BLOG 6/12/18. WHAT IS THE PRIMARY TASK OF THE CHURCH?

Periodically, it is the worth the effort of that minority of our population, who identify themselves as part of Christ’s church, to ask the basic question: What is the primary task of the church? From its very first generation it has been a danger of that community to become foggy or forgetful about what it is that Christ has called his people to be, … or maybe to adopt secondary priorities as though it were the first.

In that stint of my career when I was my denomination’s leader in its evangelism office there were those zealots for my particular emphasis, who would insist that evangelism was the ‘urgent and primary task of the church’. Such well-meaning folk were a bit uncertain of me when I insisted that the primary and urgent task of the church was not evangelism, but rather it is worship. Humankind’s response to any real meeting with God has been precisely that: worship. Consider the classic encounter that the young courtier by the name of Isaiah had in the temple when he saw the Lord, high and lifted so that his train filled the temple. Isaiah’s only response was to fall on his face in contrition and worship before such an encounter with the thrice-holy God. It was only in response to that encounter that Isaiah was open to God’s commission to him to be his prophetic (evangelistic) voice to the straying nation of Israel.

Worship, to be quite honest, in all too many Christian communities become the expected program for a Sunday morning, where it is possible to sing magnificent, yet familiar words, quite mindlessly. It is for some a Sunday morning habit, or a quest for some moment of quiet, or spirituality, after a taxing week. All of this is quite appropriate in one sense, yet it misses the true purpose of worship which it to totally refocus our lives as we focus our lives on the being, the heart and mind, the mission and love of God in sending his Son, Jesus Christ. Worship is to be a transformational encounter. It may not always be ‘inspirational’ but rather painfully transformational (such as it was for Isaiah, or any of those who have chosen to follow God).

For those of us who have made the decision of mind and will to be the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, worship is the weekly (as well as daily) renewal of our baptismal vows, or our call to discipleship. Then, … if our vision of God in Christ is so refocused, we will be refreshed to be faithful to his teachings and mission, agents of his love and his gospel of peace. This, then, will focus us again on his mission and our participation in it. That will primary and urgent will call us again to engage in the mission of our Lord Jesus to be his agents in communicating his love for his creation, to love and care for his creation, to be his instrument of seeking and saving the lost (evangelism), of having his eyes and heart for the hurting, the lost, the displaced and homeless, the empty and hollow persons with whom we rub elbows daily.  We will become those with his mind and will and character, i.e., the continuing incarnation of Christ in the ordinary stuff of every day.

Yet, make no mistake about it, true worship is a discipline. It takes discipline to focus on the meaning of scripture, on the implications for my own life, to not be conformed to passive religion, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and hearts, to be demonstrations of God’s New Creation, God’s new humanity. Yet that discipline of worship becomes for us an ongoing work of God conforming us to the image of his Son.

When truly engaged, worship will call forth the response in us: Here am I, send me! Each of us will become (what one termed) the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity. Alright!

Response? And if these blogs are provocative and helpful, suggest them to your friends.

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