The Church God's Brilliant Idea

Welcome to my blog. I want to begin with an apology. Our Annual General Meeting, went a bit wrong! When I was being trained as a minister one of the things I was taught was this, “Bad Administration is Bad Pastoral Care.” At the AGM things went a bit awry, the right paperwork was not in front of people and the church were asked in effect to vote about things that they couldn’t understand. We have examined what went wrong as an eldership and I believe we have learnt lots of things. So on behalf of the whole eldership we issue an apology.

In light of the above statement, can the church really be God’s brilliant idea. We get it wrong we don’t communicate together; we are perceived sometimes as judgemental or out of touch. How can we possibly be God’s brilliant idea? Well I believe the church bears wider examination, as a people movement that has changed the world for good. Even in this country it is the church who have stood behind missions and movements that bring hope and light into communities near and far. Take Bristol Noise, a movement of churches together who give 1,000’s of hours each year of community service to some of the poorest communities in Bristol. (Check it out on http://www.thenoise.org.uk/ ) Or we could examine the way in which churches are behind or supporting countless projects overseas. As a church here at Zion we support many such initiatives. These are wonderful things that we can celebrate. (If you are interested in getting involved with these “mission” projects, then consider joining the World Mission Group which Chris Burley chairs. We have space for at least two more people. Speak to Chris or myself.) Of course as a Pastor I see the wonderful way in which the church supports ordinary people in all sorts of ways, be it through bereavement, ill health, depression, life changes etc etc. It is for me a truly beautiful thing when I see the church supporting one another.

So if the church is God’s brilliant Idea, does that mean that being, “Church” is the most important thing? I think there is something wonderful about being part of church; it is amazing to feel that we are somehow connected to Christian’s all over the world. It is great to feel that here at Zion or in a fellowship group we are somehow part of a family, with Christ as the head, and a unity which comes from the fact that God the Father is a father to each of us. However I’m not sure that just being church is the whole of God’s brilliant idea. The idea for which I believe he created all of creation, and for which he particularly sent Jesus, to both live and die is relationship. God’s thing is relationship. This is the way I understand (however one can ever “understand”) God. God is from the beginning a relationship, he is a relationship without beginning and end, a trinity of love in complete harmony, and if we are to believe Jesus in John 17 he invites us into the very heart of that relationship to be partners with him. (This echoes the marriage idea in Genesis… it is not good for “man” to be alone.. we are designed for relationships.) Paul sums up this huge and central plan in Eph 1:10… “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” That’s the whole point of life, that we be in “fellowship” in relationship that we be united together.

So if that relationship, that “Shalom” in all creation is “God’s brilliant idea” where does the church come in? We are meant to be a “foretaste” of that, a deposit guaranteeing the beauty that is to come. If you like we should be the “firstfruits” of the eventual earthly harmony. That’s why Paul argues that there should not be even any “hint” of disagreement among us, we are no longer, male or female, white or black, slave or free, young or old, rich or poor. In the church we are one, a sign of a deeper unity that will (as sure as eggs is eggs…. and as sure as God raised Jesus from the dead) come. As those of you who heard me preach about this recently will testify, I got pretty excited about this! I even felt that it helped me understand some of the “trickiest” passages in scripture. Being the firstfruits, bringing the will of God from heaven to earth is what God has made us to do, it’s what we were designed for (even before we were born!). To offer to the world a different picture of what it is all about, not a picture of selfishness and greed, but a new picture of grace and hope and purpose and relationship that we are all invited to be a part of. Actually to go into a bit more Old Testament stuff, that is exactly what Israel, God’s chosen people were made for: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob…. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth:” Isa 49:6. The church, you and I linked with people all over heaven and earth, with Christ as our unity are the sure fire way that this promise of God, will one day be fulfilled…. He’s predestined it, and also our part in it.

So go on, be yourself…. part of God’s BRILLIANT idea of love that is reaching our all around you each and every day.

Stephen