White Horse Inn — "Equipped: Defending the Church"

Air Date: March 23, 2025
Hosts: Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, Walter R. Strickland II

Overview

This episode addresses why the church is essential for Christian life and faith, pushing back against the growing notion that personal spirituality, private Bible reading, or online worship are sufficient substitutes for active participation in a local congregation. Featuring honest, pastoral discussion about hurt within the church, spiritual isolation, and the importance of community, the hosts offer both theological reflection and practical advice for defending the importance of the church in a skeptical and "dechurched" age.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Irreplaceable Role of the Church

• Church as Central to Christian Life

  • Gathering together is not optional but intrinsic to the Christian faith. Christ gathers believers to himself and to each other (02:20).
  • The decline in church attendance isn't just cultural antagonism, but widespread indifference—people see church as optional compared to other weekend activities.
  • Horton highlights the distinction between Mount Sinai (law and fear) and Mount Zion (grace and welcome)—the church as the assembly where Christ greets us with forgiveness and spiritual gifts (04:43).

  "We are gathered together as one flock. We are united to Christ in a mystical union. And that means that if I have Christ as my head, then I have you, brothers—and all of the brothers and sisters listening now—as my brothers and sisters, closer to me than my natural family." —Michael Horton (06:41)

• Sacramentality & Physical Presence

  • The church isn't just for information transfer. Christianity is embodied: the Word became flesh, not a "download," meaning the faith is inherently communal and sacramental (08:22).
  • In-person worship connects believers to Christ "bodily" through communion with the saints and the Lord's Supper.

  "He didn't become a download, he became one of us. To be with us. And we need to be with him bodily. And the way we do that is to be with his saints bodily and to feed on his body and blood through the sacrament." —Michael Horton (08:22)

• Biblical Images of the Church

  • Bob expounds on metaphors for the church: people, family, building, bride, and body—underscoring the church as a place of belonging, love, and interdependence (09:00–11:56).
  • The image of adoption is central: "You're justified so you can be adopted." (09:00)

The Church in a “Me-Centered” Age

• Consumer Spirituality vs. Participation

  • Walter warns against reducing faith to "knowledge acquisition," as prevalent in the podcast/YouTube era. Real-life church is about mutual support, encouragement, and burden-bearing (07:13).

  "There's days I walk into the church house and I am just elated to be there...There's other days I walk in there where I need somebody else to sing that over me to remind me of the truth." —Walter Strickland (07:41)

  • Justin challenges the "main character" narrative: you don't go to church just to "get something out of it," but to be "killed by the law and raised by the gospel" (12:32).

  "You go there because you need a preacher to remind you who you are and whose you are." —Justin Holcomb (12:41)

• Active Participation and Mutual Need

  • Everyone brings something unique; the absence of a member diminishes the community, just as in a family or the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12 (15:21).
  • The hosts recall the notion that when a member is missing, the church lacks something only that person could contribute (16:20).

  "You're a member of our family. And...when you're not here, you're a member of our family. And it wasn’t in some hyper-therapeutic way to make you feel guilty...We need you here...When you’re missing, we’re missing out as your brother or sister who should be here is not here." —Bob Hiller (16:20)

Responding to Hurt and Disillusionment

• How to Respond to Church-Abuse or Disappointment

  • Acknowledgement: If you’ve been hurt by a church, you don’t need to go back to that particular congregation, but don’t abandon the church altogether (23:52).
  • Family dynamics apply: Just as with family hurts (outside of crime), reconciliation is encouraged over avoidance (23:56).

  "Use these opportunities where you've been hurt...to do family and to grow out of yourself, grow out of your curved-in-ness." —Michael Horton (24:39)

• Sin Isolates, the Church Heals

  • Walter laments with those who've been harmed, pointing out that sin—whether our own or others'—isolates us, and isolation is spiritually dangerous (25:53).
  • Community is the antidote: friendship in the church "halves our troubles and doubles our joy." (32:09, quoting J.C. Ryle)

  "Isolation is where the adversary has a field day on us. Isolation is where we can't do that sort of one anothering of getting outside of ourselves..." —Walter Strickland (26:17)

• Listening over Defensiveness

  • Institutionally, the first response should be listening, not reflexive self-defense, especially in cases of complaint or abuse (27:37).

  "[Be] aware of the very quick, impulsive 'defend the church.' ...That's not how Jesus runs things and runs his family." —Justin Holcomb (28:40)

• Handling Cultural Division within the Church

  • Michael laments the divisive fallout from Covid, where both laypeople and clergy acted out of bitterness, and urges practical negotiation and reconciliation (30:00).

When the Church Goes Astray

• What if the Church Stops Preaching Christ?

  • The hosts note the pain of feeling spiritually unfed in church, stressing the need not to "cut and run," but to communicate, pray, and pursue Matthew 18-style accountability and peacemaking (35:59–40:59).
  • The broader denominational structures can help, and sometimes leaving is warranted for the sake of spiritual health.

  "But if you don't have the preaching of the gospel, you don't have a church." —Michael Horton (39:32)

• Priesthood of All Believers

  • Every Christian has a role—if you persevere and help restore the preaching of the Word, you may help "save other sheep from being mistreated" (40:59).

The Ultimate Reason: Christ’s Gift

• Why We Need the Church, Fundamentally

  • Christ gives us the church because we need real, embodied grace, family, and the sacraments (43:38).

  "You need the family of faith. You need the forgiveness and guidance. You need the accountability and the absolution. And it is in the church where Christ Jesus gives you his word and sacrament to nourish you and to sustain you into life everlasting." —Justin Holcomb (43:38)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the church as family and presence:
  "We have a family reunion every week." —Michael Horton (10:31)

• On consumer spirituality:
  "We want to participate in something that costs us nothing. We want to receive a bunch of benefit...and this is exactly what the church is not." —Walter Strickland (14:47)

• On personal contribution:
  "God desires you there, and your brothers in Christ need you there. You're part of this thing and it's important for you to be around." —Justin Holcomb (15:21)

• On defending vs. listening:
  "Be aware of the very quick, impulsive 'defend the church.' ...That's not how Jesus runs things and runs his family." —Justin Holcomb (28:40)

• On suffering and hope in church life:
  J. Todd Billings (via Bob Hiller):
  "The Church is a gathering of sinners...but by God's promise, the church is also people who move through birth, health, dying and even death on a journey to resurrection because they belong to Jesus Christ..." (20:56)

Key Timestamps & Segment Highlights

• Church as Gift and Call (02:20–07:13)
  Discussion on what's lost in a private, non-congregational spirituality.
• Embodied Faith & Church Images (07:13–11:56)
  The church’s uniqueness in providing tangible grace and incorporating biblical metaphors.
• Individualism and Consumer Faith (11:56–15:21)
  Correcting the narrative that church is about me.
• Importance of Presence/Absence (15:21–20:56)
  Family, body metaphors, and how absence impacts the church.
• Dealing With Hurt and Dissonance (23:16–33:38)
  Honest engagement with church-related pain and divisions; need for reconciliation and wisdom.
• When the Pulpit Fails (35:59–43:17)
  Dealing with churches that lose the gospel—approach, communication, and possible departure.
• Foundational Summary (43:37–44:35)
  Final affirmations about why Christ gives us the church.

Final Takeaway

This episode offers a robust defense of the necessity, beauty, and challenge of church life. It urges listeners to recover an embodied, communal faith in a disembodied, consumerist age—to seek reconciliation in times of hurt, to value presence over convenience, to contribute to the whole, and above all, to receive Christ’s gifts that can only be found within the gathered people of God.