Church, Interrupted

“It cannot be too often reiterated that the primary emphasis on the Church as an institution with creeds, sacraments and “orders,” blocks at least at present the way to give first rank to the Church as an ever renewed adventure of faith, a response to God’s great acts of salvation, redemption and reconciliation. The Church is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.” [Bold added]

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-Hendrik Kraemer

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WHAT IS THE CHURCH if not a response to the “great acts of God”? The church, the means to, and the great vehicle for and of, God, stands, and has stood for two millennia, on foundational rock of Christ. Nothing has endured like it, other than say the other major world religion traditions.

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Yet, I am astounded to hear, read of, and witness first-hand the travesties of the humanising of the church. At some point, for some believers in Christ, there is a time when their faith goes askew from the core teaching of Christ into the ‘creeds, sacraments and orders’ of human tradition -- at least the tradition of human/God tradition. The danger is when groups of people in leadership, in the same area, start to think in similar unbiblical ways and church becomes more than it was ever designed for. It’s not that they can’t found their ideas in biblical concepts. They isolate a few biblical concepts to support their position.

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The church is a means to an end. The end is God, of course. Whether we think experience with God, the tradition of exalting him, or his Word are the important things, it is he who commands our attention and it is living toward his will for our time on earth that is paramount. Church is not really what it’s about. Church simply mobilises the Christian faith, for growth, for witness, and for the integrity of the risen Christ.

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If we constantly seek Christ in our experience with the church, he will show us the way. The way is of character forming and development: discipleship in one word. I know there is worship, fellowship, ministry and evangelism to cater for too, but what does Christ command more than anything in his main teaching, the Sermon on the Mount/Plain? It’s an individual calling, whether church or personal, to some salient character traits. Yet, we have so-called leaders of the church today (and yesterday) who have not disciplined themselves, and do not adhere, to these traits.

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Does God want to be worshipped? Yes. Does God want his people to love each other? Yes. Does God want his people to serve him and humankind? Yes. Does he want his church grown? Yes. But, most of all God wants all people to come under his power and anointing by being obedient to his main calling -- to strive for character development, based in continual, meaningful penitence for wrongs as a platform for growth, praise, and thanksgiving.

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The church has no right asserting itself for any other role than to be a salient means to the ultimate end: God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The LORD is one. He is the only one.

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Copyright © 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.