Perspectief 2016-34

2016-34 Ecumenical recognition and reception in free church perspective 45 Com ment Free churches: definition The term ‘free churches’ can have multiple meanings and refers to churches with very different ecclesiological profiles. When I speak of a ‘free church’, I mean a church that is primarily defined as a local, structured community of believers who gather in the name of Jesus Christ and express faith in Bible teaching, in praise, in the celebration of sacraments, in community life, and in outreach. When I speak of free churches, I mean those of an Evangelical or Pentecostal kind, undoubtedly the largest growing section of Christianity in the past century. They often are also characterized by a clear choice for independence from the State or have freed themselves from folk or nationalist Christendom. Those are, however, not their primary ecclesiological markers. 2 Free churches as I discuss them here belong to the third major ecclesiological category distinguished from episcopal and from presbyterian-synodal churches. They alternatively are known as congregationalist or believers’ churches. Sixteenth century radicals such as John Smyth and Menno Simons would consider the free church a restoration of the New Testament church. Sociologists such as Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch consider her typically more of the ‘sect’ type than of the ‘church’ type. Contemporary theologians such as Miroslav Volf and James McClendon consider it particularly suited to modern and postmodern times. 3 A free church is primarily characterized by its hyper-protestant ecclesiological starting point, seeing the church as a voluntary assembly of followers of Jesus Christ. Be sure, the divine initiative in salvation and in the gathering of the church is fully underlined, particularly with references to the inner working of the holy Spirit in the individual. But notable attention is given to the responsibility of the individual in view of conversion, implying, first, to recognize one’s failing in the eyes of God and God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ and second, to personally decide_to turn one’s life around and to follow Jesus in words and deeds and in communion with other Christians. 2 Cf. Nigel G. Wright, Free Church, Free State: The Positive Baptist Vision (Waynesboro, VA: Paternoster Press, 2006). 3 See in particular M. Volf, After Our Likeness : The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 11–18. Cf. James William Jr. McClendon, Systematic Theology Volume 2: Doctrine (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2011).