Yeshua Explored

15th August 2022

Fulfillment

Who is the Church?

(This series of articles was written a year after the first lockdown in March/April 2021)

Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Blogs2/Yeshua-Explored  – (until they finally pull the plug!)

In the Christian ‘subculture’ I am an outsider. This is not intentional, it’s just how it has worked out for me. I have worked for some key ministries, particularly in the Christian media and have also worked alongside many other ministries, from many traditions. Although there had been times when it seemed I would allow myself to be pulled into some of these ministries, it has never happened. Yes, the fault could be mine – a little too weird, independently-minded and awkward. All possible, though I am beginning to suspect that it could very well be a ‘God’ thing and perhaps even a ‘good thing’. It has been a difficult time for me, particularly as a writer generally ignored by his peers in the wider Christian world, but it gives me an advantage. I am able to be totally subjective and ‘say it as I see it’, without fear of giving offense. I have always done this, to a degree, but, in these last few articles, I feel a greater mandate because, for the first time, there seems to be a timely nature to it all and the need to get the message out before it’s too late.

It may not have come across so, but I write out of a love for God’s church, not out of a sense of rejection from some within it. Although not a ‘people person’, I see ordinary ‘people’ hurt by a system that is meant to give growth, freedom and hope and it grieves me. It is the system that is at fault, one that has been inherited over the centuries, as a product of Greek thinking. Those ‘within’ the system, even those propagating it, are simply following Church tradition, perhaps unquestioningly. All I am doing is posing the questions, offering possible answers and stirring up the mix. I am a stirrer, a spiritual gift that Paul perhaps omitted to include in his lists (tongue in cheek!) So, it is time to summarise this ‘stirring’ and hope that at least some of you are ‘stirred in your souls’.

The key question asked is this; who is the Church? If it is brick and mortar then Covid-19 has seen it off. If it is the multi-national global corporation that has grown from the tiny seeds sown 2,000 years ago, then Covid-19 has posed some problems. I would drill down further and suggest the obvious; the Church is, as it was always meant to be, the Ekklesia, those individuals called out by God and grafted into His purposes, with Christ at the head. These people will be led by God to others, who will teach them, help them, minister to them, feed them and love them. This whole process is reciprocal and the role of every Christian is to do the same to others. This is true discipleship in action and living as a member of God’s Kingdom. It is pure and it is lovely. This is the original model of God’s Church from the very beginning, with the main purpose being the evangelism of the world.

We are the Church. We don’t belong to a Church. We are God’s ambassadors in this world, not apologists for a system that has not been the best witness to a hurting world. Flockdown has, I believe, ignited this realisation within many and this book, hopefully, will take you further in realising this and asking God, what is my role in this? Hear I am, Lord, please use me.

If you have been so moved,see this, in the first instance, as a call for reflection, rather than action. Ask God to make clear what you should do next, rather than allowing feelings and emotions to dictate your actions. Yes, our established Church systems have many issues, but not all is bad. There are many true expressions of godliness working within our Church systems and many sincere godly people fulfilling their destiny. This book is a call for us to rethink anything that deflects from our primary mission of reaching the world for Christ and doing so as representatives of our Messiah in thoughts, words and deeds.

We are the Church, God’s Church, let us never forget that. The world doesn’t generally see it that way because we haven’t demonstrated it clearly enough. We have His authority to do great things and see a wonderful harvest of souls. We just need to realise who we are in Him.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

It is time we grasped this and ran with it.

This is an extract from the book, Flockdown Church: Back to the drawing board?, available for £5 at https://www.sppublishing.com/flockdown-church-278-p.asp