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Well as I sit here a local McDonalds, staring out at another cool rainy morning, I find myself thinking back to the beautiful summer days where I jogged the grounds of Capitol Hill, and ventured up the steps to gaze at the awe inspiring statue of Abraham Lincoln.
It also brings me back to the 4 days I spent with Capitol Hill Baptist Church and the body there, reflecting on a question I have pondered much lately - what exactly does biblical congregationalism look like? Seems that should not be a very difficult question, as for the past 16 years I have pastored in a church that seeks to be a congregational model. Yet for a number of years I have pondered over this very question, what is a congregational church as laid out in the Scriptures, the very place our wisdom should and needs to come from. So on one hand seems it should be an easy question to answer, however.......
I'm not sure the answer is so simple. So to explore this issue more deeply, I spent the May long weekend in lovely Washington, DC; enjoying the sights of Capitol Hill, the Lincoln Monument, Nationals Park, and strolling through the halls of Library of Congress (feeling like I was in the scene of National Treasure). Actually that was a very small part of what I did in Washington. For the most part, I was immersed with asking myself the above question. I had the opportunity to attend the 9 Marks Weekender, a seminar that operates in conjunction with Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Actually I say seminar, but as one pastor I met from Ohio described it, it was more like a field trip on steroids. The reason I describe it like this, is that this was not a seminar or conference where one went to simply sit and listen. Rather we were invited into the life of this church for 4 days.
Along with about 80 other pastors, I was invited to join the life of this church and to observe life in their local body. From attending their elders meeting, to sitting in on a congregational members meeting, to sitting in on a membership class, to the electives that they teach this church, to having Sunday dinner in the home of one of the pastors/elders from the church. It was a rather overwhelming idea to be invited into their home so to speak and to observe church life with them, at the grass roots. What I observed left me feeling like some of my questions started to be answered.
It was rather refreshing to sit in on a church that placed such a premium on the relationship between the body and the leaders. As a church believing that they are the gospel made visible to the world around us, and therefore leadership, congregationalism and membership plays such a huge role in the life of this body. And all this done with such a desire to follow Scripture's call for the church, believing that if the church is to display the glory of God and to make visible the gospel, than the Scriptures must be the guide for all that is carried out in her walls. I was challenged to think deeply about such matters as eldership within the local church, the call to membership and the impact this has on a local body and why it might be so important and how then would this impact our meetings together? I was challenged to ask what really is the priesthood of all believers and how does this impact our ministries and our care for each other? What is the church to reflect to the world and how do the above questions really impact our evangelism and our witness?
Yes a rich weekend to ponder upon. A weekend with a body seeking to be what the local church I'm involved in seeks to be, a local body making visible the wonderful truth of the gospel!!
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