Church Planting Has Failed the Gospel, Part 4

A healthy church does not look like that of so many church planting visions. A healthy church should look like a cross-section of the society in which it lives.

We are called to be relational and in relation with one another, including those who are not like us. Just as God in Christ Jesus came to earth to live among people who do not live up to God's purposes, standards, and will, so are we called and commissioned to reach beyond ourselves and our comfortable definitions of who should belong within our inner circles.

As the body of Christ in the world, we are to be a microcosm of the very world, the society in which we live. We are to reflect the fulness of that society. If there are felons in our community, there should be felons in the church. If there are bikers in the community, there should be bikers in the church. If there are lawyers in the community, there should be lawyers in the church. Jesus' disciples were fishermen, tax collectors, day laborers, Hellenistic Jewish immigrants, Palestinian Jews, and small business owners. In the community of the early church there were Pharisees, doctors, sellers of purple, slaves, jailers, Roman soldiers, rulers of synagogues, and all other sorts of other people represented.

This is the appropriate description of the church. It is the church as Jesus designed it. It is the appropriate description, for it is the church as it should be.

We are not called to comfort ourselves in isolation from the community and society in which we live. We are not called and commissioned to withdraw from the world or use our gatherings as a respite from people who are unlike us. Instead, we gather in order to equip ourselves to carry the good news to all people in our paths. We share with them to invite them into our lives, to share our faith journey with God in Christ Jesus.

The good news is not a message of exclusion. It is a message of inclusion. It is for all people, for all categories of people. It is for those we ignore as we walk by them on the street, just as much as those who sit on the pew beside us. It is specifically good news for those we would most naturally exclude. If anything, we are called most directly to address the good news of God's offer of reconciliation to those living on the margins of our society and specifically of religious society.

We are the church of Jesus when we gather across our definitions of cast, class, standing, and importance to the larger society. As long as we limit our fellowship to narrow slices of the population around us, we do not reflect the priorities of God. We do not reflect the visions of the resurrected church in passages like Revelation. We are not fully the gathering of the people of God until we reflect the full diverse expression of the cultures and societies among whom we live.

This means that the membership makeup of our churches needs to reflect the full demographic makeup of our communities. That means the homeless should share our faith journey. It means addicts should share our faith journey. It means the immigrant community should be full participants in our faith communities, just like the business owners, single mothers, waitresses, doctors, lawyers,construction workers, teachers, and nurses around us.

Where there are farmers, they should be more than welcome in our churches. They should be our special guests. Where there are politicians, truck drivers, salesmen, lawn care crews, physicians, garbage collectors, business owners, firefighters, and financial advisors, they should all be welcome and fell equally welcomed into the life of the church. Where there are LGBTQ, disabled, immigrants, refugees, felons, disabled, sinners, hypocrites, liars, and substance abusers, they should find welcome and full belonging in our midst.

Rather than establishing ministries to children in need, alcoholics, homeless families, and victims of different kinds of abuse, we are to being them into our community of faith. We are called and challenged to invite them into our lives. We are to invite them into our hearts, to our tables, and into our living rooms.

Just as God in Christ came to the lower parts of the earth, living, journeying, and ministering with and to any and all he encountered, so is God's call upon our lives as the church today. It is when we look beyond the standard definitions of those with whom we are comfortable that we begin to evidence the challenge, joy, and fullness of the gospel. It is then we begin to evidence the grace, love, mercy, and acceptance that God has showered upon us.

We need not protect the church from outsiders. Rather, we need to protect it from the insiders. It is, after all, the insiders who bring the most damage to the church. By attempting to protect the church from those who surround us, we destroy the very calling, mission, and purpose of our existence. We lay aside what it means to be the body of Christ.

The church is only healthy when it engages the fullness of the community around us. The church is only what it was created to be when it gives itself away in service to the fullness of the gospel's demands. We are only the church when we lay down our very lives and existence to serve after the manner of Jesus' love, sacrifice, and grace toward all. Otherwise, we simply fail to become the presence of Christ Jesus amid a hurting world. If we fail in that mission, we really are nothing more than a religious themed social club.

—©Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin

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