In today’s world, the church has been marginalized as one of many equal components or even just a slice of the pie as opposed to my career, my kids’ school, soccer, politics and a dozen other things, but the church is not a part of the pie. The church is the family of God which is the only thing that is going to last forever. If the church didn’t exist, nothing else would exist because God created the universe for the purpose of having a family. If he didn’t want a family, none of this other stuff would happen. The church has been marginalized and sidelined over to the side as we have given certain tasks to the government, certain tasks to the media, certain tasks to NGOs, certain tasks to para-church organizations and things like that. I am on a campaign to re-institute the church as the center of the community. Now, there are multiple ways you have to do that, but here are a couple.
One of them is, in your own preaching, you have to magnify the importance of the church. The biggest mistake that a lot of pastors make is they only give a personal application of the text and not a corporate application of the text. There are both. When you talk about loneliness, you talk about people’s loneliness, but you also talk about… and that’s why we have the church because the church was made to connect. It may be just a little aside, but just use the phrase, “and that’s why we have the church.” People say, “I am worried about things” Well, that’s why we have the church because in community we talk about our worries and we help each other with them. People say, “well, I’m depressed.” That’s why we have the church. People talk about problems in society; illiteracy, poverty and disease. Well, that’s why we have the church. The church is the answer because it is Jesus Christ in spiritual form. Jesus was here in physical form. He was in his physical body. Now Jesus is on earth through his spiritual body. The church is Jesus Christ’s spiritual body.
A second way of bring the Church into the center of the community is through doing what Christians least often do and unbelievers most expect us to do, and that is, care for the disadvantaged, the sick, the poor, the lame, the hurt, the underprivileged, the aged, the mentally ill and on and on. It is only through our actions that the church will reclaim its rightful standing in this world … by compassion. We will never preach our way back to the sinner. We will never politic our way back to the sinner. It is interesting that politicians have been very frank about the limitations of politics while Christians are getting more and more into politics. That’s not the way you change society. You change it by changing hearts, and you change hearts through service.
6 responses so far ↓
Darrell Stetler II // May 6, 2007 at 12:51 pm
A great piece of “inspirational ecclesiology” (though I don’t think Rick would say it that way!)
God help us to recapture the purity and ecclesiology of Acts, the early Methodists, and others throughout church history!
Rob Garlock // May 11, 2007 at 8:44 am
Rick is right on with this insight! It seems so obvious, yet, to remind hurting people of their need for the healing community of Christ’s spiritual body seems to be forgotten or at least not mentioned one-on-one or in our sermons. I found myself telling another hurting young lady who was suffering from depression, enduring painful arthritis, recovering from the suicide of her only son that the church was there for her needs as a family. It reminded me of how important the church family is to our community, including me! Thanks Rick.
Julius dela Vega // May 16, 2007 at 3:13 am
The Church is the Center of the Community. Thank you Rick for this encouraging insight about the right place of the church. The church is the center of our community and we should cry out to God for help not to our politicians. God bless you…
michelle festa // May 18, 2007 at 10:27 am
I must take exception to Rick saying that “Christians least often … care for the disadvantaged, the sick” etc. The Christians who are not caring for others are those that have been infected by the world – by materialism, self-centeredness, felt needs – things that are being emphasized by today’s modern church.
Deryl Holliday // May 23, 2007 at 4:05 am
Thanks for a very refreshing time this morning. After 41 years of pastoring, you helped me to think again how crucial it is to enjoy the ministry. Rick keep up the good work of feeding the pastoral flock.
Jeremy McGarity // May 31, 2007 at 2:31 pm
George Barna’s recent book: “Revolution” points to the irrelevancy of the local church and even suggests it’s not a biblical practice. I appreciate Rick’s emphasis on the local church and although I understand Mr. Barna’s disappointment in the local church (truly we can do more) I think Rick nails it here, we must emphasize the local church as the center of the community, that also means the church must be relevant to reach and meet the need of those in their community or it will never be the center of the community.