candidate believes in their heart, and then confesses with their mouth – that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that he died for our sins.  After renouncing Satan and all the sinful desires of the world, the new disciple is asked “Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?  Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?  Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?”  The answer to all of these questions is “I do”.

My beloved brothers and sisters, all mature Christians are called to confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their hearts that Jesus rose from the dead.  If we are not willing to do this, everything else that we do with the 10 marks are irrelevant and will not bring about salvation.  If on the other hand we do believe in Jesus and are willing to proclaim His Holy Gospel, then by God’s grace, we are saved.  Alleluia!

10 Marks of a Mature Anglican Christian

At this year’s diocesan convention, our retreat leader, Fr. Jack Gabig, a Nashotah House professor, focused on discipleship and catechism, which is something that every church should be doing, all the time.  Discipleship is not something that one merely does to prepare for a confirmation class and then breathe a sigh of relief after the service.  It is something that every Christian disciple does for the rest of his life.

Several years ago, one of my former parishes came up with a list of what they call the “10 Marks of a Mature Anglican Christian.”  While many catechism/discipleship programs teach only basic knowledge of the Christian faith, the 10 Marks are a roadmap for all of us to grow in a lot of areas of our faith, not only in knowledge, but in practice as well.

Here are the 10 Marks of a Mature Anglican Christian:

1.  Has made a personal commitment to Jesus as Lord and Savior (baptized and confirmed)

2.  Is active in the worship and fellowship of the Church

3.  Has a clear understanding of the Gospel and the Nicene/Apostles’ creeds

4.  Has a strong understanding of the Biblical story, and has made a commitment to on-going Bible study

5.  Is disciplined in daily prayer

6.  Has made a commitment to sacrificial stewardship

7.  Has a basic understanding of Anglican history and tradition

8.  Has come to understand him/herself as Christ’s representative in the world

9.  Is comfortable sharing and defending the Faith in a secular context

10.  Is involved in a servant ministry that uses his/her God-given spiritual gifts

Most of us, if we are honest, will find that we do really well in some areas, and need work in others.  The purpose of the 10 Marks is for us to make a realistic self-assessment.  In addition, we will make sure that the various programs we have at Christ the King Anglican Church will help all of us to grow in these 10 areas.

One of the things that really struck me at convention was something that Fr. Gabig taught.  He said, and I paraphrase, that we can only be effective at discipling others if we are committed to being discipled ourselves.  May God use these marks as a tool to make us stronger, more committed disciples of Jesus Christ.