Yesterday, I published a new audio at FindingChurch.com called My Hope for His Church . (If you missed it, you might sing up for updated on that website. We are about to launch a book discussion of Finding Church and will be anchoring it there.)
It includes a twenty-three minute audio clip drawn from my opening comments to a group of people who gathered in London last month. This is best recorded statement I have about my heart for the church Jesus is building and how I view her taking shape in the world. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the amount of response I’ve already gotten to this brief clip and want to make sure people on this blog don’t miss it.
Some of the thoughts included there:
- Let’s use the term “church” only the way God is uses it—as an endearing term for the family he is shaping in the world. He calls her a bride for his Son, prepared for his Son and his hope in her is that she will demonstrate the character and wisdom of God not only to the world, but the spiritual principalities and powers that underlie it. A people living in love will topple the powers that hold humanity captive.
- There are two churches in the world, the one that humanity is building in its own image, and the one Jesus is building in his. Sometimes those realities can overlap, but not always.
- Our institutions are often more preoccupied with their own needs and managing political power instead of helping people learn to live loved.
- The church is not something humanity can build; it is the fruit of a new creation where people learn to live in the reality of his love and share it freely with others.
- When our preoccupation is on the church instead of Jesus, we’ll see less of his church and less of him. The bride’s focus need to be on the groom, because the groom’s focus is on the bride.
