Whoever Gets to Own the Name ‘Church', Wins!

Whoever Gets to Own the Name ‘Church', Wins!
By Ben F. Gray www.vocations4life.com.au

During my 33 years as a Christian, working and leading in business, congregational settings and missions, the question: "what's the true shape, location and mission of the church?" has continually been near the top of the list of hot topics. As a friend of mine once said, "whoever gets to own the name ‘church', wins!"

However, this ongoing debate mainly focuses on the different ways in which we as Christians gather together to form communities of faith, from which outreach and subsequent growth are meant to happen. A question that could be asked here is: ‘are we looking in the right direction in our attempts to define the nature, shape and mission of the church?'

My conviction is that instead of looking at the creation God has made and locating the church (the people of God) within that setting, mostly we keep looking towards the gathered expression of the church in order to get our primary bearings.

It is becoming increasingly evident to many around the globe that the divided worldview of the 5th Century BC philosopher ‘Plato' has been the primary cause of much of the church's confusion in regards to the ‘what, where and why' of church and it's mission.

You see his worldview divided the spiritual realm from the natural realm, the secular from the sacred and separated the heaven of God from the earth. The church slowly became something distinct from the individual Christian. The essential form of this church did not change all that much in the Reformation, nor in the centuries that followed. To this day we still, for the most part, see the church as something separate to us - the people of God, living and working in society and creation. Still this place, this entity, is something that we go to or come from; be it house, local or mega-church.

Paul in 1Timothy 3:15 says that the church gathered is called to be a ‘pillar and support of the truth'. This is to say that it has a servant or partnering function, rather than a central or dominant role in relation to the church in all of creation - be it in business, health, education, family or other facet of life.

It's into this realm of truth the ‘Hebraic' vision of creation and of church enters: The Hebrews (the early church also had this same cosmology) were taught by God that the heavens were connected to the earth; that they were in relationship, in space and time, both in this age and in the age to come. When we take this integrated vision of life and apply it to books such as Ephesians - the book of the church - we begin to see a very different and stunningly beautiful shape and place for the church emerge.

In Ephesians 1 Paul speaks of the journey of Christ through the heavens to take his seat at the right hand of God. Keeping heaven connected to earth, he says (vs. 22) that Christ's feet are on the earth and that his head is over all things ‘in the heavenlies' (vs. 20). Paul then goes on to say that Christ's body, the church, is situated between them. It is so simple, yet so profound - right now Christ's body the church (that's us folks) stands in and through the created order. It's calling and mission in that creational place is, as Paul goes on to say, to be ‘the fullness of him (Christ) who fills all in all'. In effect we are to embrace the kingdom; collaborate with it in this day and time so through this engagement heaven is released in the earth, all creation is impacted and God's will is established. It is this church, now standing in every sphere of creation that we must see, equip, release and nurture.

To get a first hand view of this stunningly beautiful Bride read one of my books, ‘Heaven's Answer to Earth's Dilemma' which is about that church in creation and how we might equip it to do the work of the kingdom.