A Messy View Of Church

Myth 1: The church is an organization

Myth 2: The church is a building

Myth 3: The church is perfect

The church was God’s idea and it belongs to Jesus

When it comes to understanding the church we need to get it right

A MESSY VIEW OF CHURCH

A messy view of church devalues it instead of prioritizing it

Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole.

His words evoke her beauty.

Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.

(Ephesians 5:25-27 – The Message)

Let us help each other to love others and to do good. Let us not stay away from church meetings.

Some people are doing this all the time.

(Hebrews 10:24-25 – New Life Version) Â

I have come with one purpose to capture for myself a bride By my life she is lovely, by my death she's justified

There is none that can replace her though there are many who will try

And though some may be her bridesmaids they can never be my bride 'Cause I haven't come for only you but for my people to pursue

You cannot care for me with no regard for her, if you love me you will love the church (Derek Webb)

A messy view of church focuses on “ME” instead of “WE”

Your body has many parts — but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body.

It's exactly the same with Christ. Â

By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives . . . I want you to think how all this makes you more significant, not less. Â

A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge.

It's all the different - but-similar parts arranged and functioning together . . . Â

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part . . . Â

If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. Â

You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.

(1 Corinthians 12:12, 14, 25-27 – The Message)

Our bodies have many parts, but these parts don’t all do the same thing. In the same way, even though we are many individuals, Â

Christ makes us one body and individuals who are connected to each other.

(Romans 12:4-5 – God’s Word Translation)

Every church has a choice to be one of two things.

You can choose to be a bag of marbles,

single units that don’t affect each other except in collision.

Or you can choose to be a bag of grapes.

The juices begin to mingle, and there is no way to extricate yourselves if you tried.

Each is part of all - part of the fragrance - part of the 'stuff'.

The early Christians didn’t bounce around like loose marbles, ricocheting in all directions.

Picture them as a cluster of ripe grapes, squeezed together by problems,

pressures and persecution – bleeding and mingling into one another.

(Ann Ortland)

A messy view of church settles for showing up instead of sharing life

Two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together. If one falls down, the other can help him up.

But it is bad for the person who is alone and falls, because no one is there to help. If two lie down together, they will be warm, but a person alone will not be warm.

An enemy might defeat one person, but two people together can defend themselves; a rope that is woven of three strings is hard to break.

(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 – New Century Version)

The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give the church.

It’s an imitation dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather then reality, but it is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive place.

It is unshockable, it is democratic. You can tell people your secrets and they usually don’t tell others or even want to.

The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart

the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved and so many seek that counterfeit at the price of a few beers.

With all my heart I believe that Christ wants His church to be a fellowship where people can come in and say, I’m sunk, I’m beat, I’ve had it.

(Chuck Swindoll)

A messy view of church focuses on being a “consumer” instead of being a “contributor”

Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others.

So use your gift well.

(1 Peter 4:10 – Contemporary English Version)

In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people . . . You are serving the Lord Christ.

(Colossians 3:23-24 – New Century Version) Â

There is nothing like the local church when it's working right.

Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited.

It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused.

It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned.

It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed, and offers belonging to the marginalized of this world.

Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.

Still to this day,

the potential of the local church is almost more than I can grasp. No other organization on earth is like the church.

Nothing even comes close.

(Bill Hybels)

Let’s Pray