What is the Church? What is it supposed to be? Judging from the literally thousands of denominations with their various and conflicting doctrines and practices, is it even feasible to determine the proper definition of the Church? If the New Testament is to be accepted as the basis for the Church’s definition, what we must know is this. When its Founder Jesus Christ described his Church, He described it as “one” Church. He further insisted that his Church should be unified—and unified in a visible fashion. His Apostles would then reinforce Jesus’ teaching in their numerous writings. Given both the Source and the substance of these criteria, therefore, as long as the Church fails or refuses to aspire to this standard, whatever it may be, it has no ground for laying claim to being Christ’s Church! The Church’s Charter is an endeavor to recall the Protestant Church to its Christ-mandated and apostolically-sanctioned model. It calls on the churches to exorcise from their separate sanctuaries the plethora of man-made doctrines and practices which have proven to be so divisive and so inimical to the One Church’s purity and effectiveness, and to receive and affirm the apostolic pattern as it is set forth in the New Testament in order to discover the basis of its intended unity. Only then may those churches which lay claim to being Christ’s Church, in fact, prove to be so.

Jeff Becker is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary (1985) and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America in 1989. He has served as pastor, educator, and music-director, to name a few of his ministerial roles. This is his third book published by Outskirts Press.