Origins…

What’s the Point: Holistic, Diverse, Known

This week Dustin Jones brings us some thought about the Church. If you haven’t had a chance to meet Dustin Jones yet… make sure you do. He is amazing… He has very entertaining things to say get a taste over here on his twitter. Oh… and it is not just you he DOES look like Matthew Fox from lost.

If I were to write my thoughts on the definition of “Church” every year  since I’ve been a Christian, it would hardly be recognizable, with grammatical errors and tangential thoughts being the only common thread. Having been a believer now for only 5 years, my paradigm keeps evolving – molded by my ever-changing relationships, experiences, and encounters with Christ.

The experience of Teresa and I moving to Boulder within the past year, with no friends and family, has either taught, or solidifed, three main ideas on what the church is and why each one is relevant in our lives.

First, the Church is a community of intellectual faith and action. These two aspects of Church are often put into a false dichotomy where more of one is less of the other. The right wing of the church seems so fixed on doctrinal truths and conversion of the soul that they turn their back, albeit unknowingly, to justice, love, acceptance, and mercy. The left wing is dominated by tolerance, rejection of tradition, and subjectivity which often leads to an aversion of Jesus’ divinity and Scriptural authority. These two traditions, I believe, are different paths, not the extremes of a “Church” gradient.

A community who solely speaks their theology without acting on it is not being the Church. In the same way, a community which only shares action, and no core belief, is also failing to live up to its calling. We are called to walk down the path that fully incorporates intellectual pursuit of truth and passionate action.

It becomes obvious that this aspect of the Church is vital for our lives because this is where the Kingdom of God is brought to earth. Through our Orthodoxy, and Orthopraxy, we create a grace-filled sphere around us where the will of God is done – whether that be supporting a distraught friend, ministering to the broken, or growing in the knowledge of God.

Secondly, the church is blessed diversity. Blessed, because of God’s affirmation of our indiviual gifts. Diverse, because of the constrasting personalities, desires, and passions (1 Cor. 12). The truth is, for the first few years I was a Christian, I believed all people would think the same as I if they were more educated, more “spiritual”, or more passionate. I look back on that and laugh now as I have truly seen the beauty of diversity within the Church. Fundraising, worship, ministering, child care, social justice, counseling, mentorship, etc. would all be impossible if it were not for the grace of God to bless us each individually.

This diversity should always define the Church and must build the body up, not tear it down. After all, in one of the most profound passages of Scripture, Jesus prays that we:

“may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (1 John 17:22b-23).”

How profound. Our unity as a body of believers should result in the world knowing that God has sent Christ and that He loves them. Might this be one reason why the contemporary Church has had such a hard time convincing the world that Christ loves and accepts them when they don’t even accept each other?

Lastly, the church is where intimate knowing takes place. Moving to Boulder without any relationships, save for marriage, showed me the invaluable importance of knowing and being known. The Church is the community in which we are known, and accepted, at our deepest levels. Everyone desires to be in a community in which their identities are affirmed. People find this through athletics, professions, cults, gangs, and other secular communities. However, in the Church, our identity as a beloved child of God ties us together more intimately than any race, gender, trade, hobby, or genetic makeup can. I had met people through work but missed that connection that the Holy Spirit brings to the Church.

The relevance of being known lies in the fact that we were created to be so. Without sharing life deeply with a community we are missing out on how God called us to live. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have been in community eternally and could not exist otherwise. Just as the Son cannot truly live without the Father, we cannot truly live without the Church.

All in all, I have realized that being the Church is a journey – filled with the inevitable ups and downs. Times of joy, times of sorrrow. Times of community, times of isolation. And isn’t that how our walks with Christ are – joyous, intimate, depressive, isolated and everything in between?

- Dustin Jones

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