We believe in both a personal and ecclesiastical relationships with God

Eld. Brian Utley leads worship. Photo: Gerald Farinas.

One of our friends from Bryn Mawr Care residential community asked me a very deep question today, “If you have a personal relationship with God and talk to Him directly, why is Church needed?”

Our Bryn Mawr Care members are better theologians than I was in college!

As Church of Scotland descendants, I went straight for the Westminster Confession for the answer:

“The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before, under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.”

If you explicate or dissect the text (which I had to do a lot at Loyola with all the texts I worked with) you learn that the Confession affirms that a truly healthy spirituality is covenantal. It moves from God's personal call to your heart, into your life as a committed member of the family (the Church), which then prepares you for service in the world.

Let me break it down a little more…

In the rich tapestry of Christian faith, there are often different but equally passionate voices defining what a healthy spiritual life should look like.

On one hand, you have our Evangelical brothers and sisters who beautifully encourage a vibrant, heart-to-heart personal relationship with God, seeing direct access to Jesus Christ as the supreme, all-encompassing goal.

On the other hand, we observe our siblings in the Roman Catholic tradition, who rightfully champion the ecclesiastical relationship: finding one's faith strengthened, guided, and nourished primarily through the visible, historic body of the Church.

As Presbyterians, we don't believe these are competing visions; rather, we hold that the most robust and joyous spirituality embraces both the personal call and the communal covenant, creating a dynamic and balanced life of faith that reflects the wholeness of the Gospel.

Our Presbyterian foundation is rooted in the Reformation principle of justification by grace through faith alone, affirming the priesthood of all believers. This means your relationship with God is indeed intimate, individual, and foundational to your salvation; the Holy Spirit works directly in your heart, granting you faith and sustaining your daily walk, which is the vital fire in the hearth of your personal spiritual life.

Yet, we believe with equal fervor that God rarely calls us to be disciples in isolation, as the Church is described in Scripture as the very Body of Christ, making us interdependent and helping us grow in grace through one another, not apart from one another.

God communicates and confirms His grace through the visible means—the Word and the Sacraments—which are entrusted to the Church (with our pastor and elders) and are experienced most fully in our communal worship and shared life.

Consider the powerful example of C.S. Lewis, the great Oxford scholar and author of Mere Christianity. Lewis was perhaps the most famous reluctant convert of the 20th century, and his journey highlights this very balance.

His conversion was profoundly personal, born of an intense intellectual and emotional struggle where he finally admitted that God was God and knelt in prayer, a direct, intimate surrender of his will. But Lewis, who was not naturally inclined to the communal aspects of religion (he often found the hymns and the sermons of his Anglican parish to be rather dull) nonetheless understood the absolute necessity of the Church, the communal relationship.

He wrote that when he first became a Christian, he thought he could do it on his own, simply by reading theology in his rooms, and he disliked going to church. Yet, he concluded that he needed the Church because that is where the means of grace were (the preached Word and the Sacraments) and it was there he learned what it meant to love the uninteresting person next to him, who was, as he put it, "a possible god or goddess."

Lewis's faith became whole not when he was alone in his study, but when he brought his personal, heart-felt assent into the imperfect, gathered community of the Church.

For us, the personal relationship is the source of spiritual passion and intimacy, preventing faith from becoming merely institutional or rote. The ecclesiastical relationship is the framework for growth, service, and accountability, preventing faith from becoming self-centered or individualistic.

Our Presbyterian heritage calls us to nurture both: cultivating the personal quiet time of devotion while enthusiastically participating in the life, mission, and justice work of the Church.

In this beautiful blend of the individual heart and the corporate body, we find the truly healthy, full, and abundant life in Christ.