Wow…
I can’t tell you how great your thoughts were on the last post, “God’s Mission Has A Church.” It is really encouraging and exciting to see your responses and the thought each of you put into your comments.
In the Gospels Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as near, here already and just around the corner. He talks of the Kingdom’s immediacy and the fact that, while already here, it is not completely already here. It is both arrived and en route; it is already but not yet; it is both “at hand” (to use a Bible phrase) and only announced.
The Church functions in this same way as the proclaimer, or herald, of God’s Kingdom. As we live our lives as a part of Christ’s community, his body, we are a preview of God’s Kingdom. It is a reign which is both coming and present.
God’s mission, that which he aims to accomplish in the world, has a church. The church exists to serve God’s Kingdom. God’s Kingdom is not subservient to his church.
Do you think this is right? If so, how do you think we discover where and how God’s Kingdom is at work here in Wichita?
I tend to believe–and I know that this view is from my own “lens” from past experience–that the church has placed too much emphasis on finding the one place where God is at work around them, as if God can only accomplish one thing at a time. In Matthew, Jesus talks about “even the least of these”. God is at work everywhere in Wichita in the lives of “even the least of these”. While I agree that it is important for a local body to choose where to concentrate their efforts, I don’t think the body of Christ should spend too much time trying to decide if God is at work in one place more than another.
So how the question of where God is at work–in my mind–is an easy question to answer.
still trying to figure out this whole “tag” thing…
I like Todd’s comments. It makes me think of the Experiencing God Bible study that was so popular several years ago, where, if I remember correctly, you were encouraged to find where God is working and join him there. Or something like that. It was a lot of pressure, to determine where God was working the most! I like the idea better that God is at work everywhere and that it is not our job to determine the “best” place to join in his work. I think as Christians we need to have a vision to see the needs in those around us, and a willingness to do what we can to help meet those needs. And there are needs all around us…
Sorry to jump into the conversation here. I have not attended your church, but my wife and I are considering it as we have been growing and searching and educating ourselves in the ideas of a missional church and what it means to be a Christian in a post-modern culture. I have, over the last year, become disillusioned with the “institutional church” that seems to equate the expanding of the Kingdom of God with the expanding of the local church. Isn’t the Kingdom of God within our hearts and lives and relationships as we experience genuine community with each other and show the rest of the world the grace which Jesus gave to those he encountered? The “institutional church” doesn’t seem to practice that. Your community seems to have the correct focus from what I can tell. We want to find a church community like that.
Doug, welcome! You don’t need to apologize for jumping in. We are having this conversation out in public. When it comes to being a missional church I think we are getting there. These kinds of conversations are important because a renewed focus on the Kingdom of God requires more than reading a book or hearing a message. It requires experimenting with new ways of being the church and participating in God’s Kingdom.
Jump in anytime.