Purpose of our Church

As elders met on Sunday, after and during a work-out of cleaning flower gardens at the church yard, to discuss the church planting strategy, a question was on minds of many “what is the purpose of the church plant”?  As I grappled with this question preparing for the Board meeting on Monday I took some time to read the Counsel to Churches, a compilation of Ellen G. White works regarding the reason we do church.  As I shared a few paragraphs with the Board members I am moved to share over the next few weeks with all who read our blog and this church bulletin these insights. 

The Church is a Theater in which the power of God’s Grace is to be displayed before the Universe (1^st Cor.4:9)! And, in case you are wondering “what’s showing” – get this: “There is a great work to be done in fashioning the character after the divine similitude. The grace of Christ must mould the entire being, and its triumph will not be complete until the heavenly universe shall witness habitual tenderness of feeling, Christlike love, and holy deeds in the deportment of the children of God.”  (August 3, 1899  Youth Instructor).  And read also this: “The church, endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His depositary, in which the riches of His mercy, His grace, and His love, are to appear in full and final display. Christ looks upon His people in their purity and perfection, as the reward of His humiliation, and the supplement of His glory,--Christ, the great Center, from whom radiates all glory.”  (Desire of ages, p.680).

The universe looks at the Church to see if the Sacrifice of Jesus made a difference, if we are being transformed by His Grace, if Holy Spirit is at work in us.  Our purity is Christ’s reward for all the suffering and dishonour He endured to set us free, to give us new beginning.  Our Church has no intrinsic glory of its own.  We cannot manufacture any glory to exalt Christ.  Our church is simply the vehicle through which Christ exhibits His Love and His Glory.

In a letter written to the Battle Creek church in 1896 Ellen White explained why we exist as a church, and it is valid for us today, in London, Ontario: “The church of Christ, enfeebled, defective as she may appear, is the one object on earth upon which he bestows, in a special sense, his love and his regard. The church is the theater of His grace, in which He delights in making experiments of mercy on human hearts. The Holy Spirit is His representative, and He works to effect transformations so wonderful that angels look upon them with astonishment and joy. Heaven is full of rejoicing when the members of the human family are seen to be full of compassion for one another, loving one another as Christ has loved them. The church is God's fortress, his city of refuge, which he holds in a revolted world.”

So, why do we exist, why do we come together, a corporate body, visible church gathering, instead of staying as a small independent atoms?  To show the world that Jesus is alive among us, and the Holy Spirit makes us loving toward each other, just as Jesus foretold!(John 13:34-35)