Often groups and church bodies meet to
elaborate on the question: “How does the church need to change?” The more I pray and
meditate about this very question the more I realize that it is not
human ingenuity that will bring change into the church. For example,
the Emergent Church, a human based endeavor, is an attempt to
make church relevant and may partially succeed. The real change, however, must and will come from the Holy
Spirit that indwells us all. Through this transformation process, and
this process alone, the church will change relevance and form.
Church has become more and more
separate from community. Church does her thing, her programs her liturgy with little regard to what is truly going on around her. With closer inspection it is also apparent that
the current church is formatted for worshiping the cross. By doing so they also get stuck on death.
Yes, Jesus died on the cross. Yes, humanity has shown selfishness.
Yes, humanity has sinned, still sins, and will continue to sin. There
is a season in which we were and are called to remember what
happened: the betrayal, the crucifixion, our own shortcomings and
need for forgiveness. What is noticeably absent in the church
currently is the move into the resurrection. We, as the body of
Christ, recall resurrection one Sunday a year and mention it briefly here and there. We also celebrate Pentecost one particular Sunday. The crucifixion has taken up the rest of the church year more
or less. Even at Christmas, we often hear allusions to Christ's
death. Tons of hymns have been written about Christ's death, His
blood spilled as well as graphic movies produced. It seems our
churches and much of Christianity are stuck on the cross and death event alone, which is only
a part of Jesus’ life. Jesus Christ himself said, “Take up your
Cross and follow me.” Nevertheless, did he mean for us to walk with long
suffering faces and condemn each other all our lives knowing that in
the end everyone will succumb to death because we are such sinful people? I believe there is more to this command!
The cross has two beams, one vertical,
and one horizontal. The vertical beam points upward, pointing to the
eternal light. The horizontal beam is relational, the light of
friendship and community.1
Whenever church starts to live in the resurrection, the beam of light
of the eternal, which intersects with the light of community, will
raise the community and renew it. Imagine a church within the
crossing beams of light, the vertical beam of the eternal merging
with the horizontal beam of community. Then imagine all churches
gathered in that intersection of light. All will then be inspired by
the Holy Spirit; necessitated by the horizontal beam to reach out to
each other, pray for each other and support each other. The new
church has no grounds for pickering, competition or trivial
arguments. This newly transformed church does not strain, nor does it
operate from the hierarchical point of view. The new church does not
speak of people being worthless worms, nor is it separate from, but
rather exists within and central to community bringing edification as
fulfillment of Christ’s salvation and love.
I see the truly transformed church
operating out of the center of light made of the two beams. With
that, the church truly would take up the cross and follow Christ. The
church might well become a network of spirit-inspired communities
with resurrection at its center. If we truly follow Christ,
resurrection must be at the center of our worship, after all in the
end Christ rose from the dead.
The exact form of this transformation
we cannot know yet. Nevertheless, I believe it will be quite
different from what church is today and human power will have very
little part in it.
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