'Christian' is a plural noun....

Ok, so I know that if you look in the dictionary it will tell you that 'Christian' isn't a plural but a singular noun. My point is that in the New Testament the concept of Christian is always within a context of plurality.


Don't get me wrong, I believe that my faith is a personal relationship between Jesus and me. I came to Christ in a Pentecostal/Evangelical church at the age of twelve and strongly believe that the gospel is the call to faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. But I also strongly believe that this life of faith is then walked out in a plural, community context.


I'm talking about the importance of the church.


(Disclaimer: This isn't another rant from a pastor about why you should be in church on Sundays. I think you should, but that's not the point of this blog.)


When I was growing up one of the often quoted statements was, 'You don't have to go to church to be a Christian.' I think it grew out of a reaction against the idea that church attendance was the mark of a Christian rather than a dynamic, personal, living faith in Jesus. In this regard it was correct, but in every other meaning this mantra is not only damaging to the biblical understanding of Christianity, but is also antithetical to the core of the very gospel it seeks to champion.


From the moment Jesus chose twelve disciples the Christian faith has always been a communal faith. Jesus had personal relationship with each of his disciples, but that relationship with expressed as they journeyed together as a group. The church in the book of Acts is always groups of believers meeting in houses and in the temple (or elsewhere), and Paul sought to ensure that wherever he went he didn't leave behind individuals who had discovered a relationship with Jesus, but a group of people who were worshiping together as a community seeking to discover and demonstrate the presence of this new Kingdom of God through faith in Christ and empowered by his Spirit.


The letters that make up much of the New Testament are all written to groups of believers. Even the letters addressed to individuals are intended for the churches they oversee, or, in Philemon's case, the church that met in his house (which he may also have overseen). Without continuing to note the many references and theology of the church in the New Testament, there is no doubt that the Bible presents Christians as people who are part of a locally identifiable community.


But the church isn't something new that Jesus thought up during his earthly ministry. The church is actually the continuation of God's visible presence in the world that he started through the nation of Israel. The church hasn't replaced Israel, but has expanded God's people beyond a single nation or ethnicity to embrace all the nations of the world, as fulfilment of his promise to Abraham.


The church - the people, not the place or organisation - is the visible and prophetic declaration to our culture and world that God's Kingdom is present and this is what it looks like! It is impossible to show what it looks like to live in community God's way as an individual. When we grasp the concept that the church is the present foretaste of what the coming Kingdom looks like we will understand why Christianity cannot be practiced in isolation. This is the 'now-and-not-yet' of the Kingdom, the 'present-and-still-to-come' of what God is doing in the world through his people.


There are probably many people who look at the church and think that if that's what God's Kingdom looks like, if that's what it's like when God's in charge, then I don't want any part of it. And that's a fair call. I'm not suggesting that we do a great job in representing our king. The reality is the church is a bunch of imperfect people living in an imperfect world doing an imperfect job of reflecting a perfect and glorious God. But does that mean we shouldn't try?


The church has done many regrettable and reprehensible things in the past, and still does. We can't excuse the times when we behave in such a way as to dishonour the name of Christ, and we can honestly suggest that at the times when the church has done many of the things that are foreign to the example left by Jesus the church wasn't actually acting very Christian. There are still places and times, and always will be, when various expressions of the church act sub-Christian and even un-Christian. The good news for everybody is that just means that you don't have to be good enough to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus will take you just as you are and will, by his Spirit, journey through life with you as you are shaped and changed to be more like him. He'll do it over the course of your entire life and with a bunch of other people who are also struggling, changing, failing and succeeding just like you are.


My plea in this post is twofold. Stay connected to a faith community that will help you grow in your faith and will enable you to be a part of God's intention to demonstrate to this world that he hasn't left it without hope and that this community that is founded on Jesus is what it can be like when God welcomes you into his family.


And work within the community you are a part of to contribute to it's function of representing God's Kingdom. This really has nothing to do with buildings or Sunday services or prosperity or recruiting other people to your brand or marketing your church well. Honestly, I believe that if you talk more about your church than you do about Jesus that's idolatry. What we need is to work together as a faith community to exhibit grace and forgiveness and love and justice and righteousness and generosity and patience and consideration and all the other values that were embodied in the incarnate Son of God and then expressed through those he called to be his 'church.'


I love the church. I love the family of people I get to be a part of by having a personal relationship with Jesus. I love that we're odd and different and flawed and creative and varied and hopeful and joyful and humble. I love that we mess up and seek forgiveness and try better next time.


I love that Jesus has entrusted us with the gospel, the Good News that although we aren't perfect we can confidently assert, by word and deed, that Jesus Christ is Lord and King and through faith in him all are welcome into his Kingdom: a kingdom that by definition is plural, something that we call church.

So, I'm on holidays....

Holidays, a time to relax and just do stuff. I like holidays. I enjoy spending time with my family, taking time to explore and discover places with my wife, maybe getting away for a couple of days to 'distance' from how cluttered life can easily become, and to read.


I love reading. Fortunately - or intentionally - my vocation in life requires me to read extensively. Usually holidays begin with reading half a dozen fiction novels, usually thrillers or science fiction, nothing too heavy. These holidays, however, I've managed to finish some books that I needed to and, thanks to my new kindle, get some books that have caught my attention as well as blogs and articles that interest me. I've been reading Tom Wright, Scot McKnight, Roger Olson, John Piper, Michael Horton, Tony Jones, Frank Viola, Rob Bell ('Love Wins,' not as controversial as expected), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (so I sound smart), Dan Brown (for non-thinking diversion, and comic relief in his use of scripture), and Jeremy Clarkson (who really doesn't have much to say about scripture at all).


Reading is important. Reading helps us discover who we are and how we see the world. Reading, rather than listening or viewing, gives us time to consider what is being presented to us, to reflect on it and determine how we understand it's validity and applicability to our lives. I know that to a degree, reading has fallen out of favour in our contemporary society (probably not with you, if you're reading this), and that even many higher education students attempt to complete their course with as little in depth reading as possible. I don't think I'm just being 'old fashioned' about this, I am genuinely concerned about what this says about us as a culture and how it will affect our future.


We are shaped by media. Music, television, movies, advertising, celeb gossip, fashion etc. More than any other time these influences are framing our identity. If these elements of popular culture are added to the reflective writings of of contemporary thinkers and the perspective offered by an understanding of the philosophical and historical influences that have shaped our world, then we have a broad-based framework with which to construct and continually critique our personal world-view. When we don't, our life is built on something that is perhaps far too shallow and narrow to adequately prepare us for the challenges of life.


As followers of Jesus Christ I believe it is vital that we read and study to grow in our faith and as reflectors of the presence of God's kingdom on the Earth. First and foremost, those who are disciples of Jesus read the Bible. If we think the Bible is God's instruction book for life, or that it holds 'magic' promises to be claimed for our personal benefit, we have missed (tragically and disturbingly) the purpose and power of God's Word. The Bible is neither (or barely either) of those two popular caricatures. The Bible is primarily God's story of his interaction with his creation, and of those who, under the inspiration of the Spirit, recorded that interaction. From careful reading and study we can then, with confidence and inexhaustible depth of reflection, frame an understanding of how best to live as his image bearers in his creation. And, rather than this being a one-off event, it is a process of being 'reformed and always reforming' to quote the slogan of the Reformation.


The Bible, however, is an easy book and a difficult book to understand; it is a simple and complicated book. I also believe that if we are serious about our desire to follow Jesus, we will avail ourselves of every resource, modern and ancient, that helps us in our journey. God has provided many gifted scholars to assist us in knowing Jesus and his Word. The Bible is an ancient book, it speaks in ancient words to an ancient culture. To truly engage with its message and challenge we have to understand what it was saying then and how that translates to now. To do this I need help.


We also make a mistake if we only read or listen (the tyranny of podcasts) to a very narrow spectrum of teaching. If God is continually speaking through his Word to his people then the development of understanding him didn't conclude with Augustine or Aquinas or Edwards or Calvin or Wesley or any of the other great preachers and teachers of the past. The resources and understanding of ancient writings and culture that we have today help us to better comprehend what was meant in God's word and how that might apply to our time and culture. We would be foolish to consider what has gone before as the culmination of Christian thought and that all that is left is application. Rather, the onus is on our generation to stand on the shoulders of giants and, with the resources God has provided for us, to continue in the quest to know him. Obviously I'm not referring to some of the wild and wacky ideas that pass themselves off as Christian teaching today, but rather to the thoughtful, prayerful and scholarly consideration of what God's Word is teaching us and how that might work in the world and time in which we live.


So read. Read thoughtfully. Read widely. Read people you know you will disagree with. Read stuff by dead people and those still breathing. But please, don't read for information or to simply be smarter, read to grow and to become more like Jesus.