The Church Must Change

I went to speak at a nearby local church's weekend away this morning, although they are staying home for it! My topic was "The Church Must Change" and I was asked to be provocative! In brief, this is what I said.

I believe that the fundamental shape of that church is missional (and I’ll define that in a moment) and 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 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.

The missional church refocuses our attention where it ought to be, on God’s redemptive work in the world he made amongst the people he loves. To be a missional people means simply:

To be partners with God in his mission.

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!”). God’s intention 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 focused 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.

More telling than that was the derogatory title the religious people gave him: Friend of sinners. Not only did he bless people beyond the confines of the nation, he also befriended those within the nation but excluded from the religiously faithful community.

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.

What must Change?

Two fundamental things have to change. The church’s view of the world, and the church’s view of the church. Alongside these fundamental perspectives, our motivation for evangelism must also change.

The world is not the enemy, and it’s not the fault of the world that it finds itself as it is. Let me explain. Darkness is by its very nature dark. The problem is not the darkness, but the lack of light. When light shines, darkness disappears. Darkness does not overcome light, but where there is no light, darkness will rule.

Most church rules set out the responsibilities of members somewhere. They are almost always internally focused. It is heartbreaking that the expectations on members of the greatest missionary movement of all time makes little reference to the mission in which it's supposed to be engaged.

Secondly we must stop seeing ourselves as the faithful few who remain, but as the kingdom task force we are called to be.

Finally we must reshape the church. We need to adopt the principle of Christology drives missiology which drives ecclesiology. In other what we believe about Jesus determines how we understand our purpose and this in turn shapes the kind of church we become.