My View

Finally got our cluster going properly. Everytime we’ve tried getting something done we’ve been assaulted by the enemy. But this time we got the cluster started, with around 20 people (including children) present. It seems that people are interested in continuing.

Praise be to God!

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Missiology comes before ecclesiology. Have heard it said, but it seems more and more to the point the more I think about it, and the more I experience it.

Jesus had a very practical take on building his church. He called workers for the harvest. He commissioned them, gave them authority to drive out demons, heal the sick, forgive sins. He sent them out before him, and sometimes after him. But he sent them.

He finished his work on earth with what we call “the Great Commission”. And then he left. With hardly a mention of the church (2 times in Matthew’s gospel, that’s all). He was concerned with the Kingdom of God. And to advance the Kingdom, he sent his people. The word ‘mission’ comes from the latin ‘missio’ which means ’sent’. And yet we find it so difficult being sent out into the world. We’d rather lock ourselves up. Of course people are welcome to join us in our churches if they want to. But they have to find us first…

But now something is happening. God is sounding the Mission Bell

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Been away on different conferences, trips and other stuff. Nice to be back in business, in the business.

But nice being away as well. I have a very strong sense of God moving in this country (Finland) right now. Everywhere I came God seemed to be calling people into action; stepping forward into service, stepping forward into mission. Our God is a missionary God. And he is on the move.

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“Well what did you expect?” Seems like that’s been God’s word to me lately. Jesus is pretty clear in the New Testament that our share in this world is not one of hurray cheers everywhere. A favourite passage I return to every so often is Jesus’ prayer in John 15-17. Usually I’ve dug into chapters 15 and 17, but tonight I found a reason to dig into chapter 16.

In all its grimness it gives me comfort.

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Jesus and the New Testament uses the word ekklesia to describe the followers of Jesus. The original word means “those who are called out”. I thought I’d devote my second (or first if you don’t count the intro) post on the topic of church to the communal aspect of it.

The first Christians (like in the book of Acts in the Bible) seemed to be quite single-minded in their pursuit of community together. They gathered every day, it says. They sold their possessions, they shared meals together. They prayed together. They listened to and adhered to the teachings of the apostles. They seemed to very much united by their faith.

I think it’s quite important for us to get this. Following Jesus is not something you primarily do on your own. You follow with others. Jesus sent two people to fetch a donkey before he rode into Jerusalem (he could have sent just one), he sent out his disciples on mission journeys in teams of two (never singular). Is there something here that we have missed?

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how there was a myriad of people following Jesus. Sure, he had his core of three and twelve, he had his 70 (or 72), but he also had the crowds. I come from a tradition which has emphasized the individual conversion and the point in time when you become a follower of Christ. In many ways this is good, calling people to make decisions. And in some sense you’re either in the covenant, or then you’re not. But it is not always a helpful picture - before Christ and after Christ, BC & AD? ;-). Most people are not that binary (on/off). And the on/off thing also makes you think that once you’ve made the decision you’re in the boat, you’re done. I think it is much more helpful to view discipleship as moving towards Jesus, coming closer to him, which is a continuing process (and at some point along that line making a public declaration of faith; I want to follow Jesus). So it has to do with becoming more like him. Being disciples. And that’s something you share with others. There’s always a crowd (or a group) following Jesus.

So what do you think of this: church is a community of people following Jesus, wanting to become like Him?

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Just occured to me that there might be someone out there who hasn’t stumbled upon e-Sword. It’s a really good bible tool for the PC, with lots of bible translations, commentaries and other useful stuff to download. And it’s free! Great for someone like me who hasn’t studied Greek that much…

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The period of Lent is approaching. Wonder what I should do about that? Some thoughts are offered by Richard Frank. Read his blog, not a fellow who tries to find the easy way out…

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I decided to start a series on a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about lately - church. What is church, actually? We have expressions like “go to church”, “the church”, “my church”, “the local church”, “what church are you involved in?” etc. But what do we mean by church? And perhaps more importantly, what does God have to say about the church?

Barna in his book Revolution talks about “being church” in stead of “doing church”. Which prompts the question what is church all about? In any case, even the definition of the word seems to cause debate. An excerpt from Wikipedia (when it comes to Wikipedia I’m always very cautious, anyone can write in Wikipedia, but still):

Biblically speaking, the disciples of a single locality are often referred to in the New Testament as a Church (Revelation 2:18, Romans 16:4, Acts 9:31), and arguably Saint Paul even applies the term to disciples belonging to a single household (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 2). Some theologians (e.g. Baptists, Congregationalists) accept this local sense as the only valid application of the term ‘Church’, in so doing rejecting wholesale the notion of a universal Church. These people argue that all uses of ekklesia in the New Testament are speaking of either a particular local group, or of the notion of ‘church’ in the abstract, and never of a single, worldwide Church.

You can read all the referenced passages here in a separate window.

So what is the church? Local? House? Universal? And what are the distinctions of a church? What makes something church?

To be continued…

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Got back from Sheffield after a few intensive days of “spiritual business”. Felt really good to be there, feels really good to be home again.

It’s interesting to see how St. Thomas’ Church is moving on. When you visit a place regularly in say 3-6 month intervals you tend to notice change. One of the things I observed this time was how many people in the church are talking about becoming missionaries to their own community. They want to be Jesus for their neighbours, friends and family. I don’t know if this is something new, but there seems to be a very distinct sense of a missionary calling. “Calling a city back to God” has been (and still is) the vision of St Thomas’ Church. This vision seems to live on in people’s hearts. To me it is a very positive thing that a “succesful” church (in human terms) as St Thomas’ has kept its vision clear. They could probably be hosting conferences and travelling around the world as much as they want, but the stirring in the heart is there; “We’re staying true to our original calling, we’re calling a city back to God.”

I like it.

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Mathias has started an interesting conversation about community. This is something I need to reflect on and post back. In the meantime, read the post and comments here.

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