The New Community/artical review

The New Community/article review

The church in this post modern world must associate itself with the politics and organizations of the day. We are not an island unto our selves and should not allow this association to blind us from our mission as the church. When we no longer have faith in God our creator, trust in Christ and His reconciling work, and experience the transforming power of the Holy sprit all which are recognized as vital aspects of Christian faith and theology then we are in trouble.

The thesis of this article is, the nature of God communal. The author starts off with what he fills are four basic problems: A hostility toward the Church which results in individualism, that saturates American Culture; Religious beliefs are practices individually in modern culture that it assumes a privatized Form; Discrepancies between the expressed faith of the church and its actual practice; and The churches accommodations to bureaucratic organizations. I believe these are problems because we never speak the same language. We should allow the church to live and  to act as the Body of Christ and leave our personal agenda's at home.

We need to reform the reformed we must remember the profound social meaning of all the articles of faith as well as our failure to hold together faith and works. The problem is not with the church it is with the community of believers.. We are in church and play at church for so many reasons. We are a churched community not because we love God, but because the social and political aspects of attending gives us such a special feeling.

I believe as the author Paul Minear their are clearly   enough biblical images of the church to go around but, do we understand any of them. These images fall into four basic clusters: The church as people of God; The people of God as a servant people; the church as the body of Christ; and a community of the Sprit filled by the gifts of the sprit. Which ever cluster you by into the church should be a community of believers in which the new Sprit of God resides in which the wretched and even their enemies are welcome, the church should give us a need reason for hope in a waste land.

Avery Dulles gives us several models for the church. For me the only model that works is that of servant leadership.  This must be see from the top down and not just in conversation when it in fashion or you are trying to impress someone. This servant leadership must be preached from the pulpit and demonstrated by the pastor. This type of leadership must be instilled in the laity and the pastor must be willing to give up some of their responsibility and power. The power of the church is in how close we act like Christ. When the church is true to its own being and mission, it offers an earthly correspondence to God's own unity in diversity, to the inclusive and welcoming love of the other that characterizes the communion of God.

We as members of the Body of Christ must redefine what is meant by unity and holiness and of the church. We also must realize that Christ is where the gifts of the Sprit are manifest. Christ is not where the Bishop is, Christ is present among the poor, the hungry, the sick and the imprisoned. Those who minister to the least of the earth minister to Christ and that is where the true church is.