Three Purposes of the Church
As we conclude our season of stewardship, I’d like to thank those who have prayerfully engaged the process and submitted pledge cards. I hope that you were encouraged (and hopefully challenged as well!) by Tim Keller’s Bible study, and his sermon “Treasure vs. Money.” If you’d like to listen to another helpful sermon by Keller on this topic, please listen to “Generosity in Scarcity,” in which he outlines the importance of giving “sacrificially, joyfully, and generously.” Thus far, the response has been great. If we haven’t heard from you yet, please do get your card in, and don’t hesitate to reach out with any comments or questions.
Moving forward, I’d like to reflect a bit on the purpose of the church, and how we might live that out here at Christ Church. As we support the church in prayer, with our time, our gifts, and our material resources, to what end are we (or ought we be) pursuing?
In his book Simply Christian, N.T. Wright says, “The church exists primarily for two closely correlated purposes: to worship God and to work for his kingdom in the world” (p. 211). It is my intention to continue to help us grow in both primary purposes. I plan to teach regularly on various aspects of the liturgy as we worship, continue to emphasize the importance of congregational worship, and, finally, continue to include more personal testimonies in our proclamation of God’s Word and during Adult Education.
I’m encouraged by the increasing number of contexts in which we can grow in our capacity to work for God’s kingdom in the world, which occurs both in groups of mutual encouragement and in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and in settings full of particularly vulnerable people. Our work with vulnerable populations locally and abroad – homeless, refugees, the elderly, and children in a Guatemala City slum – is increasing. I’m hoping to offer opportunities for us to grow in our vocations, whether as parents, children, teachers, nurses, business leaders, public servants, volunteers, or anything else that God has called us to (including clergy!). It is challenging to integrate our calling as disciples of Jesus into our day-to-day lives, yet so important.
In addition to worship and working for God’s kingdom, Wright also identifies a third purpose of the church, which he calls fellowship. It’s unfortunate that many churches have reduced fellowship to small talk over coffee after church. The biblical concept of fellowship (the Greek word koinonia, which might be helpful to begin using) is much more robust. It is worth quoting Wright’s definition at length: fellowship is “to encourage one another, to build one another up in faith, to pray with and for one another, to learn from one another and teach one another, and to set one another examples to follow, challenges to take up, and urgent tasks to perform.”
How, then, does this fellowship, this koinonia, happen? Again, N.T. Wright is helpful. He writes that, “ideally, every Christian should belong to a group that is small enough for individuals to get to know and pray for each other, and particularly to pray in meaningful depth for one another.” So, while our Sunday morning worship experience is essential, gathering together in smaller groups is just as important. To that end, we’ll continue to organize, and invite our people into, these small groups that meet for intentional study and prayer, and also engage in some kind of meaningful service. If you’re interested in something like that, please let me know. We can have groups of men, groups of women, groups in neighborhoods, or near workplaces. Groups can meet in the early morning, during the day, or in the evening, any day of the week.
As we enter this new season, intentionality in seeking to become, in the words of our mission statement, “mature disciples of Jesus,” has never been more important. As we do so, worship, mission, and koinonia are essential, and as you support Christ Church with your time, your gifts, and your material resources, we might experience God’s kingdom, “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Peace,
Chris