What is your vision for the church in the 21st Century? – By Andrew Kukla
View Responses by:
Christian Iosso
Neal D. Presa
Lisa Larges
Garnett Foster
This sounds blasé to me but I think the question itself needs to be altered. The question for us is, what do you think is God’s vision for the near future of God’s people. It isn’t what I see, but what are we discerning together what God envisions for us that is of central importance. It is not simply a question of the church but of God at work in all of creation and the way we as God’s gathered-nurtured-and-sent people witnessing to God’s mission in creation. It is not for a whole century but from now to just beyond the horizon which may well only be a handful of years at the current exponential rate of change in our world. I believe many people are doing wonderfully rich work in heralded, and unheralded, ways to reveal this vision. It is not post-denominational, but it moves beyond our known limits of denomination to openly claim the grandness and mystery of God. It is not post-doctrinal, but it moves beyond fascination with doctrine to a lived good news which offers challenge and irresistible hope to the world. It is not post-modern, but it moves beyond set ways, approaches, and programs to recognize that God indeed is doing a new thing – again!
What is God’s vision for the church? I believe it is to get to heart of what it means that God is love and that we are the Body of Christ only insofar as we are the embodiment of that love. This means radical hospitality, committed discipleship, risky outreach, humble proclamation, and healing hearts. When those of us who call ourselves Christian have been gathered and nurtured in love and sent to be love than I cannot help but imagine we will be the provisional demonstration of God’s Kingdom, the church, that God has envisioned for us.
Does this vision need more concrete focus as we make the next step together? Yes, and I need help – we all do – to move any further than this, because we are the community of a communal God. We must help each other from our various standpoints to reveal what we see and how these visions bring us to a greater, more whole, vision of what God has in store for us. Only when we can focus on the core of what it means to offer good news, and stop defining who we are and what we are to do by the periphery elements of faith will be able to reflect the unity and oneness of God. God’s kingdom is near and has a vital future, with prayer, cooperation, and zeal this will be true of the church as well.
The Rev. Andrew Kukla serves as Associate Pastor of Discipleship at Palms Presbyterian Church, Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
View Responses by:
Christian Iosso
Neal D. Presa
Lisa Larges
Garnett Foster
A Note to the Reader: This week on ecclesio.com, we feature five Presbyterians’ responses to the first question posed to a wide and diverse group of respondents by the GA Special Committee on the Nature of the Church in the 21st Century. We encourage you to engage with these respondents, offer your own thoughts, and be in touch with us at submissions@ecclesio.com to offer your answers to the Committee’s questions, which can be found here.