What is Church For?Caféchurch 16/9/14

How Do People Stay Christian?

• It sems to me to need two top level things• Personal spirituality (prayer, meditation, Scripture

reading, etc)• Good church (a bit less clear exactly what we mean by

that)

• Further:• You have to want it, and appropriate it for yourself (God

has no grandchildren)• Culture isn’t just going to give it to you

• So, in Caféchurch we are going to work on those two things (what we do in our solitude, and what we do together)

Some Extrinsic Benefits of Church

• Social connectedness is good for us

• Spirituality is good for us

• Social capital is good for society

• Christianity is the tap-root of our civilisation

However…How does it look from the inside? What does church have to say for itself? That’s the burden of our discussion tonight.

ReadingThe rest of this presentation is drawn from Church for Every Context: An Introduction to Theology and Practice, M Moynagh, Kindle Edition. Quotes are from this, unless otherwise indicated.

Jesus and the KingdomWhen he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

Luke 4:16-21

Kingdom and Church• “Jesus talked about

the Kingdom, but we got the church.”

• What do these two things have to do with each other?

Church-shaped Kingdom

• “The church is where the kingdom is made real in the present”

• The Spirit lives, and operates, chiefly in and via the church

• The world doesn’t have much (or anything) good to contribute

• The purpose of church is to bring people into church, so that they can, in turn, bring more people into church

Question• Can you think of a

church where this is the operative model?

• What were the good and bad aspects of it?

World-shaped Church• The role of the church

is chiefly to see the Spirit at work in the world and point it out to people

• The church doesn’t necessarily have anything very substantive to offer

Question• Can you think of a

church where this is the operative model?

• What were the good and bad aspects of it?

Kingdom-shaped Church

• A synthesis of CSK and WSC views

• The Spirit is at work in the world

• The church “has its roots in the future and branches in the present” – we have something distinctive to offer

• The church is the foretaste of the kingdom – of something far more expansive and wonderful than exists in the church (or world) now.

Discussion• Do you see how this

operates as a synthesis?

• Do you think the idea is plausible (or indeed comprehensible)?

Summary• Church-shaped kingdom

• Through the Spirit, the church makes the kingdom present.

• World-shaped kingdom• The kingdom is present in the world and the

church points to it.

• Kingdom-shaped church • The kingdom, though present in the world, is

distinctively present in the church.

The Essence of Church• What is the

fundamental nature of church?

• The underlying question is: what does God reveal of Godself?

• Is God primarily revealed in mission, or in relationship?

Mission“Some have argued that mission – being sent by God to serve the world – is the defining feature of the church.... God has revealed himself to be missionary in his nature. The only way we know God is by encountering him in his missionary activity. Scripture reveals what God is like by relating what God does, which is to go out in mission. The people of God are first the product of God’s mission, and then participants in it. “

(Loc. 3058)

Question• Can you think of a

church where this is the operative model?

• What were the good and bad aspects of it?

CommunityThe church participates in the communion of the triune God. The mutual giving and receiving within the church reflects the perichoretic Trinity, a technical term for the persons of the Godhead indwelling and interpenetrating each other. What constitutes the church is participation in the perichoretic dance of the triune God. ‘The holy Trinity is beckoning the emerging Church to model a way of being a spiritual community that reflects the very nature of the Trinitarian Godhead’

Question• Can you think of a

church where this is the operative model?

• What were the good and bad aspects of it?

Four Relationships

Of (The Whole Church)

Up (God)

In (Community)

Out (Mission)

[Church in the NT is] what happens when the news and presence of Jesus, raised from the dead, impact upon the human scene, drawing people together in a relationship that changes everyone involved, a relationship which means that each person involved with Jesus is now involved with all others who have answered his invitation, in ways that are painful and demanding but are also lifegiving and transforming beyond imagination.

R Williams, quoted in Moynagh Loc. 3109