This is going to be a “real life” case study. You are to find a person who would be willing to sit down and talk to you for thirty minutes to an hour. This person should be a professing believer. This might be a family member, a co-worker, someone at the gym, or even someone from church.
With notes in hand, you are to teach what you have learned in class concerning the nature of the Church.
These are the issues that need to be covered:
• First, start by asking these questions?
1. What is the nature of the Church?
2. What is the purpose of the Church? In other words, why is the Church here and not in Heaven?
• Using the notes in session 1 and the last part of session 3 before the discussion questions, explain the various views on the nature of the Church.
• Using the notes in session 4, explain the various views on the purpose of the Church. Have them fill out the chart in session 4 called “Chart of Importance” (but don’t let them see your answers).
The object of this assignment is to help people to understand the nature and purpose of the Church.
After you are done, write a half page to a page summary of the encounter and hand it in. Online student are to post their summary in their class forum. Grades will be based upon the completion of the assignment, not the effectiveness of the presentation. Everyone who completes this will receive credit for the case study.
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October 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
For case study #1, I interviewed my friend Kyle. Kyle is a believer and attends a church that I used to attend. Kyle remained at a church that I chose to leave due to the doctrinal qualifications of a pastoral change. I felt Kyle would be an interesting interview. We remain good friends yet chose to part ways at our common church. When asking about the nature of the church, Kyle is very familiar with the idea and believes in the visible and invisible church. He often likes to say that we are all part of the body of Christ. The purpose of the church, or why are we here and not in heaven is because we are here to glorify God and spread the gospel. Next we move on to the importance of the church and its various views. Kyle sees the church as something we are all part of. However, in dealing with the situation at the church I used to attend, I chose one way and he chose another, even though we viewed the situation similarly. In the end, I made a choice to stay, and he made a choice to go. What had happened is this. We attended a church in town where the pastor announced his retirement. This pastor was going to move away, so we needed to find a new pastor. The elders searched for about 18 months and no one was coming. Then, we offered the position to someone who I thought was quite qualified, however, he turned the position down. Understandably, the congregation was quite disappointed that he did not come. So, the elders quickly offered the position to someone who they felt strongly would accept this position. However, the person they offered the position to, was not, in my opinion, qualified for the job. Kyle agreed with me. When the congregation voted on him, I voted no and so did Kyle. He ended us being installed as pastor. After a few months, I left the church because I felt that the new pastor did not accurately preach the gospel amongst some other things. Kyle remained in the church. He felt his wife and children had strong relationships with several other members there. So, he remained and I left. Kyle felt that the relationships he had and his family had with other members of the church were more important than the quality of the teaching and doctrinal accuracy. We remain good friends, we just have different ideas on what WE want in the church. This kind of led us through our own chart of importance. For me, I prefer teaching, missions, discipleship. Kyle agrees with those principles, however he feels that relationships are paramount. I think that Kyle is in a position where he needs to make sure that his family’s priorities are met through the church, even if his family had slightly different emphasis on the church experience than he did. Ultimately, the pastor that was hired was asked to resign and caused a church split. It was a rather ugly affair. However, I still have many good friends from that congregation.
October 4th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Ecclesiology and Eschatology
Case Study #1 Oct. 4, 2008
The Purpose and Nature of the Church
I did my case study with my wife, Laurie.
I started with general questions asking her what she thought the nature of the Church was and what its purpose is. Laurie said that Church was a place to worship and glorify God with other believers. She thought Church should include music, singing, scripture reading and prayer.
It is interesting that even though Laurie has been a life-long Protestant, she still felt a need for the Church to be somewhat of an institution, a place, and an authority. She did not articulate an awareness of the invisible Church, as I thought she would be.
When I explained the definition of the Church as described toward the end of session 3: “The Church is the unified, continued presence of Christ composed of all people who have trusted in the Gospel of Christ.”, Laurie agreed that the Church is still being built and she was able grasp the concept of an invisible Church. She felt that this gave her even more of a calling to gather together with those who have professed a belief in Christ to strengthen each other and to worship God.
We went over the “Chart of Importance” and Laurie ranked the purposes as follows:
1. Fellowship/relationships: 5
2. Fight against sin: 5
3. Worship: 10
4. Represent Christ’s authority: 7
5. Represent Christ’s mercy: 8
6. Spread Gospel: 9
7. Help people grow in Christ: 8
8. Enjoy God: 10
9. Glorify God: 9
I asked her to limit herself to three “10”s, two “9”s and two “8”s. I did this to prevent her from assigning everything as an “8”, “9” or “10”. Laurie clearly sees the Church as a place to worship and enjoy God. Her view of the Church as and institutional authority did not seem to match perfectly with her views of the purpose of the Church, but I think she is expressing the joy she experiences in a place where she experiences teaching and worship.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:06 am
This is going to be a “real life” case study. You are to find a person who would be willing to sit down and talk to you for thirty minutes to an hour. This person should be a professing believer. This might be a family member, a co-worker, someone at the gym, or even someone from church.
With notes in hand, you are to teach what you have learned in class concerning the nature of the Church.
These are the issues that need to be covered:
• First, start by asking these questions?
1. What is the nature of the Church?
2. What is the purpose of the Church? In other words, why is the Church here and not in Heaven?
• Using the notes in session 1 and the last part of session 3 before the discussion questions, explain the various views on the nature of the Church.
• Using the notes in session 4, explain the various views on the purpose of the Church. Have them fill out the chart in session 4 called “Chart of Importance” (but don’t let them see your answers).
The object of this assignment is to help people to understand the nature and purpose of the Church.
After you are done, write a half page to a page summary of the encounter and hand it in. Online student are to post their summary in their class forum. Grades will be based upon the completion of the assignment, not the effectiveness of the presentation. Everyone who completes this will receive credit for the case study.
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My friend Murphy believes the purpose of the church is to bring people together in a Christian community. The church is the body of believes that gather to praise Him. I explained the various views of the nature of the church to Him and he most closely identifies with the Protestant view as he is non-denominational. However, he is an ex-Catholic who sometimes misses the formal atmosphee of reverance given to God and, as he put it, everyone else: Mary, 3 Kings, Angels, Saints, etc.
We went through the chart of importance together as well and he liked #1 the best though he gave a 10. to all of the points except 8. (Hedonistic).
In the end, I think he better understand the purpose of the Church and why we need to gather corporately and praise Him individually as well. The biggest notion that caught Murphy was the evangelical because he simply has not seen that being done in the northern NJ area he’s spent his entire life working and living in. We both agree that you must live it first in order to see Christ through a person but how do you know if someone is truly changed in a community with so many people where we simply only see each other in the pews? Interesting….very interesting!
October 18th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Ecclesiology and Eschatology
The Nature and Purpose of the Church, Case Study 1
I enlisted the help of a family member for this case study.
I began by asking the question, “What is the nature of the church?” This question seemed a vague one to her as it would to most people. I agreed that this might get a answer of “huh?” by many. We went though the Session 1 notes, looking first at the different responses to the question, “What is the church?” We then looked at the key terms that define the visible (local), church and the invisible (universal) church as viewed by Evangelical Protestants. I then explained four views of the church (liberal, liberation, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical Protestant). We then considered the last section of Session 3, the statement from the Nicene Creed about the Church:
“And I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”
I showed her the explanation of each of the four adjectives. She was unaware that “catholic” simply meant “universal”. To summarize this section of the nature of the church, I shared this answer to the first question I asked at this case study:
“What is the nature of the church?
The Church is the unified, continued presence of Christ composed of all people who have trusted in the Gospel of Christ.”
I then asked the questions, “What is the purpose of the Church? Why is it here and not in heaven?” Her response was that the Church is needed here on earth as a witness and a means toward winning sinners, that a main purpose of the church is an evangelical one. I then showed her the nine purposes of the Church described in Session 4 and had her fill out the “Chart of Importance”. We agreed that all of them were very important and it was hard to pick out a few that were more important than others: Her answers ranged from eights to tens on the chart, 10’s being given to the categories of holy, doxological, evangelical and panoramic purposes. We discussed how some of the purposes listed tied in with others. For example, the sociological purpose was tied into the evangelical purpose and the communal purpose ties in nicely with the discipleship purpose. I ended this case study by showing her one of the favorite things I’ve learned so far in this course, the “WIFE” acronym, describing the purpose of the Church:
W- Worship
I – Instruction
F – Fellowship
E – Evangelism
We agreed that this acronym sums up very well the main purposes of the Church. I find that acronyms such as these are effective means for retaining key points in teaching.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Case Study 1:
The Nature and Purpose of the Church: Ecclesiology
I had the privilege if spending an hour or so with Mike. He is a co-worker who has a deep love for Jesus and wants others to have the same. He attends a somewhat non-denominational Christian church.
I started by asking”What is the nature of the Church?” He said it was the Pastors and staff, the congregation both active and inactive (the C&E folks). Also the folks who go on missions and those people who the missions reach out to. He added that it’s also a group of people who come together to worship Christ while enjoying all the fruits of the labors while bringing people to Christ.
I then reviewed all the notes of Chapter 1 and the last part of Chapter 3, which invoked many discussions and provided much clarity to what was meant by the nature of the church. As expected he was much disheartened by the power and authority held by the Roman Catholic church instead of teaching them to have a personal relationship with Jesus. We finished the discussion by reviewing TTP’s definition of the nature of the church… “The Church is the unified, continued presence of Christ, composed of all people who have trusted in the Gospel of Christ.” He agreed that it provided much clarity.
We then discussed the purposes of the church listed in the beginning if chapter 4. Mike said “the purpose of the church is that humans are here for God’s pleasure, so the church’s purpose is to bring pleasure to God.” Mike’s ratings to the 9 purposes’ on the chart of importance are: communal = 8, holy = 6, doxological = 7, authoritative = 10, sociological = 7, evangelical = 10, discipleship = 7, hedonistic = 4, panoramic = 7.
From there we compared my ratings to his with some similarity and differences. After this I read him TTP’s definition of the purpose of the church…”The purpose of the Church is to worship and enjoy God, representing Christ through evangelistic outreach, discipleship, social concern, fellowship, and holiness. When all of these are accomplished, God is most glorified, and we are most satisfied.” Again, he agreed that it provided much clarity.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Case Study #1
I spent time with an active member of our church who has been a friend for over 25 years. During his adult life he has struggled with security of salvation. He teaches in our preschool division, plays keyboard for our worship services, and sings in our choir and the praise team.
We discussed the nature of the church. He understood the concept of a visible and an invisible church. At this point in our discussion, the dialogue became free-flowing. We covered all the questions, but in a conversation that did not depend on me asking questions.
He was strong on the evangelical nature of the church, believing that after salvation, believers are left here on this earth to share the Gospel. This lead to the “Chart of Importance”. He feels that evangelism is the most important purpose for individual Christians and for the church corporately. All other aspects, for him, flow to evangelism and from that essential purpose.
We discussed worship and the opportunity for cooperate praise and adoration, and he injected that the lost often come to Christ as Christians worship. He brought up the ministries in which the church is involved as being high on his list of importance. As we talked about those different ministries, he spoke of people coming to Christ as the church met their physical, social, and emotional needs. We talked off teaching and preaching. He spoke of his preschool Sunday school class and the joy of teaching children about Jesus and the hope that one day they would come to know Christ as Savior. He mentioned the training of Christians as witnesses and that through Bible study; the lost can come to know Christ.
Throughout the discussion, he was in no way diminishing the different purposes of the church, but rather, pointing out how interrelated they were, especially as each relates to the evangelistic all of the church.
In closing, I brought up the issue of church discipline. We discussed how our church is involved in discipline and incidents he had observed in other churches. Even then the issue of evangelism came up, in that one of the outcomes of discipline is respect for the integrity of the church by those in the community and the heightened ability to present the Gospel when there is respect for the local body of believers.