a working definition
Alright, here is a big ole BP fastball for everyone to tee off on:
I am constantly working on what I call my LCD ecclesiology (not LSD ecclesiology--that is where the pastor is a dancing panda), paring down my expression of church to the essentials. So how would you define the church in a way that it is complete, but if you took anything away it would cease to be the church? Or maybe this is a better way to ask the same thing: what must be present for your community to look like the Body of Jesus?
Here is my working definition:
The Church is:
A missional community (1) guided by faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, (2) inspired by hope for his coming Kingdom on this earth, and (3) driven by love for God, all people, and creation.
The Signature of Jesus
In addition, there are certain traits that, when practiced by the Church, act as an authentication of Jesus' mysterious presence through the Holy Spirit in that community. In light of Jesus' life and ministry, his teaching and the example he set, I believe that the Signature of Jesus on our community must include:
* Radical Hospitality
* Humble Service
* Thoughtful Disciple-Making
* A Subversive Prophetic Presence
* The Regular Practice of Sabbath
Can the whole of the church start with this basic definition and these five traits/values/characteristics? Can everything else that the church is be extrapolated from these signatures of Jesus? For instance, Sabbath implies the practice of prayer, reflection, rest, meditation, etc. These things are all wrapped up in what it means to practice Sabbath. And the entire disciple-making process here is implied including outreach, evangelism, discipleship, assimilation, leadership development, etc. All of this is what it means to make disciples. Other practices, like worship, find themselves in multiple areas because I hold a broad Rom 12:1-2 view of worship. (Essentially, everything we do that is consecrated to God is worship.)
So . . . what is missing? What would you add? What would you take away?
**Note, I understand we are talking about what we are called to be, not what we always are. Firstly we assume that because the church is made up of broken and imperfect people, we are a church that is perpetually in a state of both growth and disrepair. Also, I am not asking "what we believe." There are others schools of theology for that question. I want to know what makes the church "the church."
I am constantly working on what I call my LCD ecclesiology (not LSD ecclesiology--that is where the pastor is a dancing panda), paring down my expression of church to the essentials. So how would you define the church in a way that it is complete, but if you took anything away it would cease to be the church? Or maybe this is a better way to ask the same thing: what must be present for your community to look like the Body of Jesus?
Here is my working definition:
The Church is:
A missional community (1) guided by faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, (2) inspired by hope for his coming Kingdom on this earth, and (3) driven by love for God, all people, and creation.
The Signature of Jesus
In addition, there are certain traits that, when practiced by the Church, act as an authentication of Jesus' mysterious presence through the Holy Spirit in that community. In light of Jesus' life and ministry, his teaching and the example he set, I believe that the Signature of Jesus on our community must include:
* Radical Hospitality
* Humble Service
* Thoughtful Disciple-Making
* A Subversive Prophetic Presence
* The Regular Practice of Sabbath
Can the whole of the church start with this basic definition and these five traits/values/characteristics? Can everything else that the church is be extrapolated from these signatures of Jesus? For instance, Sabbath implies the practice of prayer, reflection, rest, meditation, etc. These things are all wrapped up in what it means to practice Sabbath. And the entire disciple-making process here is implied including outreach, evangelism, discipleship, assimilation, leadership development, etc. All of this is what it means to make disciples. Other practices, like worship, find themselves in multiple areas because I hold a broad Rom 12:1-2 view of worship. (Essentially, everything we do that is consecrated to God is worship.)
So . . . what is missing? What would you add? What would you take away?
**Note, I understand we are talking about what we are called to be, not what we always are. Firstly we assume that because the church is made up of broken and imperfect people, we are a church that is perpetually in a state of both growth and disrepair. Also, I am not asking "what we believe." There are others schools of theology for that question. I want to know what makes the church "the church."
posted by ben price at 4:11 AM
11 Comments:
I think the following things should certainly be present and I may have missed something.
1. Biblical preaching
2. Sacraments (baptism and Lord's supper)
3. Prayer
4. fellowship
5. Outreach and missions
6. discipleship
7. Church discipline
8. mercy ministry
9. music
The following links also give some good information on what a true church looks like.
http://www.togetherforthegospel.org/T4TG-statement.pdf
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/106/53.0.html
Jazzycat
Hey Ben,
I love Ecclesiology, so here's what rattles around in my brain:
The church is the body of Christ as we are filled with the Holy Spirit in order that we give glory to God the Father.
Church is being and becoming. Jesus' "life, ministry, teaching, and example" are more than what we are to follow, they are what we are to embody.
So, the question is how do we embody the physical presence of Christ in the world today? There is no church apart from Christ (in strictly Christian terms). Obviously, we must be a community shaped by the Biblical witness, but always with the ends of becoming more Christlike.
The list of things are all "what we do". Your list tends to be more mission oriented, and Jazzy Cat's is more worship gathering and discipleship oriented, but they are all what we do, not who we are. This is not to say that those aren't fine things, I agree with them, but your question is, "how would you define the church?" Also, "look like the Body of Jesus" is not the same as Being the body of Christ.
What we do flows from who we are, thus the Wesleyan emphasis on sanctification and grace.
As an aside, I am not meaning to convey a new age idea of the "divine spark" in us all, or some such non-sense, but rather a real and radical transformation. We are not the church by ourselves and we are not the church apart from the Holy Spirit.
I've rambled enough...
Mofast-
My list is not meant as a "to do list" so much as "if we see this, we are list".
Much like the fruit of the Spirit, they are not something to be done, they are the measure by which we can be judged faithful. In Paul's case, to the Spirit's indwelling. In this case, to our embodiment of Christ. Make sense?
So if some says, "we are the church?" What characteristics do you KNOW have to be there to authenticate that claim? Yes, hospitality/service/discplemaking/sabbath/prophetic pressence are actions, but they are also observable characteristics.
It is one thing to answer "We embody Jesus, so we are the Church." That is a true statement, but is it a helpful statment if my question is not how do you define the church, but how do you identify it? (I know, a slight departure from my original language, but my intent all along.) How would someone who does not yet know Jesus recognize a community that faithfully embodies Him? And what is the least common denominator for those faithful expressions?
So Jazzycat says we know a community is the church because there are these things present 1,2,3 . . . And I am asking, really? Preaching and music are requirements for the church to be the church? Those are just examples, the discussion is obviously much more broad.
in other words, what is descriptive, not perscriptive?
Again, if you are looking for the lowest common denominator, here it is:
"if we see Christ then we are the church"
What specific actions does that entail?
"If every one of them were written down, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."
What Jesus did/is doing, we do. So, preaching and teaching, yes, Jesus did that. Healing, yes, praying yes, etc...
All of Chirst was offering the Gospel, the Good news about God and sinner reconciled. This is manifested many ways, such as hospitality, service, etc...
How would someone who does not yet know Jesus recognize a community that faithfully embodies Him?
That's the rub, isn't it? How did people in Jesus' time recognize Jesus?
I realize I am still resisting a list. It is probably because of the way I think, or that I'm just annoying. I guess I'm just thinking that lists become law, fruitful evidences become to do lists, and the example we have been given is neither of these. The great revelation given to us came in a person, in a life.
Now Ben, I am realizing some irony here as you stive for a more "modernity" tinged "descriptive list" and I'm going all pomo "narrative" mumbo jumbo. But to continue, I'd point out that our church story is a continuation of the church story in the N.T. and onward.
On a more serious note, here's my real list of what makes a church:
1. a steeple with bell
2. at least 7 committees with at least 10 meetings a month
3. several old ladies
4. bad coffee
5. bricks
6. organs and/or piano
7. a solemn sanctuary, sad pictures
8. a lapel mic
9. stained glass and crosses
10.random latin phrases
11.Several "Good News for Modern Man"
edition Bibles
12.Or, KJV Bibles or burn in hell
13.Sense of superiority
Mofast,
Your an ass, and I love you for it. You really are right. I think I fell in love with this project so long ago that I conveniently forgot that I don't like lists. I do believe in your insistence on the frustrating and ambigous reality that we are following and embodying a person (we do both I believe, he is Lord and Savior), not a set of values, rules, or laws.
So, I submit to your critique. Yet, is there a place to say "This doesn't look like Jesus," "or to be able to say, I see Jesus here and this is why"? I keep thinking about Jesus' list in Matt 25.
Maybe my real motivation for this project has more to do with challenging people who really do have a lists not so dissimilar to your own. Maybe what I hope is that this conversation can draw us closer to embodying what Jesus actually is (and was), rather than exhausting so much of our energy protecting this institution and the cultural traditions we have become so accustomed to.
Thanks again, ass.
Your an ass, and I love you for it.
My wife and I wrote our own vows for our wedding. I am not sure, but this sounds similar to how she began her promises to me...
Maybe my real motivation for this project has more to do with challenging people who really do have a lists not so dissimilar to your own.
Yeah, we're looking for the same thing. I really do think we're headed in the same direction.
I keep thinking about Jesus' list in Matt 25.
An excellent scripture to catch a glimpse of the church, I agree. However, I guess I don't think of it as a list. Notice that the people who served Christ did it without knowing. I think that it was just a part of who they are. I was thinking of this conversation last night, and perhaps there is a real short list of what the church is:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength;
Love your neighbor as yourself.
...exhausting so much of our energy protecting this institution and the cultural traditions we have become so accustomed to.
It is interesting and frustrating how much energy is put into this, I agree. I think, and I may be wrong, but I think that an insistance upon church being done this way or that way only reveals something about the people insisting it. This is not to say that we're all to be relativists, but rather that we should focus in on Christ like a laser beam. Jesus ministered without a pipe organ, for example. He did not minister apart from a relationship with God.
So, are we being shaped by the Scriptures through the power of the Holy Spirit, or are we gathering together for an hour one morning and within that hour we allow for one (maybe two, and if you're crazy, three) scripture reading, a 20 minute talk which may or may not be related to that reading and then some other stuff. Yes, there are all shades of gray in between these two, but I know personally, I have to fight myself to stop thinking of church as Sunday morning one hour (in my subconscious mind that is). For example, I may say, "I'm going to church today" and really mean that I'm going to an empty building to get something from the office. Symantics, I know, but it reveals something about patterns in my own thinking...
By the way, did you catch the Tigers last night? Awesome.
We are talking about maybe catching a day game in a couple weeks, you want us to pick you up on the way? Seriously.
Ben
ben--
I tagged you to make a book list like the one at my blog. Peace.
When are you thinking about going? Let us know, we've talked about trying to make a game before the baby arrives.
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