{"id":584,"date":"2013-10-27T00:42:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-27T00:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=584"},"modified":"2014-10-28T17:09:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T17:09:05","slug":"looking-at-ecclesiology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/looking-at-ecclesiology\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Ecclesiology"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the book, Christian Theology:\u00a0 An Introduction, <\/em>Alister McGrath does a great job in presenting the material in a simple and rewarding manner.\u00a0\u00a0 At first glance I was a bit overwhelmed by all the material in the book.\u00a0 However, McGrath extends a gracious \u201cdo not be afraid\u201d- he assures the reader that we must not be frightened by the amount of material that this volume includes; you do not need to master it all.[1]<\/a> \u00a0I appreciate the fact that the book is organized thematically.\u00a0\u00a0 This allows me the opportunity to find the material appropriate to my needs at this time. One area that continues to be of high interest to me is the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 As McGrath states, the doctrine of the church, usually referred to as ecclesiology is of major importance to anyone engaged in any kind of pastoral ministry. [2]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The questions McGrath poses about the church challenges me to be thoughtful about what kind of body is the church. McGrath states that the church has always stressed its historical and theological continuity with the people of Israel.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 The New Testament defines the church as the people of God, thus stressing the continuity between Israel and the Christian church.\u00a0 McGrath states that the election of the church as the people of God does not entail the rejection of Israel, but rather the extension of God\u2019s kingdom.[4]<\/a> So, how does this understanding of what the church is affect what the church is meant to do?\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is my understanding that the church is a community of faith that is empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as witnesses and agents of God\u2019s love and justice in the world.\u00a0 The church is a source of immeasurable spiritual strength. The church is unlike any other institution on earth.\u00a0 The church, unlike other institutions, is the very visible presence of God in the world.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0It is that community which gathers to celebrate the saving work of God in the person of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In God\u2019s saving action through Christ, we are transformed. \u201cNow we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him\u2026\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 This transformation is not limited to the human race but is cosmic in scope: \u201cHe set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.\u201d Through Christ, God has reconciled all things to God-self, whether on earth or in the heavens: \u201c\u2026all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe\u2014people and things, animals and atoms\u2014get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.\u201d[7]<\/a> Because God has reconciled all things to God-self through Jesus Christ, salvation cannot be thought of as solely a personal matter.\u00a0 The saving action of God in Jesus Christ also calls for salvation of all people and creation. This includes the structures and powers that exist around us.\u00a0 They must also come under the Lordship of Christ.\u00a0 The church is called to confront these structures and powers that oppress and bring death to this world.\u00a0 But the church is also called to lead them to the salvation that transforms them from structures and powers of darkness and death to those of love and life.\u00a0 Because salvation is a present reality, the church is called to bear witness to that reality in today\u2019s world. In addition to the church celebrating the saving work of God, the church also celebrates in worship.\u00a0\u00a0 It is in its worship that the church, as a community of faith, comes before God in adoration (for God loved us first, in spite of our sin) and confession (acknowledging that we are sinners and only through Christ can we be forgiven).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As Augustine puts it, the church is not meant to be a \u201cpure body,\u201d a society of saints, but a \u201cmixed body\u201d (corpus permixtum)<\/em> of saints and sinners.[8]<\/a> The church is unique in it that we are called to be incarnational.\u00a0 \u00a0We, are to be that community whose doings makes God\u2019s presence and the values of the Kingdom (love, grace, justice) real in the midst of this world.\u00a0 By living incarnational lives, we become God\u2019s instruments of self-revelation.\u00a0 In being incarnational (the doing of God\u2019s will), we celebrate what God has done for us by doing for others.\u00a0 This is not to say that the church, in its celebration of God\u2019s saving action in Christ, does not take seriously the suffering in this world.\u00a0 Wherever poverty, hunger, racism, sexism, ageism, adultism (and other\u201d isms\u201d), greed and war is found, the church must be present.\u00a0 For this is where Christ would be.\u00a0 I would dare say that even in such suffering, the church can celebrate.\u00a0 \u00a0Because through Jesus Christ, the church can bring healing, hope, transformation and reconciliation. The church is the body of Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 I love Jesus\u2019 prayer in John 17.\u00a0 Jesus prays for those who walk with him as well as those \u201cwho will believe in me through their message.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 What a wonderful and powerful thing it is to think that Jesus prayed for us, for those who confessed Christ as Lord and Savior.\u00a0\u00a0 But did you notice that Jesus did not pray for particular faith traditions.\u00a0 He did not pray for God to protect the Baptist, for God to watch over the Presbyterians, for God to walk with the Vineyards.\u00a0 Jesus asked God to protect and look after all who believe in him.\u00a0 And Jesus goes on to say \u201cthat all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Can you imagine what would happen if we follow Christ\u2019s prayer in our daily lives as followers of Christ?\u00a0 How would the world look? How would treat our brothers and sisters of other faith traditions?\u00a0 Where is God calling us, you and I, the church to work together?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026it\u2019s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0When the church has a good and solid understanding of who we are in relation to God, the church will begin to understand that we cannot do anything alone.\u00a0\u00a0 What we do in life affects the lives of many other people.\u00a0\u00a0 Because the church is made up of communities of faith, the \u201cliving out\u201d of one\u2019s faith in Christ is never solely a personal matter but one that affects and is the concern of the whole community and for the world.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
[1]<\/a> Alister E.McGrath, Christian Theology:\u00a0 An Introduction.<\/em>\u00a0 (Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2011), xxv.<\/div>\n
[2]<\/a> Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology:\u00a0 An Introduction.<\/em>\u00a0 (Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2011),\u00a0 p. 37.<\/div>\n
[3]<\/a> Ibid, p. 375<\/div>\n
[4]<\/a> Ibid., p. 390<\/div>\n
[5]<\/a> Ibid., p. 375<\/div>\n
[6]<\/a> The Message (2 Corinthians 5:17)<\/div>\n
[7]<\/a> The Message (Colossians 1:20)<\/div>\n
[8]<\/a> Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction<\/em> (Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2011), \u00a0p. 379<\/div>\n
[9]<\/a> New International Version (John 17:20)<\/div>\n
[10]<\/a> The Message (Romans 12:3)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the book, Christian Theology:\u00a0 An Introduction, Alister McGrath does a great job in presenting the material in a simple and rewarding manner.\u00a0\u00a0 At first glance I was a bit overwhelmed by all the material in the book.\u00a0 However, McGrath extends a gracious \u201cdo not be afraid\u201d- he assures the reader that we must not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[199],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mcgrath","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1919,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/1919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}