BLOG 8/5/15. THREE DISCERNABLE LAYERS IN MOST TRADITIONAL CHURCHES.
Just for the sake of our conversations about the church and its authenticity, let me lift up three discernable components among the participants of most churches that have been around for a while. If a church is well founded it will have a very clear persuasion of its message and its mission—of who Jesus is, what he came to do, what he taught, and what is his purpose for his church—it is a Christ-o-centric colony. Yet as a church community begins to take root, or have traction, it will begin to attract people … but sometimes for reasons for their resonse nothing to do with the message and the mission of Jesus Christ.
The first component is the healthy one. It is made up of those persons who are sincere in their desire to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, and who know that they need each other. They come together for mutual encouragement, growth in understanding, and to be equipped to be the children of light in their everyday lives. These are the hungry sheep who are worshipers of the Great Shepherd, and who thirst for his word.
The second component begins to emerge when a church dilutes, or displaces, or forgets its essential message and mission, relies more and more on its success and image, but then reverts to (what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls) religious Christianity, i.e., the words of the gospel but not the reality in obedient lives of discipleship. In any church congregation over a decade old, this becomes more and more obvious.
And then there is usually the third component (frequently overlooked), and that is made up of those bewildered by it all, or those seeking to understand what it is about Jesus Christ that deserves their attention. Any healthy colony of God’s New Creation people should be very sensitive to the presence of such persons such as these and make a place for their inquiries, their doubts, their misunderstandings, and their engagement with the enigmatic realties of their daily lives.
Whichever of these components is the dominant one will determine the self-image and witness of a particular church community. All three are nearly always present in any church community from its earliest days. Many churches were built on false foundations of denominational identity, or for some selfish reason apart from obedience to Jesus Christ. Such usually were frequently dependent on a building and a clergy person … but not primarily on the mission and message of Jesus Christ unfortunately. I don’t think I am being unreal or cynical here. What happened along the way was that Jesus continued to build his church, and that there were frequently those serious believers and disciples who found each other, and found some form in which to meet, and so also became the contagious and vital communities of new life in Christ, with or without a traditional denominational label.
Now, here in the 21st century it tends to be such innovative communities of discipleship that are emerging spontaneously (sometimes even inside of denominational congregations!). At the same time, Christian communities have a life span. Church communities can and do dilute or displace or forget their mission and message, and fade. The landscape of many of our cities are now littered with formerly prestigious church institutions, now aging and sinking under expensive corporate structure, but facing their imminent demise, … yet usually in total denial.
But Christ continues to build his church in ways and places no one would anticipate. It is a marvelous mosaic, and replete with complexities and ambiguities, yet at the same time witnessing to the message and mission of Jesus Christ. The inquirers and the bewildered can find their center, their creative source, their authority, their guiding line, and their true goal in such. May their number multiply to the glory of Christ.
