The Perpetuity of the Local Church

In a recent blog article church historian Carl Trueman(1) addressed the responsibility of church elders and church bodies in passing along “the gospel in a stable form from one generation to another”.  He suggests “to do that, there has to be an understanding of how any individual doctrine connects to other doctrines within the larger confessional structure”.

He cites P. T. Forsyth's (2)  two generation rule: each generation needs to reflect on what its teaching or doctrinal formulations might lead to in two generation's time. This coincides with some of my own thoughts concerning the perpetuity of the local church. Church elders and those in authority in the church should consider how their doctrinal statements and actions regarding those statements affect the next and subsequent generations.  I have in the past expressed that sentiment with concern for what the church believes and how it expresses that belief is continued in future generations.  This may only be important if what we believe today has any significance.  If it doesn’t matter what doctrines the church holds today then why would it matter in the future?

We should be cognizant of the fact that the doctrines we believe today has a connection to what was believed in the past and how we act accordingly and transmit that belief is essential if we are to maintain a connection with future generations.  I don’t pretend to have all the answers but to allow what we believe today to be sacrificed to a lack of planning for future generations will likely ensure that our principles and our doctrine will die with us.  This is why we should be very sure the foundational teaching of the local church is biblically, and in some sense historically, sound and that it is being transmitted effectively through the teaching and preaching of the church.

If the gospel is unclear as expressed in our doctrine or is in some sense halt between two opinions then our legacy will die with us – as perhaps it should.

(1)   Carl Trueman is a Christian theologian and church historian. He is Professor of Historical Theology and Church History and holds the Paul Woolley Chair of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary. He contributes to the Reformation21 blogsite.

(2)  Peter Taylor Forsyth, also known as P. T. Forsyth, (1848-1921) was a Scottish theologian. Forsyth studied at the University of Aberdeen and then in Göttingen (under Albrecht Ritschl). He was ordained into the Congregational ministry and served churches as pastor at Bradford, Manchester, Leicester and Cambridge, before becoming Principal of Hackney College, London (later subsumed into the University of London) in 1901. ( From Wikipedia 2013)