Off-The-Rails: Jesus' Bride and the 21st Century

An old friend of mine emailed me recently for some help with a seminary assignment.  The text of his email, and my response back to him, is below.

Hey Travis, 

I need to conduct an "interview" of a pastor from a different denomination regarding what you think the church looks like in the 21st century. I greatly respect your views and I am wondering if you would be willing to answer a few questions for me. This is an assignment for seminary so if you could be timely in your response that would be great. Below I have outlined a few questions to get us started.

1. What do you see the role (Purpose, necessity, and place) of the church in the 21st century? (You can answer this questions with Global generalizations and specifically to your location.)

One of my main frameworks for thinking about the church in the 21st century comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “The church can only be the church when it exists for the sake of others.”  The church of the 21st century is at a critical moment: will we continue to pursue self-perpetuation or will we turn our attention to the people who drive or walk by our churches everyday and seek to show them Christ in surprising ways?  Today’s church, more than ever, is called to adhere to the authority of the Word, in part because the challenges to any form of authority are broader and more commonplace than at any other time in American history.  The church is also called to be connected to the global movement of Jesus, not simply turning inward to our insular concerns but connecting with others across the globe who bless and remind each other of the massiveness of Jesus’ mission to rescue the world.  One of the things my church is called to do is to steward well our historic connections to the Reformed tradition while also being nimble enough to respond to the needs of our community, especially as a “hub” for effective and creative ministry partnerships across our Valley.   Churches must be aware of their context, the scale of their ministry, and their unique mission, all of which help to define the identity Jesus has given to that particular church, which will be different than the identity of any other church.

2. What do you think it means to be a church?

The church, again, can only be the church when the mission of God is first and foremost in our hearts: to reach and bless those who do not know Jesus and to deepen and enrich the faith of those who do.  To be a church is inextricable from having a mission; churches with no sense of mission are more distressing to me than any pressing theological debate.  The church is called into the surrounding community for the sake of Christ, and also to the mission of God throughout the world.  To be a church means to be a family, connected to people who may or may not be very much like me, and willing (through obedience to Christ) to go out of my way to love and serve others in Jesus’ name.  I also think being a church means doing mission and ministry with other churches who may come from different “tribes” but who put Jesus first and foremost, proclaiming the gospel together so that the larger community sees how beautiful it is when brothers and sisters in Christ dwell together in unity.

3. How would you respond to this quote from Herman Bavinck?  He writes, "many modern theologians view the church as an institution that Christ neither wanted nor intended and is in fact the reasons for Christianity's corruption"

I would reject the aforementioned claim of modern theologians on the basis of what Jesus said to Peter: "You are the rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).  Christianity has gone through many periods of corruption, and so I wonder what these theologians are referring to, specifically.  Sin is the reason for any corrupt expression of the church, not the church itself.  To be clear: there are expressions of the church in our time (prosperity gospel, for example) which I think are appalling to Jesus and have nothing to do with the church’s true mission.  But I also believe that God is bigger than any church’s theological fallacy, and that the gospel can go forth even from the most inhospitable environments.  Jesus Christ’s bride is the church, and although this bride can be messy, complicated, and sometimes off-the-rails, it is still the bride of Christ and is worthy of our service and devotion through Jesus.  

Office Space

I’m running out of flat space on the walls of my office.  Don’t get me wrong – I love my office and consider it a great privilege to have abundant space to work.  But I’m running out of flat space as I begin to think and pray about some big projects on my horizon this summer.

The photo shows what the windows in my office look like right now.  The cards are all related to the biggest project on my plate right now: the summer sermon series on biblical leadership.  Each card has the name of a leader from the Bible, and I’ve sub-divided this too-long list into three categories: Old Testament, New Testament, and Leadership Principles from Jesus.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll pick five leaders from each Testament, plus five principles from the life of Jesus, for a grand total of fifteen focus-points for our Sunday worship.

I’m really enjoying this project.  I like to think visually and have space and time to arrange my thoughts in real-life, not just in my head.  I also find a lot of encouragement and good feedback from inviting other staff members to take a look at these ideas and help me think through each week’s sermon.  Stop by my office and take a look at the ideas, and if you’re up for it, adding a note or an idea yourself.

We’re going to have an amazing summer here at FPC.  Our seminary intern is excited about learning and growing in our midst, and I’m excited for all of you to meet her.  Because of the generosity of many people, we’ll likely have at least three college interns – one each for worship, children, and youth.  We may even have our new contemporary worship director in-place, and possibly our new director of student ministries.  I’m looking forward to this season in our journey together, and I hope you are, too.

Solo Dei gloria,

Travis