God is speaking to His church. He is calling us to see church differently and then to be church differently. In this post modern world attendance in the traditional, mainstream denominations of the western church is falling. Questions are being asked about whether the future even has a church. The old structures and methods seem to be failing the culture of the new millennium. Society in a post modern age does not see the need or value of the traditional church. But people like Jim Thwaites and Pete Ward are seeing new shapes of church emerging. The church that they are describing is radically different to anything you have ever dreamt of or imagined. It is a church that reaches out into every sphere of creation and brings God’s goodness and light. This church is the body of Christ, but seen from a different viewpoint.
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An Emerging View of Church
By John Rodgers
God is speaking to His church. He is calling us to see church differently and then to be church differently. In this post modern world attendance in the traditional, mainstream denominations of the western church is falling. Questions are being asked about whether the future even has a church. The old structures and methods seem to be failing the culture of the new millennium. Society in a post modern age does not see the need or value of the traditional church. But people like Jim Thwaites and Pete Ward are seeing new shapes of church emerging. The church that they are describing is radically different to anything you have ever dreamt of or imagined. It is a church that reaches out into every sphere of creation and brings God’s goodness and light. This church is the body of Christ, but seen from a different viewpoint.
The church that Jesus is building (Mt 16:18) is called to be “…the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” Eph 1:23. All of creation is to be filled with the body of Christ who in doing so, represent Jesus. What does it mean that all of creation is to be filled? Jim Thwaites, an Australian pastor and author, in his book “Church Beyond the Congregation” (2002) talks of the creation context for humankind. He breaks this down into three spheres: marriage, family and work. Broadening the picture we can suggest that there are further spheres of creation such as education, the arts, politics, health, the media, religion and so on. Everything in creation has been made by God. Everything in creation is held together by Jesus because it was made by him and for him (Col 1:16-17). As we look around at creation today, how much of Jesus can we see? To what extent can we say that politics or the media are filled with the light of Christ? How much are they used for his purposes? On reflection the answer to these kinds of questions is always not what it should be. This is where the church comes in. The church has to find a way of filling each and every sphere of creation with the presence of God. So how do we do this?
Perhaps a more relevant question would be; how much each of the different spheres is already filled by the body of Christ. To answer this question accurately we need to think about the church as the body of Christ. I think it is fair to say that the majority of western Christians view the body of Christ as the church. From here we start with our assumptions about local church, church that gathers on a Sunday, and we build our idea that the body of Christ is evident when the church gathers in the congregational context. In simple terms we see that the church gathered is the body of Christ. But what if we were to change our perspectives a little? What if we were to look at the body of Christ as the church? In other words all of those who are in Christ Jesus, who have been justified by faith in Him, are members of the body of Christ. They are part of the same family. They are still family whether they are gathered or not. Just as in our families, our brothers are still our brothers, our sisters our sisters even when we are not gathered for Christmas dinner. In “Liquid Church” (2002) Pete Ward, teacher and author, challenges us to set our minds and our practices free by seeing church in this way; to see the body of Christ as the church and not the church as the body of Christ.
This paradigm shift is essential to what God is calling for in these times. However we must realise that there will be those for whom this will be a huge obstacle to overcome. Changing our mindsets from gathered church as the focus of the coming Kingdom of God to the body of Christ as dispersed saints who are filling each and every creation sphere with the presence and Glory of God will be hard. It will mean that those who pastor and oversee congregations will need to fully let go of their sheep and empower them to live in whatever aspects of creation they are called to. The ministry gifts now take on a new role as the saints are equipped for works of service (Eph 4:11-12).
Let us come back to the question in hand. To what extent has the body of Christ already filled the spheres of creation? I would suggest that the answer is far more positive than we know. Writing in Martin Scott’s book “Impacting the City”, Mike Love gives some inspiring examples of people who are working out what it means to be “the fullness of him…” in various situations, from business to youth work. There are people out there who may not be “well known” in the congregational context of church, but are doing the business where it counts, in their offices, schools, meeting rooms and canteens. These people are striving to make an impact on those around them, the institutions to which they belong and the organisations that they work for. Have they fully succeeded in filling all things? No, but they are on the way. It is up to us to join them in transforming society by engaging with it from within. It cannot escape our notice that the major players in revival type growth throughout the history of the church were all actively involved with social reform and transformation. Think of people like Booth, Wiberforce and Zinzendorf. We should not be seeking revival for the sake of increasing the numbers of our congregations, but for the sake of those that are lost and for the transformation of society.
So, how can we move towards being the body of Christ that fills all? The fivefold ministry gifts in Ephesians 4:11 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) are designed to equip the saints for works of service. The word equip or perfect (KJV) in the Greek is katartismos. This word is a medical term and it was used by doctors when talking of resetting a broken bone or when relocating a dislocated joint. It has a strong connotation of alignment. When the saints are equipped they are aligned fully with God. They are relocated back into the right place. This is helpful imagery as we can easily see that a dislocated arm is useless to the body, just like a group of saints being dislocated from the body of Christ, they are of greater use when they are snapped back in to place and relocated. That is what the ministry gifts do. They align us with God and his purposes for us. They prepare us by connecting us with the wider body, the body that exists in all things.
Ministers of these gifts are called to train others in them, so that they in turn can use them in the spheres of creation. The evangelist’s role is to train others in evangelism, the prophet’s role to train others in the prophetic and so on. This will mean that when we enter into the sphere of work, for example, we will be fully prepared and able to bring the good news of the Gospel, the announcement of the coming Kingdom of God. We will be able to speak words of prophecy over our colleagues. How many people do you meet during the day that God would not want to talk to? How does God talk to people in the world that don’t yet know him? Through the church. The church is here to be the light that draws people from the kingdom of darkness. We are blessed in order to be a blessing. Once equipped with the gifts of God’s kingdom we can stride out into creation and know that we are able to fulfil that to which we were called.
I would like to challenge you to think about how you view church. Do you see the body of Christ as church or do you see that the church is actually the body of Christ. Surely it is time to move from our old ways of thinking and embrace what God is calling for; a church that is the fullness of him, who fills all in every way. A church that engages with every sphere of creation, a church that brings God’s light and goodness, a church that calls for each sphere to become what it was destined to be, a church that is Jesus everywhere.
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