BLOG 10/10/13. IF THE CHURCH KNOWS WHY IT EXISTS, IT HELPS ALOT!

BLOG 10/10/13. IF THE CHURCH KNOWS WHY IT EXISTS, IT HELPS A LOT!

I keep coming back to the basic questions about the church and its role in the mission of God to the world in Jesus Christ: what is the church? And: why is the church? We are told that the church is the Body of Christ, so OK, what does that look like? Every follower of Jesus Christ and every participant in the church certainly ought to have a very simple and lucid answer to these questions. Let me propose, as a starting point, my own four principles in answer to these questions.

1.     The church as the Body of Christ is the incarnational and communal demonstration of God’s new creation in its relationships, i.e. in its one another love, in its ministry of reconciliation, in its mutual care for one another, in a whole recreated and wholesome and fresh understanding of the fact that we need one another in mutual love, forgiveness, caring, provision, accountability and responsibility. This transcends all of the alienation and divisions that have eroded the human community in its rebellion. It provokes the curiosity of those god-seekers out there.

2.     The church as the Body of Christ is the incarnational and communal demonstration of the lifestyle of the Kingdom of God, or of God’s New Creation in Christ. This has to do with a whole new way of behavior. It is what Paul calls: The breastplate of righteousness. It is Sermon on the Mount good works that men and women and see, and by which they can know that we are Christ’s disciples. This is not only individual, but also communal. It is the community of Light that attracts the attention of those looking on. It is so awesome that no one takes it lightly. It provokes the curiosity of the on-lookers.

3.     The church as the Body of Christ is (as one Latin American has described it) the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity. It is (and every participant with it) by the very virtue of its calling by Christ a dynamic agent in the demonstrating and heralding/preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom to every nook and cranny, every ethnic group in the whole world. This is its dynamic mission. It is to be, by the Spirit, reproductive in its whole life together. It is not to be a permanent, institutional, secure, religious society—it is to be a purposeful, mobile, flexible, vulnerable and intensely missional community. No one should identify himself/herself with it who does not intend to be Christ’s disciple in this way. And …

4.     The church as the Body of Christ is to be, what the scriptures describe as a beautiful Bride for the Lamb. It is to be formed into his image and likeness. It is to be without spot or wrinkle. The marriage feast of the Lamb is now in preparation as the Spirits fashions this beautiful Bride for the Son of God.

And church expression that doesn’t incarnate and demonstrate such obvious purposes of God’s design for the church … becomes a serious hindrance and stumbling-block to the mission of God to the world.

Confession: These are hardly the principles that determine the life of all too many stagnant pools of ‘religious Christianity’. Church institutions, buildings, professional staffs, in-house activities, aesthetically beautiful worship services and sanctuaries may well have nothing at all to do with the church. Is that saying it too radically? I think not.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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