Good morning, My Dear Friends,
As we have grasped the idea that the church is the body of Christ, Imagine Church has discovered something that I’m afraid a lot of churches may have forgotten. When we open the Scriptures, we find it is very clear that Jesus Christ left the church to represent him. Let me say it this way: the closest you can ever get to personally and physically being with Jesus Christ on this earth is to be in the church. Because Jesus left the church as his ambassador, his reflection, his representative.
The church is to be like Jesus in the world with the same purpose and with the same personality. A church is not just a 501(c)(3) organization. It’s not just a bunch of people sitting in rows listening to a preacher. That’s not what makes it a church. A church, from God’s perspective, is a group of transformed people who come together in community to share the transforming message of Jesus Christ. And as people come into that community, they would sense something so powerful that, in the early days, thousands of people were influenced. Thousands of people came to faith in Christ, at least in part, because of the personality of the church.
Listen to how Luke describes the experience of the early Christians in the book of Acts, chapter 2: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and generous hearts, praising God and — listen to this — enjoying the favor of all the people” (Acts 2:42-47). They were distinctively and uniquely Christian — reflecting Christ’s personality as well as his purpose.
What would that look like today? What would it look like if we were to capture that once again? If Christianity were to actually look like Christ? By God’s grace, we at Imagine Church are trying to figure out what it means to be a church that in some way (I don’t know how much), but in some way reflects the purpose of Christ, but also the personality of Christ. If we commit ourselves to that, then God will honor this church, and God will show his favor on this church, and what will happen will far exceed what we have done thus far.
You see, God has placed a very precious thing in our hands, and God has entrusted it to us. Our responsibility is to care for it, and nurture it, but never think that it is ours. The church belongs to Christ! It is our joy and our holy privilege to reflect more than just Christ’s purpose, but even his personality. And if we stay focused on that, then we will be leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, because that’s what the church is here to do. The perception of our community will be that Imagine Church makes people think of Jesus Christ.
May God’s Holy Spirit always feel free to reside here,
Bruce Jones, Pastor Imagine Church
