Last night I taught the third week of our membership class here at Desert Springs Church in Albuquerque. As the third and final week of our survey of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation, we talked about the Church age and the consummation of all things in Revelation 21 and 22. In talking about the church I drove home the point that the church is primarily a community of people called of God to spread his glory broader and deeper in our communities and to all the ends of the earth. We are to be ministers of restoration as God seeks to use us to actualize his kingdom reign "on earth as it is in heaven".
When I was at Covenant Seminary in January for a week long module class, Dr. Greg Perry asked us a very pointed question related to this that I passed along to my class last night. Dr. Perry framed it like this:
Churches don't pay property taxes. We don't contribute financially to our community. So then, here is the million dollar question: What do we do we contribute to the community?
1 comment:
What do we contribute? This is a very good question! I guess it differs from one local church to another-- but in a "big picture" sense, this is my take. As God's people, we contribute to our communities through our own transformation, as God's people, by His power. God sanctifies us, and we contribute to our communities through our sanctification. It's NOT a matter of pride, regarding our transformation OR our contributuions though-- it's a matter of radical gratitude to God, radical humility before the cross, and radical love for others, as God has shown supremely for His children in Christ. It means doing things that we never would have previously done.
For example, before being saved by God, we had no interest in sharing His Gospel with people. Now, we should want to "contribute" to our communities through the verbal proclamation of the Gospel. We should also long to contribute through the transformation of our own lives, privately AND publically, by the Gospel (not that we get the ultimate glory though, for the transformation in us or the contributions to the world). This process means involving other people in our lives, and being unfraid to get involved, positively, in others' lives, and in the wider society.
This is sanctification, by God's power, at least as I see it, from the Bible. It's not a "private" matter, affecting only ourselves. Our sanctification also affects those around us, and the wider society and even the world. It happens in us, but it "spills out" in our words, thoughts, and actions, in every place where we happen to be, at a given moment-- when we are "alone" with God, when we are with other Christians, and when we are around no Christians at all. How we think about, and act toward, other people-- not just the ones who are "easy" to love-- is a very important measure of our own growth as Christians. How we treat God's creation is another measure of such growth (not that I'm saying there is a definite "Biblical" position on, say, global warming). Basically, in being God's people, we contribute to our communities through our being sanctified, as both public and private people-- and this affects (or should affect!) everything and everyone around us in a posiive way. As we are changed by God, our thoughts, words, and deeds change-- ultimately, our *hearts* change. This process has incredibly far-reaching implications-- from our love for the church, local and world-wide, to our attempts to help the suffering person down the street, or across the world.
Post a Comment