Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Let’s Relax: Online “Church” Is not Church

Online churchThe COVID-19 shock-wave that turned the United States upside down knocked more than one pastor out of his pulpit. With the help of Facebook Live, Youtube, and lesser known platforms, ministers have begun to regain their footing, launching online services. As pastors have started “going live” they have also begun to criticize their sheep who fail to watch their the latest sermon or who watch that sermon irreverently. Pastors who a few weeks ago challenged the legitimacy of the Facebook users’ faith are now employing Facebook to question the faith of those who do not use Facebook enough.

Irony aside, the pastors’ complaint raise a foundational question: What is a church? Is the online service truly a church service? Do those members who fail to watch their pastor online break the commandment of Hebrews 10:25 and forsake the assembling of the church?

What is a Church?

A quick overview of the New Testament reveals that online church services cannot be equated with the typically weekly gathering of the church. Though the definition of the church can be expanded to cover pages as Dr. Greg Allison has done, it can also be reduced to two basic elements: the right preaching of the Word, and the proper administration of the sacraments. For a group of people to rightfully claim to be a church, they must meet regularly to preach the gospel, to administer the Lord’s table, and to perform baptisms.

Can people meaningfully do these things when they are not physically meeting together?

The Scriptures say no. When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he expected them to meet together as an assembled group of believers. He encouraged “the assembled” church to practice discipline, to rightly administer the Lord’s table, and to correctly employ tongues and biblical teaching (1 Cor. 5:4-5; 1 Cor. 11:18; 1 Cor. 14:23). The phrase, “When you are assembled” was the lens through which Paul shaped the church. When Christ spoke of the church, he too defined it as consisting of two to three people who physically gathered together to worship and to practice church discipline (Matt 16;18).

To borrow Jonathan Leeman’s terminology, the church is similar to a soccer team . The members of the team identify themselves when they play soccer together. Even when the teammates go home, buy groceries, and fly on airplanes, the members of the team can still be called “the team.”

In same way, the church is the church because it physically assembles together to hear the word preached, to eat the Lord’s Supper, and to baptize new converts. The church does not cease being the church between Monday and Saturday. Nor does a church’s inability to meet during the Coronavirus imply that the church has ceased being the church. But she has stopped meeting. Zoom meetings, phone calls, and live-streamed services are not the same thing as the game. The unassembled members can’t hear the whole church proclaim the gospel through prayer, song, and giving. They can’t pass the bread and the cup. They can’t dunk new believers in the baptistry.  They can’t hug one another and take each other out to lunch. Like Leeman, I too, “have a hard time envisioning an assembly that doesn’t assemble.” To worship, to play the game, the church, the team, must physically meet together.

What About Spiritual Presence?

Some pastors object to the exclusivity of physical assemblies, noting that 1 Corinthians 5:3 and Colossians 2:5 describe Paul as being spiritual present with distant churches. This spiritual connection between people hundreds of miles apart appears to negate the necessity of physical church meetings.

But when pastors place these texts in their biblical contexts, they will discover that Paul’s expression cannot be used to justify the live-streaming trend. Paul speaks of a spiritual presence precisely because he could not be physically present with the churches in question. Yet, he still connects with these assemblies spiritually because he knows they are possessed by the Holy Spirit that possesses him. Thus, he is confident that the churches he cannot physically attend will share his conclusions because all parties are lead by the same God. In much the same way a Brazilian church would expect a Bible believing Chinese church to condemn pornography or to pray in “Jesus’s name,” Paul expects the readers of his letters to live out the Christian the faith as he was doing. All Christians are spiritually connected by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.

Some pastors object to the above interpretation. As John Gill and Chrysostom, they argue that Paul was spiritually observing the congregations at Corinth and Colossia. But this view still cannot prove that YouTube is the equivalent of the physically assembled church. In Gill and Chrysotom’s view, Paul supernaturally saw the churches through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul went to the churches in much the same way that Ebeneezer Scrooge traveled to the shadowy visions of Christmas past, present, and future, seeing things no normal person can see. Even pastors backed by professional media teams cannot accomplish this supernatural feat and be present as Paul was present with these ancient congregations. For all its grandeur, live streamed services fall short of prophetic, real time visions. 

In short, Pastors today can only be spiritually present with their congregation when both the pastor and the congregation assent to teaching of the Bible, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This connection can occur and be furthered when the church is assembled together and when it is scattered. It can transpire when the pastor is online and when the pastor is offline.

So Are Online Service Bad?

No, they are beneficial. Online services and activities should be an encouragement to our souls. Throughout church history, Christians have encouraged one another with letters built around scriptural instruction, admonishment, and encouragement. Christians still enjoy and cherish gospel letters.

In a similar manner, live streaming platforms allow pastors to send meaningful notes to their entire church team and family. Just as a man enjoys Skyping with his wife and kids while on a work trip, pastors have a great rational for wanting to be in the living rooms of their church members during times of separation. And church members have every reason to want to hear from their spiritual fathers.  The family of God should love to communicate while they wait for the next face to face interaction. Live streaming blesses family relationships, allowing the team to stay in communication while apart.

In my experience, a word of encouragement from one’s spiritual father caries far more weight than a message of truth from a famous uncle or cousin whose lives thousands of miles away. But if a team member finds the online ministry of Pastor Joe in Oregon or Pastor Steve in New York to be more encouraging than my church’s online ministry, praise God for the ministry of other gospel centered pastors.

Online streaming has proven to be a phenomenal tool on the pastoral tool belt. Pastors and church members can embrace it with enthusiasm, sending and receiving digital messages.

Is It a Sin Not to Attend “Online Church?”

And now we return to the question which started our discussion: Do people sin when they neglect the church’s online service?

No, Christians have not sinned when they failed to watch Pastor Bob’s latest sermon or when they caught the last ten minutes of his sermon in their pajamas. Though Pastor Bob may have been at the church building, the church was not assembled. Moreover, some saints lack the technology to keep pace with their pastors digital evolution. Other members encounter a host of environmental struggles such as power outages, screaming children, and defective technology that keep them from watching. Though these members fail to watch online, their heart motives remain pure. Pastors who criticize their sheep for not watching their online services or for watching their online services “incorrectly” go beyond the bounds of Scripture. Like the pharisees of old, these pastors turn blessings into burdens. These pastoral rebukes bear a striking resemblance to the actions of a crazy uncle who complains about his nephew because the nephew did not regard the uncle’s birthday card highly enough. Instead of criticizing their spiritual children for not liking them more, pastors should examine their hearts to see how well they have loved their congregation. The pastor who loves people well will have no difficulty finding his people online.

Let’s relax, embrace the technology, and remember that our online services are not church services. Are you ready to relax?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Caring For Sick Christians: Jude’s Spiritual Triage

doctor blog

The church should stand at the ready to confront sin and error. Jude warned Christians that doctrinal viruses would sweep into local churches, destroying the healthy bodies who host them. To handle spiritual pandemics well, the local church should readily quarantine the fake Christians, flushing out false doctrine. If the wicked refuse to repent, the church should then force them out of the body, following the steps laid out in Matthew 18. But even the best prevention methods can fail. False teachers can infect health believers while the church awaits the surgical processes of church discipline. When the viruses of error begin to infect true believers, the local church must stand at the ready to care for those spiritually ill. Jude writes,

And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. (22-23)

Jude calls his readers to rescue three types of Christians, the doubting, the almost destroyed, and the filthy.

When men and women stumble into church exhausted by sin and the unstable messages of culture, they need mercy instead of rebuke. The woman whose homosexual desire that causes her to doubt the convictions of her faith should be meet with softly spoken spiritual truth. The man who questions the humanity of Christ should be welcomed into his pastor’s office. And the teenager who comes to church wrestling with the truthfulness of the Bible should be invited to voice his questions so that he can find biblical answers. The soul who doubts should not be criticized for doubting but shown mercy. Christ continual forgives us when we wonder from the foundations of our faith. Can we refuse to extend to others what God has given to us?

Secondly, we need to be ready to snatch some from the fire. Some brothers and sisters move from questioning the commands of God to leaving the commands of God. When a friend calls to say they will leave their spouse in the morning to pursue their one true love, we should run to their home and plead with them to forsake their sin. When a nephew tells us they have decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery, we should ardently call them back the joy of Christ. And when our college friend tells us they are going to join the Mormon church, we should contend with them, calling them to return to sound doctrine. If we do not warn them, these men and women will ingest sin into their souls and will experience the firers of hell. When we see or hear of brothers or sisters about to step in front of the bus of destruction, we should snatch them from the fires doom.

Lastly, we need to have mercy with fear. Some go behind doubting and preparing for sin. They become infected by sin refusing to follow the quarantine guidelines of truth. We will come across men and women who have welcomed sin into their soul and deemed it to be a sign of grace. To such Christians, we are to show mercy with fear. We are to remind our immoral friends that sexual immorality in all of its forms ends in judgment. When a friend slaps the coexist bumper sticker onto his car and proclaims that all ways road lead to heaven, we are to rebuke him. And when a women proclaims that gossip can cohabit with the gospel, we must clearly denounce her as a fraud. Jude says such people wear stained garments. The expression means, these Christians have stained underwear. To welcome those who have wet the spiritual bed into our churches is to welcome all kinds of worldly filth into the kingdom of God. Instead of embracing their sin, Jude calls us to hate it. We are to unequivocally call those infected by sin to repentance. If they will not repent, we must remove them according to the procedures laid out by Matthew 18. If love filth, our churches will become the filth. We must show mercy with fear.

Spiritual virus will come. Are we ready to care for the sick, rescuing the doubting, snatching others from hell, and confronting those stained by the world? Are you ready?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Fake Doctors, Talking Donkeys, and What Motivates Sinners

donkey

Twenty-five year old, Malachi A. Love-Robinson developed a thriving medical practice in South Florida. After graduating from Arizona State in 2015, he founded the “New Birth Life Medical Care & Urgent Care.” He drove a Jaguar.  All was great, except for one rather noticeable thing. Dr. Love-Robinson was not a doctor. He was an unlicensed eighteen-year-old conman. Lacking a medical license and credible academic credentials,  Malachi  had forged his diploma from Arizona State and had laid claim to the title, “Doctor” when he secured unverified PhD. Instead of dispensing medication, his mom said Love-Robinson needed to be taking his own pills. As the Sheriff’s office that arrested him noted, “Just because you saw a season of Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t mean you could practice medicine.”

Not all who claim to practice medicine should be considered doctors. Not all who claim Christ should be considered Christians. Jude takes up this cause in verse 4 of his book. He reminds us that “certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for the condemnation.” The church has been infiltrated by satanic commando’s intent on destroying God’s people. Not all who claim Christ got into the church through the narrow gate. Not all have climbed the hill of Calvary, repenting of their sins and trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who came, died, and rose again. Some in our midst like doctor Love-Robinson are frauds, practicing a faith they know nothing about. Like the good doctor, these false Christian will also be judged. Jude declares “Woe” to them. Judgement.

To discover who loves Jesus and who does not, Jude encourages us to examine the motives of people’s hearts. When you open up the heart of the unbelieving Christian, we will find three faint images etched into unbeliever’s soul: the images of Cain, Balaam, and Korah. These ancient characters appear in the modern heart because they illustrate the motives of the unredeemed soul: selfishness, greed, and pride. Though cultures have changed, human motives have remained constant with each passing generation. Those who claim Christ without having experience the power of Calvary continue to be motivated by selfishness, greed, and pride.

Cain rose to prominence through the vilest of means, murdering his brother, Abel. Genesis 4:8 reports, “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” Abel obeyed God and offered the Lord of the universe the “first of his flock.” Cain brought his second best. God rejected Cain’s offering and blessed Abel. Instead of repenting of his selfishness, Cain doubled down upon his sin, destroying his flesh and blood. Cain wanted God and man to submit to his desires.

Fake Christians continue to be motivated by their own desires, viewing God’s commands to be suggestions that can be discarded upon the alter of cultural relevance. They refuse to worship God with all that they have, fencing off their finances, their sexuality, and their personal life from the commands of Scripture. Instead of being convicted by the faithful witness of Christians who love others well and who worship God according to Bible, the false converts become angry. They mock Christians who serve their enemies, who prioritize Sunday morning worship, and who care for the orphans. They label true faith as extremism, irrational, and unnecessary. They despise love and righteousness because they are driven by selfishness of Cain. First John 3:11-12 concludes:

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Those who lack sit in the pew without saving faith express hatred for God and for their fellow man because they are selfish.

After mention Cain, Jude references the mark of Balaam, greed. Balaam first appears in Numbers 22. The evil Moabite king Balak commissions Balaam to curse the nation of Israel. Balaam refuses knowing “They are blessed (Num. 22:12). Balak possessed a forceful personality that would not be easily denied. He sent more messengers and more money to Balaam. The wicked prophet relents from obeying God and goes to curse God’s people. Before he can arrive, an angel forces Balaam and his donkey off the road. As Balaam beats his donkey, the donkey speaks and then the angel appears and delivers God’s message

Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me (Num 22:32b).

Second Peter 2:15 states that Balaam’s “loved gain from wrongdoing.” He perverted the gospel to advance his bank account and his platform.

Instead of giving to the church and the body, false saints misuse God’s resources. They abuse the church budget to go on vacations and to accumulate luxury items. They possess the nice boats, vacation homes, and expensive handbags while the widows and orphans suffer want and their church facilities suffer from a lack of repair. They use the church to grow their platform, having time for every speaking engagement but no time for the hospital room. They feed themselves by devouring the best of God’s flock.

Lastly the false Christian’s heart bears the image of Korah’s pride. Korah rose to prominence by challenging the authority of Moses and Aaron. Numbers 16:3 reports Korah said,

You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? 

He tells Moses that he is not so great for both men put their pants on one leg at a time. They both belong to God’s people. Consequently, they both should be able to lead.

Korah misses one thing. God had appointed Moses and Aaron. The modern’s pastor’s ability to lead God’s people still comes from God above. God equips men to fulfill the requirements of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. If a man fails to live up to God’s standard, clinging to selfishness of Cain, the greed of Balaam, and the pride of Korah, his congregation should remove him from leadership. No pastor resides above the reach of God’s people and above the correction, rebuke, and authority of the Bible.

However, Korah cares about power not the abuse of power. Instead of removing ungodly pastors, Korah seeks to remove God’s leaders and replace them with sinful men. The false saint demands that elders submit to him or her even though his or her character remains spotted by sin and he or she lacks the ability to teach. Those with the heart of Korah claim that their voice should conquer the wisdom of God’s appointed leaders. Every idea they have should be implemented, every cause they have should be taken up, and every suggestion they have about the service should be done.

Moses responds to Korah’s rebellion by challenging him to a divine face off. After a night of worship, Moses Aaron and his followers and Korah and his followers assemble in their respective camps and face each other in front of the tabernacle.  God then descends upon the camp and makes his judgement. Numbers 16:32-35 records,

“And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”

Woe to those false saints who bear the signs of Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Go will defend his people.

We know Dr Love-Robinson because he rebelled against the laws of this nation and sound medical practice. We know of who Cain, Balaam, and Korah are for they rebelled against God. What will you be known for?