I was recently scrolling the Christ Community website and doing an impromptu “visitor” audit (as is my wont from time to time). I do this simply for the sake of getting a feel for what a visitor might happen to come across on our website if they were curious about us and I realized a couple of things:

1. There has not been an update to the “blog” in 3 years. Now, I’m not in the position to “wag the finger” very much since I do such a poor job of keeping up my personal blog. Even still, considering that I have the ability to do so, I thought it might be good to rectify this issue and begin working on a few articles.
2. While I greatly appreciate Patrick’s article, Why Christ Community Church is a Baptist Church, I realized that his article is more of a history of how Christ Community evolved to adopt the Baptist denomination as well as how we began associating with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). His is a necessary article and well worth the read for either a visitor or a member of CCC in order to get a feel for who we are and why we practice the faith the way in which we do.

Those two points made, and even though Patrick does address a few reasons why we are a Baptist church (and a Southern Baptist Church at that!), I felt that it might be helpful to elaborate more on how we are a Baptist church. Each denomination within Christianity has its own … shall we say … “flavors”. Speaking frankly, each Baptist denomination has its own flavors and nuances. Southern Baptists are not “Free-Will Baptists” or “American Baptists” or even “Missionary Baptists.” Each of those denominations have their own rich histories and their own theological leanings. So, how is Christ Community Church a Baptist Church? If the reader will permit me, I will work to address this question over the course of multiple articles. Hopefully this will be limited to two, but I’m a wild card, so one can never know what will happen.

First, then, any discussion on Baptist life and polity (i.e., church governance) must begin with Biblical Authority. While we at Christ Community Church appreciate and are influenced by authors and theologies that come from our brothers and sisters from the West as well as the East, from the ancient and the modern, we firmly rest in the Bible as the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. We believe, as the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, that “all scripture is breathed out by God…” (2 Tim 3:16) and as the Apostle Peter notes “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This means, to put it simply, that we believe that the Bible is fully trustworthy and true and is the standard by which our creeds, practices, and conduct should be tried.

But note specifically the word “final” in that last paragraph. Final does not mean only. Final also does not mean that other sources of “authority” are not beneficial or trustworthy. There is a major difference between capital “A” authority and lowercase “a” authority. To illustrate: Think of a King and a noble. The king is the final authority in all manners within his kingdom, even over the nobles. But a noble does have authority within his territory to guide his citizens in such a way as they are honoring the king and the kingdom. So, when we use the term “final” authority, we understand that Scripture is the final authority over which all of our practices and beliefs are governed and the standard to which they are held, while also holding to the “authority” of traditions and theology that are grounded in the source of “Authority.”  

Allow me to give an example directly from our regular church life: Why does Christ Community Church adhere to weekly Eucharist/Communion/The Lord’s Supper? Because, we have looked at the Scriptures and noted that the church in Acts had a habit of “the breaking of bread” every time they gathered. But, we have also seen in other early church documents, (such as the Didache, the letters of Justin Martyr and Tertullian) that they too had the habit of coming to the Table to partake of the bread and the wine every time they gathered for worship. Under this principle of Biblical Authority, we understand that it is absolutely right that when we gather for teaching, preaching, singing, prayer, and fellowship, that we also make a habit of coming to the Table and to give thanks for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it taught in Scripture and we see it continued to be practiced by those who were taught by the Apostles. We rest in the capital “A” authority of Scripture that our practice is biblical, but we also can see through these lowercase “a” works that the practice of weekly communion was continued throughout the early centuries of the church.

Interestingly, Biblical Authority leads into another area of how Christ Community Church is a Baptist Church: Autonomy. It is this subject that we will consider in a future article. 

   For almost two decades Christ Community Church has been on a journey.  What started as a combination of a Bible church and a Methodist church was reconstituted as Christ Community Church with a desire to worship God in spirit and truth, and to love each other as a true community of believers.
   Everything was “taken off the table” as we considered what a church should be and how we should worship. We gradually transitioned from a “traditional” hymn based model (an opening hymn, announcements, another hymn, prayer, offering, a “special”, sermon, and a closing hymn) to a more liturgically structured worship style. 
   We drew from the history of the Church, looked to the early Church, and searched the Scriptures for guidance.  We read Church Fathers’ thoughts, we consulted the Didache (an ancient guide for worship and doctrine) and we prayed a lot.  Our conclusion was that we should be a community of Christians that lift up Jesus in our worship of the Triune God and love each other. The liturgy found in the Book of Common Prayer was found trustworthy and much of our service began to reflect an adherence to this liturgical style, but we also drew from Eastern Orthodoxy, the Coptic Church, and the Book of Common Worship (Presbyterian) as well as other more ancient forms of liturgy.
   The membership was made up of several denominational backgrounds, but the overwhelming majority was Southern Baptist.  As the church prospered and the community began to thrive a growing number of Union students and professors took note of CCC. Since we had revisited nearly all of our Baptist traditions and taken a more ancient view on issues like alcohol (focusing on moderation and prohibition against drunkenness rather than abstinence) we were considered a bit edgy.  Initially we attracted the students who were on the fringes of Baptist life.
   Truly we were attracting students who had fallen out of favor with more conservative Baptists, but there was actually a lot of ministry happening as some of these broken students found healing. We were accepting of all who were seeking Jesus, but our doctrine remained traditionally conservative and orthodox.
   Christ Community Church could have been described as a Baptist church with Anglican liturgy and an Irish band. But, the doctrine was trustworthy, the fellowship was real, and the worship was fresh and lively.  Maybe most importantly this quirky little congregation was attempting to be what we believed every church is supposed to be — the Bride of Christ on the Earth worshiping the Triune God, instructing in trustworthy doctrine, fellowshipping at deep levels, and engaging with the world outside the four walls in a way that breaks through cultural barriers.
   In time a decision needed to be made. Are we Baptist or are we Anglicans or should we remain unaffiliated?  Some have become Anglican. Some have become Catholic and Orthodox. Still others have transferred to a variety of other denominations as they have moved to other cities and nations.  It has been said of CCC that were a “Half-way house for Baptists.”  But much concern has been expressed over the movement of many former CCC members away from Baptist churches.  It was not the intention of leadership to lead anyone away from their denominational homes, but rather to seek to connect with a more ancient form of worship.  
      It really isn't that strange that a Baptist church would draw heavily from our Church of England heritage. Baptist, after all, are descended from the Church of England.  In fact, most Baptist churches continue to practice portions of the Book of Common prayer for special services like weddings and funerals.  In the opinion of early Baptist like Roger Williams the Episcopal church had not gone far enough in their reformation from perceived Roman and political corruption of the Church. But many today have "thrown the baby out with the bathwater" in favor of more modern performance forms of worship that seems to be focused on the worshiper.  While preaching would have been central in early Baptist worship it would have looked more "Catholic" or "Anglican" with a focus on worship of the Trinity, public reading of the Scriptures, and regular practice of sacraments.  Worship, in the past, was a unique event that was considered extraordinary rather than common or secular. Worship, in a sense, is a little bit of Heaven on Earth. Even today many Baptist preachers still wear robes when performing the formal sacerdotal duties of their office, such as a wedding, because of the sacredness of the event.
     Our core beliefs are very much in line with Baptist doctrine and distinctives.  We believe the Bible is the final authority for faith and life. We believe each local church should be an autonomous expression of the Christian faith with no national or denominational head. We believe that all followers of Jesus are priests and therefore do not need a priest to approach the Father. We believe that there are two primary ordinances (or sacraments) that Christ instituted for His Church - baptism and communion. We believe that each believer has individual soul liberty and personal responsibility for their faith - spiritual authority is voluntarily exercised and received. We believe there are two office of the Church - Pastor (elder/bishop/shepherd) and Deacon. And lastly we believe in the separation of the Church and State. 
   In 2018 Christ Community Church officially partnered with the Southern Baptist Convention and identified as a Baptist church.  We discovered that CCC was not a unique phenomenon as there are many liturgical Baptist churches. A vision has emerged to encourage students to take the richness of liturgy home with them to their Baptist (and other) churches when they leave Jackson.  

    Is communion an unbloody sacrifice?   Are we sacrificing Jesus on a weekly basis?
HEBREWS 9:23-10:10
   This passage reminds us of a fundamental difference between Roman Catholic traditional dogma and reformed Biblical interpretation. Put quite simply the Roman Catholic view, that is based on tradition, defines the Eucharist as an “unbloody sacrifice” that participates in the Crucifixion of Christ by changing the elements of bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ - transubstantiation.  This sacrifice is for the forgiveness of sins and must be repeated regularly for the salvation of mankind.
   The Protestant view, in general, views Communion not as a sacrifice in any way, but rather a memorial or remembrance of Christ’s Crucifixion. We proclaim His death until He comes.  Higher Church Protestants emphasize the spiritual presence of Christ in Communion, while fundamentalists tend to deny any presence of Christ in the elements or the service.  In both the emphasis is on the faith of the participant rather than the power of the elements of the meal.
   Throughout the history of the Church there has been an extensive amount of writing on the subject of the sacrifice of Christ.

John Chrysostom
   "In ancient times, because men were very imperfect, God did not scorn to receive the blood which they were offering . . . to draw them away from those idols; and this very thing again was because of his indescribable, tender affection. But now he has transferred the priestly action to what is most awesome and magnificent. He has changed the sacrifice itself, and instead of the butchering of dumb beasts, he commands the offering up of himself" (ibid., 24:2). 
   "What then? Do we not offer daily? Yes, we offer, but making remembrance of his death; and this remembrance is one and not many. How is it one and not many? Because this sacrifice is offered once, like that in the Holy of Holies. This sacrifice is a type of that, and this remembrance a type of that. We offer always the same, not one sheep now and another tomorrow, but the same thing always. Thus there is one sacrifice. By this reasoning, since the sacrifice is offered everywhere, are there, then, a multiplicity of Christs? By no means! Christ is one everywhere. He is complete here, complete there, one body. And just as he is one body and not many though offered everywhere, so too is there one sacrifice"
   Clearly Chrysostom’s view is not that we are offering anew a sacrifice of the Body of Christ, but we are mystically participating in the one sacrifice of Christ – the offering up on Himself – as we remember His death until He comes.

Augustine
   "For when he says in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, ‘There is no good for a man except that he should eat and drink’ [Eccles. 2:24], what can he be more credibly understood to say [prophetically] than what belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament himself, the priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with his own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of what was to come. . . . Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, his body is offered and is served up to the partakers of it"
   I love Augustine’s reference to Melchizedek – the bread and wine priest before the Crucifixion.  Christ is not crucified anew, but our “sacrifice” is one given by faith in the completed work of Christ.  As Melchizedek pointed to the sacrifice to come, we point to the sacrifice that was made.  By faith we become partakers of that one sacrifice.

An explanation of the Lutheran view
   “we do not believe that the Mass is a perpetual sacrifice. Christ's crucifixion is a perfect sacrifice, once and for all. The Sacrament, in this way, is much like Baptism: it is not a re-sacrifice of Christ, rather it reconnects us with the Christ who has already been sacrificed, once and for all. Just as Christ joins the Christian to Himself on the cross in Holy Baptism, so too in the Holy Meal, He joins the believer to His crucifixion through His Body and Blood given and shed, that are administered through the bread and wine of the Supper. As such, the Sacrament is not something we are doing for Him, but something He is doing for us - feeding us Himself for the nourishment of our faith.”

John Calvin
   “…The first error is this—While the Lord gave us the Supper that it might be distributed amongst us to testify to us that in communicating in his body we have part in the sacrifice which he offered on the cross to God his Father, for the expiation and satisfaction of our sins--men have out of their own head invented, on the contrary, that it is a sacrifice *by* which we obtain the forgiveness of our sins before God. This is a blasphemy which it is impossible to bear. For if we do not recognise the death of the Lord Jesus, and regard it as our only sacrifice by which he has reconciled us to the Father, effacing all the faults for which we were accountable to his justice, we destroy its virtue. …”

   One of the the problems I would have with the Catholic view of the “unbloody sacrifice” is the doctrine of transubstantiation and the “real presence” was dogmatized and the practice of the Mass was viewed as a sacrifice that is salvific.  As Calvin said, “a sacrifice by which we obtain forgiveness.”  Rather than faith in the completed work of Christ on the cross Jesus was being continually crucified as it were.  The modern take on the “unbloody sacrifice, according to “Catholic Answers” is, “…quite simple, really. The Mass is called an unbloody sacrifice to clarify the fact that we do not behold the Lord's bloody body as it was seen on Calvary. Instead we behold His body and blood under the appearance of bread and wine. But it is the same sacrifice we behold AND the same body and blood.”
   This is why, at Christ Community Church, when we use terms such as “sacrament”, “Eucharist”, and “catholic” that we explain exactly what we mean. 
  Sacrament is a communication of God’s grace, not a means of salvation.
  Eucharist is thanksgiving for the one sacrifice, not a new sacrifice for salvation.
  Catholic meaning universal or worldwide, not the organization seated in Rome. Our holy city is Christ Himself, the new Jerusalem. 
   At Christ Community Church we proclaim the presence of Christ with us - in worship as two or more gather and also in Communion as we make thanks for His sacrifice for us.  Unlike the Middle Ages dogma of the metaphysics of just exactly how He is present we leave it to the worshiper to discern His presence – His Spirit with us.
   Our worship is not of elemental things – bread and wine, but of the one who gave Himself once and for all for the salvation of many. We worship the One who dwells in the Body that was given, crucified, died, was buried, and was raised from the dead!
   As we celebrate again the sacrifice of Jesus, may we discern rightly what it is that we are doing as we remember His death until He comes!

Synopsis of THE CELTIC WAY OF EVANGELISM, by George G. Hunter III

   This is one of the books that influenced the founding of Christ Community Church and continues to inform our view of missions and evangelism. 

1. The Gospel to the Irish
Saint Patrick, after being captured by Celtic pirates, experienced 3 things:
            a. natural revelation
            b. learned Celtic culture and language
            c. began to love his captors and hope for their salvation
     After escaping, he returned to Briton and years later returned to the Celtic people, and began doing evangelism in a way that was in stark contrast to the way of the dominant Catholic Church at the time.  Roman Catholic churches performed liturgy in Latin and imposed Roman form of society and culture.
 
2. A New Kind of Community, A New Kind of Life
     Patrick’s idea of “indigenous Christianity” continued to influence other missionaries. Experiencing the place of the community: Circular outer wall and gate (hallowed ground), porter’s dwelling, cathedral, chapels, round tower, Celtic crosses, cemetery, well, abbot’s house, guest house (choicest sight, most comfortable, etc.) , small cells for one or two people, large dwelling for families, kitchen, refectory, scriptorium, library, work shops, farm land, grazing land, etc.
    This community focused on community life and addressed “middle-life” issues… “Here one finds the questions of the uncertainty of the near future, the crises of present life, and the unknowns of the past. Despite knowledge of facts such as that seeds once planted will grow and bear fruit, or that travel down this river on a boat will bring one to the neighboring village, the future is not totally predictable. Accidents, misfortunes, the intervention of other persons, and other unknown events can frustrate human planning…this middle realm is inhabited by “mechanical” forces such as manna, spells, omens, evil eye, or luck, and/or by more “organic” presences like spirits, ghosts, ancestors, angels, demons, lesser gods, etc….” (pg 31).
    Prayer life was very much concerned with and involved in the minute to minute of everyday life. Celtic Christians would learn prayers to say for waking up, for getting dressed, and for starting the morning fire, for bathing, etc.
 
3. To the Picts, the Anglo-Saxons, and Other Barbarians
   The term "Celtic church" is controversial because it implies separation from the dominate Roman Catholic church.  However, this book argues that Christianity continued to spread in ways distinct form the Roman Catholic church.
The Roman Catholic leadership were concerned with the way “barbarians” practiced Christianity and instead wanted everyone to do it the Roman way, and they eventually got their way. “Nora Chadwick observes that, ‘the disappearance of the idiosyncratic Christianity of the Celtic Church was inevitable, owing to the absence of the central organization; but it is impossible to reach the end without feeling of regret. A Christianity so pure and so serene as that of the age of the saints could hardly be equaled and never repeated’” (pg 41).
    The same issues persist today in America and various countries, where some folks try to force a church style (Colonialism).
 
4. The Celtic Christian Community in Formation and Mission
    This is how Celtic Christians did evangelism. So inspiring! Page 47-55
            a. TEAM
            b. PREPARE PEOPLE TO LIVE W/ DEPTH, COMPASSION, AND POWER IN MISSION
            c. IMAGINATIVE PRAYER (St. Patrick’s Breastplate pg 49)
            d. HOSPITALITY
            e. ROLE OF SEEKER’S EXPERIENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IN THE
                        PROCESS OF CONVERSION
 
5. How Celtic Christianity Communicated the Gospel
     This chapter is very speculative. But it seems story telling, art, poetry, song, were all ways the gospel was communicated.

6. The Missionary Perspective of Celtic Christianity
     This chapter addresses the missionary energy in the Celtic church which spread throughout the British Isles and into continental Europe.

7. The “Celtic” Future of the Christian Movement in the West
      There are movements of Celtic Christianity happening today in organizations like The Alpha Course, and AA.