| What Is the Church? |
| What is the church? Not its membership, but its function – what makes the church the church? One common view states that the church is put on earth to save individuals, to bring the world to Jesus one soul at a time. A second, quite different view claims that the church is here to save the world, to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth. But each of these views has problems: A church that works upon its culture without taking into account the need for individuals to consciously turn back to God fails to recognize that the world changes when the people who compose it change. On the other hand, a church concerned only with saving individuals fails to witness to the world-changing power God has to offer. The truth is really somewhere in between these two views. According to scripture, the people of God are a city set on a hill. But we are not set there because we are somehow closer to God. No, we are there to be more visible to the world around us. Our job as Christians is to be visible, to show the world what God can do. But we are not individuals standing on that hill – we are a city, a group, a community of believers. Our witness to the world, therefore, is the witness of a people, and to a great extent it involves us demonstrating how communities work when guided by God. We are still individuals, but we are also intimately connected one with one another in our daily lives. The church is to witness to the ways individuals led by God can form communities devoted to God, and to the differences God makes in a people when they all seek Him. It is to be a peaceful community, joyous, loving, kind and just. It will thus be a community radically different from what the world knows or even imagines. The church will not be content merely to save individuals, but will testify to a new model of community life. We are a city, a people, a nation, such as the world cannot duplicate by its own strength. Nor will the church attempt to change the world into the kingdom of God, but will be content to stand apart as a model. It remains in the world, but is not of it. Rather, it is set apart, present yet irreconcilably different. And in its distinctiveness, it will attract all the nations to its light, its life, and its love. This is what the church is called to be: a new culture, an example of what is possible for humanity under God’s leading, a testimony to the future kingdom of God, and the bridge by which people can come out of the world and into salvation. It is an astounding promise, an immense responsibility and, above all, a miraculous invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good. --January 2003 |