Chapter Four — What Your Own Church Says (2 of 2)

The Westminster Confession of Faith, which many Presbyterian churches hold, gives both halves in one paragraph. It begins, "The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error," and goes on to say that some churches have so degenerated as to be no churches of Christ (25.5).

What this means for a Reformed reader: your tradition gives you marks to look for, and it tells you not to leave a church that has them over lesser things. It also tells you that a church can lose them.

Anglican and Methodist. The Church of England's Articles of Religion define the visible church this way: "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached," and the sacraments are duly ministered (Article XIX).

John Wesley, a priest of the Church of England all his life, preached a sermon called "On Schism." He argued that in Scripture schism means a breach of love within a church, and that in a wider sense it means "a causeless separation from a body of living Christians." He called it "both evil in itself, and productive of evil consequences."

He also said exactly when he thought a person must leave. If you "could not remain in the Church of England without doing something which the word of God forbids, or omitting something which the word of God positively commands," then you "ought to separate." And where a church requires neither, "it is then my indispensable duty to continue therein."

What this means for an Anglican or Methodist reader: your Articles look to the word preached and the sacraments ministered. And the best-known preacher in your family of churches set the bar for leaving at conscience under the word of God, not at preference.

Baptist and free church. Many Baptist and free churches place the church first in the local congregation. The Baptist Faith and Message (2000) puts it this way: "A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel." It also speaks of the church as "the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages."

In this view, joining a church is entering a covenant with a particular congregation, and membership can be moved from one congregation to another of like faith.

Reformed Baptist churches hold the Second London Confession of 1689. It says all believers are bound to join themselves to particular churches where they have opportunity (26.12). It tells a member who has taken offense, and has done his duty toward the one who gave it, not to stay away from the church over it (26.13). It also gives both halves of the old line: "The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan" (26.3).

What this means for a Baptist or free-church reader: your tradition does not treat moving from one faithful congregation to another as leaving the Church. But it does treat your membership as a covenant, and a covenant is not ended by silence. Chapter Ten says more.

Anabaptist. The Anabaptist churches, Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite and others, understand the church as a gathered body of believers who have committed themselves to walk together, set apart from the world, and to be corrected by one another. They weigh the purity of that gathered body more heavily than many other traditions do.

The Schleitheim Confession of 1527 set out a pattern of discipline drawn from Matthew 18: a member who falls is "admonished twice in secret and the third time openly."

In these churches belonging is a serious covenant with a community. In some, such as Old Order Amish communities, a baptized member who leaves may be shunned, and the community holds that as the discipline of Scripture; most Mennonite churches do not practice it. Chapter Eight says more, and gives the conviction of this book there.

What this means for an Anabaptist reader: your tradition asks you to take the covenant you made seriously, and to be corrected within the body. Ask your elders what your congregation teaches about leaving, and what it would mean for you.

Pentecostal, charismatic and non-denominational. Pentecostal churches are a tradition of their own, with their own denominations and statements of faith. The Assemblies of God, one of the largest Pentecostal bodies in the United States, holds a Statement of Fundamental Truths. Its tenth article, "The Church and Its Mission," begins: "The Church is the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit, with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her Great Commission."

Charismatic believers are found in many traditions, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant. Independent charismatic and non-denominational churches usually have their own statement of faith and membership covenant, and for them that document is the primary source.

What this means for a Pentecostal or charismatic reader: your tradition takes the Spirit's leading seriously, and so does Scripture. At Antioch, while the church was worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to set apart Barnabas and Saul, and the church fasted, prayed, laid hands on them and sent them (Acts 13:2–3). The Spirit spoke, and the church heard it together.

Read your church's statement of faith and covenant. Ask your pastor what it teaches about membership and leaving, and how your church helps a person test a call.

Mainline Protestant. The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Methodist Church and others hold the historic creeds and confessions, but they hold them in different ways, and several make room on purpose for members who differ.

If your church is one of these, read its constitution or book of order. Ask your pastor what it asks of you, and what it leaves to you.

What most of them hold in common. Set them side by side and the differences are real. A Catholic and a Baptist do not mean the same thing by "the Church," and this book will not pretend they do. The Anabaptist churches weigh purity more heavily. So nothing more is said here than the sources say.

Every tradition quoted here treats leaving as serious. None of them treats it as a matter of taste.

And most of them say, in their own words, that the church on earth is mixed. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, writing a century and a half after Cyprian, used Jesus' own image: "the good fish and the bad are for the time mixed up in the one net" (On Christian Doctrine III.32). The Lutherans say hypocrites are "mingled within." The Reformed and Baptist confessions say the purest churches are "subject to mixture," and that some churches can fall so far they are no churches at all.

These traditions, in their own words, say that an imperfect church is not, for that alone, a church to leave.

So if you are thinking of leaving, learn first what your own tradition says, from its own teachers. Then learn what the tradition you are drawn to says about the step you would take.

You may decide that your tradition is wrong about this. People do. But decide it in the light, knowing what you are deciding.