The Kind of Church for Which I’m Praying, Believing, and Living–Part 2
For what kind of church are you praying, believing, and living?
These days, I am praying and believing that the church will become more faithfully the church that God is calling it to be. That will mean many things.
1. It will mean that the church’s people recommit themselves to the Way of Christ and to the practice of the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, the study of Scripture, solitude, community, confession, repentance, and frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper. These are the time-tested activities through which the Holy Spirit has historically ushered people into a deeper attentiveness to the presence of God and a transformational obedience to God’s will.
Not surprisingly, one does not have to delve too deeply into ecclesiastical history in order to discover that a re-emphasis upon the spiritual disciplines has been a crucial part of every season of renewal and reformation that the church has ever experienced.
2. Becoming more faithfully the church will also mean that the church’s people will practice an extravagant generosity in their giving—not for the purpose of meeting a budget, but for the purpose of honoring Jesus Christ, who is himself a relentlessly extravagant giver.
How would the church’s ministry broaden if the disciplines of tithing (or growth either TOWARD or BEYOND tithing) became the congregational norm instead of a rare exception? How might the spirit of the church deepen if the church’s people gave boldly and sacrificially to the church’s ministry, as though they believed that the church of Jesus Christ deserved their very best offering? How might Christ’s goodness be more vibrantly illuminated if people’s giving truly reflected the belief that the church is Christ’s precious Bride to be honored (as opposed to a common prostitute to be trifled with)?
3. Finally (for this post, anyway), becoming more faithfully the church will mean that the church will become a place of healthy and holy balance. Balance between hard work and Sabbath. Balance between community and solitude. Balance between reaching inward to the hearts of people who are already present and reaching outward to those who have not yet found their way. Balance between acts of piety and acts of mercy.
That is the kind of church for which I am praying and living these days—a church in which spiritual disciplines are joyfully practiced, in which extravagant generosity finds frequent expression, and in which a Christ-honoring sense of balance is fervently sought.