A Deeper Gospel 3 The Church

If God’s purpose is to bring Salvation to the world, then Jesus and the Church are his method. Jesus came to save people from their own messes. Because of our mistakes and irresponsibility, we are broken people, with broken relationships, who live in a broken world, even in a broken environment.

I have heard many people say that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian. Maybe that’s true if you have misunderstood the church. Being a Christian is less about going to church as being the church. If you think that going to church is like joining a club where people sing, pray, read the bible and talk at you; where you assess the performance of the people at the front as entertaining or not, then you can be a Christian without that.

If, on the other hand you have understood Jesus call to “love one another”, then you know that you can’t help but share that love with a community of people, who are the church. It is impossible to “love one another” alone, and it would not be following Jesus. And if you have understood Jesus core teaching about loving God and your neighbour as yourself, then you will know that Jesus community is called to work together, to bring hope and healing (salvation) to people.

The church is then, not an entertaining gathering, but a missionary community. In fact Paul describes us as “the body of Christ”; each individual gifted so that the mission of Jesus continues in the world. Christians are intended to work together as disciples (apprentices doing on the job training) of Jesus for the salvation of the world.

This church is Jesus community; God’s method of being and bringing Jesus Gospel (good news) by words and deeds.

Adrian