This is my last blog for both churches together. For the past month I was sharing with you Biblical perspective on the Church as the Family of God. We’ve considered that in the Family following things take place:
• Members take care of one another,
• Family Spend Time Together,
• Family members Show One Another Affection,
• Family Grows!
• Family members share responsibilities.
(If you missed the bulletin, you could read past issues on-line: www.adventistlondon.ca/files/pastorpage/2009/archive2009.html
Today I invite you to consider the reason why: In all we do we want to reflect God. Because we are made in the likeness and image of God, we are only fully human when we are living in community, as the Triune God is in everlasting reciprocal relationship.
A Church that is hierarchically structured, or that relegates its fellowship to a weekly religious service violates the spiritual reality of the Trinity. Our understanding of the Godhead shapes our understanding of the Church. Ancient Christians, when describing their understanding of the Trinity, used a word perichoresis, which can be only translated as an “eternal circle dance,” where the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are continually and constantly fellowship together, and the Church has been introduced into this divine chorus too, as the Body of Christ on earth.
Tragically, because we tried to arrange the church as secular organizations for so long, we’ve been conditioned to take wrong steps in this fellowship. When you think of the church as a loving household, not a business, as a corporate expression of Jesus Christ, and not a religious corporation, consider these “dance” steps:
Interdependence instead of independence
Wholeness instead of fragmentation
Participation instead of spectatorship
Connectedness instead of isolation
Relationship instead of programs
Servitude instead of dominance
Enrichment instead of insecurity
Freedom instead of bondage
Community instead of corporation
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