This is Trinity Presbyterian, Jackson Mississippi, where I was attending when I became a believer in high school. I was so excited I went to the church and asked if I could weed the flower beds in gratitude for the freedom I was experiencing.
Since I began revisiting the things I believe ten years ago and since each of us cannot really wipe the slate of beliefs clean, I have found myself using word studies to get to different ways of seeing truth. It is more like Biblical Theology that develops doctrines more closely related to the text and to the context of each book of scripture. Systematic Theology works more broadly and links ideas together and often makes assumptions based on already fixed ideas.
Like everything else, this recent study of the word ekklesia, or called out ones, or church has reminded me that some of my ideas are changing. I see the church as a more missional organization than I ever have, helped in large part by the reemphasis of this concept among younger ministers. The church is not the ark, holding the saved until heaven, but more like those landing boats used in the war, to carry us into the world to take beach heads and reach those in need.
She is not singing songs about the streets of gold, but bringing kingdom values to earth in our gatherings, our thinking, our ministry and our daily lives. The church is not an organization of spiritual privilege, but one summoned to give up some things for the sake of the high calling and to be His hands, and feet, and eyes in this world.
1 comment:
I liked this imagery Don:
"The church is not the ark, holding the saved until heaven, but more like those landing boats used in the war, to carry us into the world to take beach heads and reach those in need. "
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