Steve Pye, a fellow Connector and leader in our church, has an outstanding blog, ORGANIC CHRISTIANITY. His post today on the purpose of the church is too good to miss.
What I appreciate so much from Steve, and the body of Christ in general, is perspective.
Steve draws out some things that are biblical, but different than my usually way of prioritizing the mission of the church.
But that's the thing. At this young stage in the lifecyle of Connections I have a focus on the mission of the church. In my view we are still just a baby church, keeping our mission in front of us to take our first steps. Steve draws out deeper purposes of an established and more mature church. Ultimately we can say that mission is part of the larger purpose of the church. A huge part, the driving part, but part of a bigger picture.
Anywho, it's awesome. I commend it to you...
http://oc.stevepye.me/article/268
well, thank you for the shout-out :)
ReplyDeleteThe only comment I'd add is that most of what I'd derived that understanding from was Jesus' specific call on how he would build his Church, which stemmed largely from his discussions with Peter. That being said, if it applied back then, then I definitely believe it's applicable now, and the size of the church is largely irrelevant.... when Jesus made those calls to Peter, and established the Church, it initially consisted of only twelve people..... and Jesus left them to run it after 3 years.
So my challenge would be, is there any reason why these models and principles don't apply to a church that is three years old and has twelve or more people? Connections is now almost three years old... and has more than ten times as many people..... is it still a baby church? Are we unable to do things a certain way because we're a "baby church?" Or are we a baby church because we aren't doing things a certain way?
Food for thought.