I’m really excited about the focus on mission within the global church at the moment. Whilst there is certainly a lot of hype flying around, the essence of the situation is this; the church has recognized that it hasn’t done a great job of representing what the gospel is and actually getting that message to the people who need to hear it the most.
This cultural basis for ‘mission shaped living’ – a fancy way of saying ‘being a Christian’ – is joined with strong biblical evidence too. In each of the gospels Jesus makes it his final priority to remind his disciples that the good news about his death and resurrection leaves them with an obvious imperative – go and preach the good news to all the nations! Get out there, tell them about what this all of this means and show them the evidence at the same time. Jesus invites us to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come and to do it with all the resources that were at his disposal, namely God’s own Spirit.
This mission is not an add on to the gospel message, but the heartbeat of it. Just as the purpose of God’s people in the Old Covenant was that the nations would be blessed through them, so the New Covenant has the same aim. God’s people are now defined as those who believe in His Son and are filled with His Spirit. Those of us who have received the Holy Spirit are now God’s people in the world, called to do the work of building His Kingdom. Isn’t that crazy? God gives His own Spirit – his own self, his essence, his heart – to all of us who are believing in Jesus, SO THAT we will have all we need to get into the world and do his work.
God sets us up to succeed.
The point is this. The mission of the church is not to build a better church but a better world. Whilst the latter will obviously include the former, history has shown us that those that concentrate on simply building the best church possible never get much further than that. Instead, our starting point as Christians is authentic worship which flows out into mission, not into more chatter about the church. The church is the means of the gospel message getting out into this beautiful world that God has made and plans to fully restore.
Where have we allowed the church to become an end for us, rather than the means?
Steve, I like where you’re going with your point. I am very introverted, so it’s great to meet new people and be in welcoming environments.
I grew up in an environment where time was the most important thing. I remember going to church as a kid and always getting there late, and always leaving early to beat traffic. Can you imagine that? Thinking that ease of travel is more important than spending time with brothers and sisters in Christ. I’m almost ashamed to say now as a “collegesomething” at times, that behavior rears its ugly head.
I am definitely going to take “putting myself out there” as more of a personal challenge in interacting with my brothers and sisters at RockHarbor. Thanks for the encouragement.
What if fellowship with other RH members was so important, that things like traffic, time, available seats, etc. just didn’t matter anymore? What if we could be like the polychronic cultures we see in Europe, Africa, and Latin America? (For those who don’t know, polychronic cultures are ones that put little value on time and more value on relationships – monochronic cultures, like much of the west, look at time as something to be valued and possessed. This often gets in the way of relationship.)
Let’s keep this going!
When you look at the church of Acts you find that they were a true community that loved, supported, and shared everything with each other. This type of community gave them the confidence and the connectedness of a true family, family the way God intended, to be able to go out into the world and share the gospel. So no, I do not feel as though it should be the end unfortunately it has become the end for many Christian churches today. I feel as though we need to deal with the healing of the family..healing of each of our hearts to truly recieve the Love of Christ before we will have the confidence and power to share that love. That is not to say that we cannot be witnesses in the meanwhile, afterall God used an donkey to speak to Balaam in Numbers 222:28-31.
If we truly believed and received the truth of the Love of God we would be compelled to share it we would not have to be coaxed in sermons to do it. Perhaps educated on the hows yet even then, reading Acts they were uneducated fisherman and tax collectors. The Holy Spirit came upon them and they were infused with God’s power! The enemy wants to trip us up with His lies….we need to learn true combat to defuse the lies and to rely totally in faith on God’s truth! (I speak from experience as I have been guilty of the same finding solace and safety within the church walls instead of in my saviour’s love!) It is an adventureous life with Christ and the Truth is our soul’s armor!
…yet these three remain; faith, hope and love. The greatest of these; however, is love.
What would the church look like if we loved eachother the way a family should. Think about your family.
For me my sister. I would back her up till the end of the earth. I would give up everything for her.
What would the church look like if we broke past the walls and loved the way a family was meant to? Why don’t we as college-somethings start right now? I say we brake away from the traditional service we attend. Lets introduce ourselves to complete strangers at RH. After all they are our siblings right
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I agree with the fact that the church has become something so far from what the first “church” had; from what Jesus intended. Churches are now fighting for numbers rather than true change in the people that attend. It is now a place to be passive in our beliefs/faith rather than truly live them out. So many people who have turned away from the church are skeptical due to this fact; that many churches have transformed the sermons, activities, and buildings into things to house people. To bring in more numbers, get more money, and do anything but feed the Spirit and really challenge the people of God. Rather than challenge, we are feeding the impulse that society supports- to care and be committed to something, but never take action on it. People now go to church to get their weekly “dose” of God/scripture. Even those who have been going for years or all their life have turned to the lifestyle that the contemporary church supports. This is not to say that all churches are like this, but I’ve had a lot of talks with people who have come to hate the church today and the people who say they are serving the church. There is such a bad name for “Christian’s” and “Christian” churches specifically that it’s hard to dig ourselves out of the hole we’ve created.
Great insight Gary. The idea that WE have gifts through the spirit, that WE are lifted up through eachother, that when YOU and I come together WE become the BODY, …
That is the ministy.
This made me think of the idea of how we belong to a covenant God. A God who made a deep promise. A God who gave us armour not only as tools to protect against the enemy, but as literal RIGHTS to be righteous, faithful, and truthful. With these promises WE are a BODY that can do great and marvelous things!
Through HIM.
I know this is something I need to pay more attention to in my life. That we have been lifted up and are literally the body of Christ!
End? Means? The church…IS!
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Ephesians 1:22-23 (New Living Translation) God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
Ephesians 2:19-21 (NLT) So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
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God reintroduced himself to Israel, through Moses, as I AM. Pure existence, complete in Himself, but existing in pure relationship with the Spirit and Son–and His perfect creation before the fall.
Until we can understand that We Are…We Are already Jesus’ body and bride and spiritual temple, the discussion will continue to be about organizations, places, missions, means, ends and more.
But when we begin to understand that we are given gifts that fit perfectly within the body that IS, and use them to encourage and serve each other as we gather, whether at home, in a park, in a mall, in the community, even in buildings with steeples and crosses, then we’re starting to get it. The church IS. The body IS. We ARE.
I met a pastor who said, “If I haven’t stepped on someone’s toes by the end of my sermon, then I haven’t done my job.”
I think so many church focus on building up their numbers rather than building up the meat and nourishing the congregation they have. In one of my business classes, we are reading “Fresh Wind and Fresh Fire”. It is this book about a pastor in New York who focuses on prayer and relies on God to do all the heavy lifting. I think that so many people miss that that is what God is all about. He wants us to rely solely on Him. Instead we have all these churches that are competing for attendance, popularity, and so many other superficial aspects.
I want to go to church and feel God. I do not care if I leave feeling up lifted and happy every week. I just want to know that the church is God-centered.
Stoked on the question (“Church as an end?”). I’ve been wrestling with a lot of church-related questions for awhile, and I’m encouraged to know I’m not the only one.
aaron
One more thing I want to add.
I believe whole heartedly that if the spirit was able to move (that is people allowed Him to move by being open and holding on to nothing of this world but living for the kingdom) in believers who had true faith. Those acts of healing, speaking in someone elses language, and thousands recieving the spirit; would not be a rarety or a forgotten apostolic myth.
The body of Christ would be dangerous, bold, and beautiful once again.
In my journey through regeneration and a life of being a living ministry for our Father; I have had the oppurtunity to visit (and yes even be a member of) multiple churches in our nation. From small churches who have deep southern baptist roots, to massive churches who are only known for the books that the lead pastor has written. I have seen masks on faces, hearts of stone; even ideals that are perfect and inpenitrable (or so the host would say).
Where we as a modern western culture have really messed up is by allowing our churches to specifically that. A church.
Looking back at the book of Acts we see the first “church” (which I will now refer to as community) as nothing but about 100 of Jesus closest meeting in some house. By the end of the first few chapters this community transformed itself into a community of 3000 +, a community where even the shadows of the believers were enough to perform miracles (5:15), and a community that was willing to sacrfice their very bodies.
So why isnt this happening today in our churches? Because they are exactly that.
We have turned our places of worship into nothing more than brick walls that house great potential. The bodies and hearts of the believers inside no longer thirst for the Spirit the way we need to. We do not share in other communities the way we were meant to. We do not love eachother and give all of our possetions up for one another (Acts 4:32-36).
To put it short: we have stopped the Spirit dead in His tracks and have tried to start a revolution while there is still a civil war going on in our own hearts.
I know what you’re saying Jason. I’ve often been indifferent to Jesus and his call on my life in the midst of the church. I’ve often taken it to be something for me rather than something for Him. I’m sure we’re all susceptible to this, but I see that God is always calling us back to the goal of the whole thing…Jesus!
Pretty cool to see that going on in RH…
I truly feel that the church today chooses to build up the body of the church instead of the body of Christ in the church. But when I truly stepped into RH and found the Lord again I missed it all. I was using church for that simple refresher. That feeling of thanks for the shower but not taking the gospel for what it truly meant. This Sunday Mike Erre taught us on the true cost of Discipleship. That you have to be able to let go everything, and just let Jesus lead your life!
It opened my eyes because I noticed I was using the church to just get a quick fix and not allowing Jesus use me out in his ministries to help proclaim his word.