Tom Buck, Jonathan Leeman, and What Changed at 9 Marks?
2020 is, obviously, bizarre in a number of ways. One of the lesser indicators among evangelicals is that we are officially in the era of writing responses to responses to responses.
If you aren’t familiar with the genesis of this particular post, Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, CA (where John MacArthur pastors) recently announced their intention to resume meeting for corporate worship on the Lord’s Day indoors – a decision that defies California’s prohibition on just such gatherings – and, in doing so, articulated the theological conclusions that led to their decision.
Jonathan Leeman, editorial director of 9 Marks Ministries and an elder at Cheverly Baptist Church in Maryland, felt compelled to write a response to the announcement from Grace Community Church (hereafter referred to as GCC). One important additional feature of this whole imbroglio is that, around the same time as GCC’s decision, Andy Stanley and SBC President J.D. Greear announced their own decisions, in various fashion, to do the opposite of GCC for the remainder of 2020. Greear, in particular, has described his church, Summit, as re-constituting into 2400 smaller churches. Leeman apparently felt no similar compulsion to respond to those choices, particularly Greear’s (who he shares a denomination with) yet did feel an impetus to respond to GCC (who he has no formal relationship to).
In response to Leeman’s response (what a strange phrase to write) Tom Buck has penned a strong piece for Alpha & Omega Ministries, putting Leeman’s critique of GCC under a particularly precise microscope.
One of the most interesting features of Buck’s response is his quotation of Leeman’s own words about the central importance of the church’s structure in regards to the church’s nature and Jesus’ designs for it. From Buck’s piece on A&O (and quoting from Leeman’s One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite and Multiservice Church Models published for 9 Marks in April of this year):
In discussing ways that churches can obey the government in the pandemic, Leeman appears to make an enormous shift to how churches can legitimately structure themselves.
In his most recent book, released this past April, Leeman argues that, “changing a church structure changes its moral shape” and applies that truth down to the specific details of how a church gathers for worship. He declared, “change the basic biblical structures and you’ll slowly, subtly change people’s understanding of what the church is, what the church does, and what members are responsible to do.”
9Marks has based much of its ministry arguing for what constitutes a healthy church and what its gathering is to look like biblically. It revolutionized my own ecclesiology as a young pastor. They have argued against the “multi-site” model, and have not minced words about their position. Leeman writes,
“We fight Jesus by redefining the church. We fight Jesus by forsaking any of the responsibilities he’s given to us… Multisite and multiservice churches repudiate the Bible’s definition of a church, redefine what the church is, and so reshape the church morally. And all that means these models pick a fight with Jesus. The fight involves abdication by the members and usurpation by the leaders, even if unintended… What is a church? It’s an embassy of Christ’s kingdom. It’s a group of Christians who together identify themselves and each other as followers of Jesus and as the church through regularly gathering (in one place at one time) in his name, preaching the gospel, and celebrating the ordinances… So next time you hear someone say, “the church is a people, not a place,” you might respond: ‘Sort of. The people become a people by regularly assembling in a place. You can’t call the team a team if they never play together.’”
Yet now, Leeman and 9Marks seem more comfortable with pointing to the solution of the multi-site model of J.D. Greear to “turn the 12,000-member Summit Church into hundreds of house churches for the remainder of the year.” When you consider 9Marks long-held views on ecclesiology, how are they more comfortable commending the decision of Greear’s church to create 2,400 multi-sites that are essentially “churches” without elder leadership, than the decision of MacArthur’s church to come together under the authority of their elders to worship? If I may be so bold, I am as concerned, if not more so, about the inconsistencies of Leeman and 9Marks on this issue as I am the current inconsistent practices of our government.
Do the circumstances of the pandemic mean Leeman does not believe that Greear’s church will be “picking a fight with Jesus” over the next 7 months in their 2,400 “churches?” How is that not raising the “fight with Jesus” to the level of an ecclesiastical revolution? Has 9Marks concluded that in this case it is better to “pick a fight with Jesus” than with Caesar? Has the circumstances of the pandemic caused them to rethink their position on multi-site churches? The inconsistency of the position of Leeman and 9Marks at this point seems equally glaring.
It seems quite clear that, in fellowship with Leeman’s words above, GCC has re-entered the essential structure at the heart of the church’s nature and Jesus’ intentions for the local church. In contrast, Greear’s church has done something… else. And yet Leeman has words of response and critique for GCC and MacArthur but not Summit and Greear.
Why is that?
More specifically, does this indicate Leeman has changed in his understanding of the church published a mere four months ago? If, not, the question arises again: why did he feel compelled to respond to GCC and not Summit?
About Author
Jeff, I believe the answer to your final question, “why did he (Leeman) feel compelled to respond to GCC and not Summit?” Is due to his belief that the GCC declaration was a call to other church bodies to do the same; whereas, Greear’s was not.
I’m in agreement with GCC’s statement and believe they are behaving boldly and biblically.
Michael, that sounds very reasonable and I’m sure that is it. That said, it is an inconsistent conclusion on his part and I’d like to see him grapple with it.
In answer to “Why is that?” I also think Leeman, being so close to 9Marks and Mark Dever, is sensitive (as in touchy) to ‘letters’ such as the one that became the center of controversy at the 2019 Shepherd’s Conference during the Q&A between Phil Johnson and Al Mohler regarding social justice. Now GCC issued another letter, and Leeman, still smarting from the past incident, had a knee jerk reaction. Just my opinion.
I encourage you to listen to 9Marks podcast on this situation. It’s one of their recent Pastor Talks podcasts. They don’t sound like they are having a knee jerk reaction. They say why they responded to the statement by GCC. Disagree or agree with them…they don’t seem upset or to be reacting hastily.
So Leeman pontificated that The true Jesus structure could only be obeyed as one congregation under elder rule. But when Big Brother Command’s otherwise, Jesus obeys big government and drops elder leadership and congregational worship?
No. They havent done those things at all. They still have elder leadership at their church and congregational worship.
This is a disagreement between brothers. I feel some people want to act like this is a war between enemies. I feel like some on MacArthur’s side act like old time fundamentalists…in that if you disagree with them, you’re basically the devil.
The church is The people who have faith and believe in Jesus Christ and his resurrection throughout the world not just each local church. Even though we do act within our own local churches because that is what we are charged with we have to lead according to biblical instruction. Fail not to assemble yourselves together.