What is the church’s role in the community? Certainly it’s to be a house of worship where a group of like-believing members of a community can gather for song, prayer, and sacrament. Further, the church is a central participant in the activities for the community. The church has ministries that feed the hungry and clothe the poor. It has gatherings for worship, work, and fellowship. Above all, though, the church exists in a secular community to be a light to that community in the name of Jesus Christ.
The mission of God through the ages has been to proclaim His righteousness in the face of human sin and to announce his forgiveness and atonement first through the Law and then through Jesus’ blood shed on Calvary’s cross. The book of Acts opens with the statement that Luke “wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven” (Luke 1:1-2, NIV). The church is the continuation of what Jesus began so long ago in his earthly ministry. Whatever we do as a church in the community or in the walls of our buildings we are to be about the business of announcing the present and yet-to-come Kingdom of God inaugurated in the life of Jesus Christ.
Yes, we do Zumba (Tuesdays and Thursdays; you should come!) and yes we do camps and fellowships and fundraisers But let not the church forget its reason for being: the Body of believers must announce the Kingdom of God and that such a Kingdom stands over and against the way of life of the world. If we lose sight of our witness of God’s work in the world then we have lost our identity as the church and might as well be any other social club.
Monday, February 28, 2011
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