May 10, 2006> 4:38 PM
the purpose of the church
Like I said, I write about the same things over and over again. Here we go. Hopefully this won't be long or involved. It really shouldn't be, doesn't need to be. That answer to this question has been taken through the ringer over the years. It has been made very complicated indeed. I say, let's stop all that and back up the car a few miles.
Let me get past the controversy right quick so we can move on and not make this the longest blog post known to human kind. The purpose of the Church is NOT...
to infiltrate, take over, or become earthly governments in order to solve the world's problems through those means.
to give people something to do until they die and go to heaven.
to feed and clothe the poor.
to be the moral conscience of a nation.
to be that part of a society where people go to get spiritual or religious things when they feel they need them.
to heal and comfort the sick.
Alright now, I feel much better. But I imagine many of you do not. I snuck a couple in there on you didn't I? I hear the protests even now, "Wait a minute! What will He ask us at the final judgment!?" Yeah, I know. Do you know? Put your thinking cap on now and hunker down with me for a few minutes. Think primaries and secondaries. Think cause and effect. Think purpose, not result. Even for the two up there that will ruffle the most feathers, think! They are not primary purpose statements. They may be part of what the Church does inside the life of it's primary purpose, but they are NOT the purpose. They are not the end.
The purpose of the Church is to be the Church.What or who is the Church? The Church is the collected people who have been spiritually united with God through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Those of us who have been gathered back under the wings of the Mother Hen. The Church is alive people - the assembly of Living People - the Resurrected ones. I've said this before (of course) in one way or another, but the whole purpose of the Jesus thing is so that we all will be Human Beings again, real ones, Alive ones, the kind we were created to be. That's IT. That's the whole thing. That's all. Everything else flows out of that.
So, as we ARE the Church, our purpose is to be as fully Alive as possible - to open ourselves to the fullness of the Life of God in Christ as much as we can, and thus, be transformed into His Image. What are we then? What do we become, the more like Him we are? We become what He "was" - we become living and participatory conduits through which the Life and Kingdom of God flows into the world. We are that by being who we are. The Church, as it exists here on earth, is a transformation vessel for those who are in it. Once again, everything else flows out of that.
If we focus so much on the doing of things as our purpose, I believe we will shortcut what's actually supposed to be happening in and through the Church. Sure, we'll see good things being done, but to what end? I'm not sure. Of course, I know, the Kingdom "work" is done through anything good like that. Allow me to focus on this, though. If all we do is play around with secondaries and outward-oriented activities, thinking that by doing this we are "getting something done," we may well be cutting off the nutrients needed to properly grow the plant.
Go find a big tree, an Oak or something like that. What do you look at? The branches and the leaves right? Especially in the Summer or Fall. We focus on something which is secondary. We focus on the outer edges. Where does the life of that tree come from?From the trunk, the ground, the roots. Sure, photosynthesis happen through the leaves, etc., but if not for that trunk and that massive root system, the leaves would die and fall off, and the tree, in the end, would bear no real and lasting fruit.
I think I'll stop there. Of course this subject matter is deep and cannot be fully worked out in a blog post, but I think I have said basically what I wanted to say at this point. Be the Church.
May 10, 2006
> 4:38 PM
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