By Robin G. Jordan
Does your church fully accept the Holy Scriptures as its
rule and standard of faith and practice? I do not mean the Holy Scriptures and
church tradition or the Holy Scriptures interpreted by church tradition but the
Holy Scriptures alone as its sole rule and standard of faith and practice?
Does your church stand squarely in the tradition of the
English Reformation and the Protestant Elizabethan Settlement? Does it embrace
the Thirty-Nine Articles as its confession of faith, interpreted in accordance
with the intent of Articles’ framers and the historical context in which they
framed the Articles and as authoritative for Anglicans as the Holy Scriptures
themselves? Is it reformed not only in doctrine but also in practice? Is it
always seeking to bring its teaching into closer alignment with that of the Holy
Scriptures? Are its practices consistent with its teaching?
Is your church wholeheartedly committed to the spread of the
gospel? Do those who attend its worship gatherings and participate in its ministry
teams and small groups share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone whose
lives intersect with theirs—strangers as well as friends? Do they go out of
their way to meet new people and to form relationships with them so at some point in
the relationship they can share the gospel with these people? Do they continue
to maintain a relationship with the same people if their new friends are not
immediately receptive to the gospel? Do they prepare the ground and water as
well as sow and reap?
Does your church take with utmost seriousness Christ’s
command to go and make disciples of all peoples? Is it adding new disciples to
the Kingdom? Is it helping them to grow to maturity as followers of Jesus
Christ? Does it send and support missionaries in other parts of the nation and
the world? Is it planting new churches, churches that are disciple-making and
church-planting churches?
Does your church value the role of the Holy Spirit in giving
new life and faith to the spiritually dead and in renovating their hearts,
minds, and lives? Is it a church in which the Holy Spirit is discernibly at
work in its ministry? Does it encourage people to recognize, develop and use
their spiritual gifts in the service of the gospel?
If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, then your
church deserves to be commended. It also deserves to be called Anglican.
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