Day 15 -- The Church, Pt.2

Pray for me ... for safe travel. I'm about to board a plane to Chicago. I'm going to catch up with our youth choir as they minister in that great city. They are being used by God in terrific ways this summer and I want to be a small part of it. I'll get to do some ministry with them ... and hear them in concert at a Salvation Army event. I'll get to have dinner with the group and spend some time hearing personal testimonies of what God is doing in their lives. I'll catch a plane back home early tomorrow morning. I'm really looking forward to it.

NOW ... back to the topic of the church.

The church is a living, breathing thing made up of many people who are mysteriously connected to each other through Christ. In this connection alone they have everything they need to live, grow, and accomplish all that God created them to do.

This is our working definition of the church. Behind it and foundational to it are the 16 principles we extracted from the four biblical motifs (for a review of those go to the June 29 blog).

Now let's begin to talk about the possible metaphors for the church that encompass this definition and the 16 principles. One metaphor that is particularly popular is that of a FAMILY. This is certainly a biblical metaphor and contains many of the principles discovered in Scripture. With FAMILY we find a certain connection that the Scripture identifies with the church as well. There is a biological connection with family which encompasses the idea of being an organism. There is a sense in which we do not choose our family but are "born into" the family God that prepares for us. There is a love, care, nurture, loyalty and intimacy in the family that is virtually unparalleled in other human relationships. A family is most healthy when it operates in unity, each member doing its part ... so it is with the church. All of these aspects to family life satisfy many of the characteristics of the church.

But the FAMILY motif is not enough to cover all the biblical principles learned from Scripture. The idea of being engaged in a battle against evil is difficult to completely incorporate into the FAMILY motif. The idea of marching into a dangerous battle armed for eternal conflict is missing in the FAMILY metaphor. FAMILY brings feelings of warmth and love and nurture and care. These are all a wonderful part of family life, but if all we ever accomplish are "warm fuzzies" and personal spiritual growth, then we will miss an important part of who we are in Christ.

Another area of concern is that of the discipline of preparation for the Christian life. The language of athletics that we found in Scripture is not usually found in the metaphor of FAMILY. The idea of running in a race (and it's a marathon, not a sprint), excercising, and disciplining your body for the battle is not immediately found in the FAMILY metaphor. It could be argued that there is a type of discipline involved in family life, and that's true. But it's not the image that immediately comes to mind. There are other metaphors that better serve this aspect to the Church.

No, the metaphor of FAMILY, alone, is not enough to emcompass the sixteen characterstics of the church. Although, any accurate metaphor MUST contain within it a sense of being FAMILY. In the end, whatever metaphor we choose to use must portray a feeling of family.

Next time, we'll take a look at some other potential metaphors. Stay tuned ...

Ask God to cover you with his love today. Pray for our young people in Chicago and another great group of young people who are ministering today in downtown Dallas at the Cornerstone Church. Thank God for all he is doing with our young people!

Blessings,

Pastor Ellis