What’s more, there also will be no catholicity in your church, denomination, or movement.” Unless you accept the fact that there is not one exclusively biblical church model, you will not see the need for strong fellowship and connections to other denominations and networks, which usually embody different emphases and strengths than the ones that characterize your model. “Why is understanding church models essential in enabling a city’s churches to work together in unity? Without this understanding, there will be no catholicity in your city. ― Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church And the notion that a single tradition owns the lockbox on truth is laughable, especially when the truth we’re talking is God.” A worldwide movement of more than two billion people reaching every continent and spanning thousands of cultures for over two thousand years can’t expect homogeneity. “We tend to lament this seemingly endless parceling of Christianity (which, let’s face it, can indeed get out of hand), but I’m not convinced the pursuit of greater unity means rejecting denominationalism altogether. ― Stanley Hauerwas, In Good Company: The Church as Polis Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints.” “The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine Though the past history of the church may discourage us, these Scriptures remain true, and we should not abandon hope of greater agreement…In this book I have not hesitated to raise again some of the old differences in the hope that, in some cases at least, a fresh look at Scripture may provoke a new examination of these doctrines and may perhaps prompt some movement not just toward greater understanding and tolerance of other viewpoints, but even toward greater doctrinal consensus in the church.” 5:27), and He has given gifts to equip the church “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. Jesus is at work perfecting his church “that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. “I believe that there is still much hope for the church to attain deeper and purer doctrinal understanding, and to overcome old barriers, even those that have persisted for centuries. ― Ed Galisewski, A Simpler Faith: Hope For Those Who Struggle With Church And as he prayed, he made it clear that our witness as his body in this fractured, messed-up, chaotic world would depend on our love for another.” He was looking ahead, to every generation of believer. “On the concept of unity- “Thatʼs right – Jesusʼ most pressing concern before leaving the earth was our unity. ― Matt Chandler, To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain “When the people in a church dwell together in the unity of the gospel and together pursue the building up of one another in love, they are providing fertile soil for the roots of deep joy. ― Francis Chan, Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We Made Up Instead, God wants our churches-whatever specific forms our gatherings take-to be focused on active discipleship, mission, and the pursuit of unity.” “I don’t believe God wants our church life to be centered on buildings and services. Alexander, Being Church: Reflections on How to Live as the People of God In that situation and almost only in that situation, can you love each other, serve each other, live in unity, and speak the truth to each other in love the way Ephesians 4 teaches.” You’re the church whenever you’re with other Christians in such a way that you depend on each other enough that to do it you have to die to yourself. (Nowhere does the New Testament mention going to church.) One way of saying it is that church is the sort of thing that you become part of at the cost of your life. You can be the church, you can become the church, you can even do church, but you can’t go to church. “Church isn’t the sort of thing you can go to. Worship: Rend Collective to Darlene Zschech.
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