I love the local church. I have a passion to see the local church become the church that Jesus intends to build. I believe that the fundamental shape of that church is missional, that it’s focus is not internal, meeting the needs of the gathered faithful, but external, influencing the world through sharing kingdom life.
I would not argue with those who quote the creed and say that the chief end of man is to worship God, but I would dispute that as a definition of the church. That, it seems to me, is where we have gone wrong. We have turned the missionary movement that we were meant to be into a gathered community of like-minded people who share their sense of collective disappointment that the rest of the world doesn’t realise how wrong it is.
I believe that the church must change.
Defining the task
We have our mission and purpose set out like this:
Our mission is to know God and to make God known
Our purpose is to love people into a deep and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ
Together these two things help us understand the simple call and purpose of being the church. It is a call to live out our faith in relationship with God and as partners with him in his mission to the world. That mission is redemptive (restoring the broken relationship between humanity and God through the cross of Christ) and it’s active (God came looking, Jesus said, “Go!”) The activity of God in the world was made clear through his covenant with Abraham when he declared that he would bless Abraham in order that Abraham’s descendants would be a blessing to others.
Time and time again this principle of the people of God being a blessing to the world beyond the confines of the people of God is seen in the Old Testament story. Jonah is sent to Nineveh, Daniel serves in Babylon. Fast forward into the New Testament and although the Gospels make it clear that Jesus focussed his ministry on the Jewish people, he consistently blessed those beyond the nation of Israel. The Roman Centurion’s servant, the Syro-Phonecian woman’s daughter, and a Samaritan woman of questionable moral standards.
This is the kind of church I believe Jesus wants to build. A church made up of people who will partner with him on his mission to bless the world and share the message of his redemptive love and sacrifice.
Reshaping the church: Romans 12
In it’s context Romans 12 reflects the call on the church to be a worshipping, prophetic, caring, serving missionary people. All of this is based upon Paul’s earlier arguments that the world is broken and God has broken into this broken world with a plan to redeem it. It’s not a repair plan or a patch plan, it’s a radical reshaping and renewing plan.
In chapter 1 we’re told about the gospel, the power of God to save those who believe the core message.
In chapter 3 we are reminded that everyone has fallen short of God’s standard through the selfish rebellion that we call sin.
In chapter 4 Paul points to the example of Abraham whose faith in God was what mattered most. Not his position as the father of the nation of Israel but his attitude of faith that brought about the reward of God’s blessing.
In chapter 5 we’re reminded that God solved our problem while we were unaware of either the problem or the solution. Even as we rebelled against him, he poured out his love for us through his son Jesus Christ.
In chapter 6 we’re reminded that end product of our rebellion is death but the end product of God’s mission is life.
In chapter 7 Paul exposes the state we are in as he describes life caught between two worlds, the world of wanting to do the right thing and he world of doing the wrong thing.
In Chapter 8 he celebrates the release that comes through knowing God as he declares that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
In chapters 9-11 Paul talks about his passionate concern for Israel and his hope for its future.
And that all brings us to chapter 12 and Paul’s Therefore, brothers and sister I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to present yourselves as living sacrifices.
And that all brings us to chapter 12 and Paul’s Therefore, brothers and sister I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to present yourselves as living sacrifices.
In other words, based upon his argument so far, Paul challenges us to become a people who worship God exclusively, serve him unconditionally and partner with him wholeheartedly.
The Acts 2 framework
Acts chapter 2 presents us with a simple pattern for building a church that is totally committed to worshipping and serving God. It is characterised by four things (thanks to Willow Creek!):
Helping people far from God find faith
Growing mature, fully devoted followers of Jesus
Developing a Biblical community
Carrying a servant towel
Conclusion
There is only one question we must ask ourselves:
Are we willing to step up to the challenge of building this kind of church? Of partnering with God as he builds a church that bears his image and follows his pattern?
We will need to ask ourselves more questions as we go along. Questions like:
What kind of followers of Jesus Christ does God want to produce in this church?
What kind of experiences will we need to have in order to become those kinds of followers?
What kind of leaders will we need to help us become those kinds of followers?
What kind of experiences will we need to have in order to become those kinds of followers?
What kind of leaders will we need to help us become those kinds of followers?
A place to start is with an honest assessment of where we are as individual followers of Jesus.
This is not a pass or fail examination. This is an opportunity to look at where we are going and think about what we are going to do in order to get there.
This is not a pass or fail examination. This is an opportunity to look at where we are going and think about what we are going to do in order to get there.
