What’s The Big Idea?

There is one "big idea" behind church renewal (at the congregational, coalition, judicatory, or denominational level) today. It could be summed up in a variety of ways. Try this one: The church doesn’t really “have” a mission. God’s mission has a church!

“When Jesus came, something happened that had never happened before. The kingdom of heaven came near! All of a sudden, the blind could see. The deaf could hear. The lost were found. The dead were brought to life again. Perhaps most amazingly of all, through Jesus, God said to us, ‘I choose you. Weak and sinful as you might be, I choose you to be the ones through whom I will bring the whole world back to me. I choose you to be my disciples, my holy people, my church. Now, come, follow me.’ And that is how God’s mission became our mission. In fact, that is the only mission the church has. We are God’s instrument. We have been fashioned, carefully crafted by God for this one wonderful purpose, to bring God’s world back home, whole and holy, to the One who created and loves it.”(Excerpt from Kelly Fryer's "Reclaiming the C Word: Daring To Be Church Again," Augsburg Fortress, 2006)

As far as we are concerned, at A.R.E., this is the bottom line upon which the whole church “renewal” project is built. We are, first and foremost, committed to helping the church care more about what God cares about…the healing, reconciliation, peace, wholeness, and freedom of all creation.Any other reason for church renewal is insufficient...and, we believe, doomed to fail.What's motivating you? What's motivating the people in your faith community?What needs to change?

Comments

[Pastor Lauren]

YES! And it is so cool to see people really get this for the first time. When we are doing what God wants us to do -- participating in God's mission to love, bless, heal, reconcile the whole creation,-- then we are truly the church. Thanks for this post!