Vision of Church!

I am always on the hunt for faith-building definitions of church. In this day and age there seems to be so much to affect our belief in the Bride of Christ. Denominations make much of changing of a name (confusing to me!). Others downgrade their once held positions. It's vital to hold to a Word-based expression that inevitably leads to glorious reaching of the lost.

Dave Holden tweeted this morning;

"Sadly, many churches in the UK struggle to catch this vision. The reason, I believe, has to do with their foundations. Many are built fundamentally on pastoral foundations. This means that the leaders of these churches see it as their duty to only care for ‘their people’, not necessarily to be released to go and reach new people. Members of this kind of church see having their needs met as the primary reason for being in the church. If this doesn’t happen then they become easily disappointed. They may well even leave and go and find another church in the hope that they might do a better job! They may even object when the church starts to grow, realising that the more people there are, the less likely it is that attention will be given to them!

If, however, your church is built on apostolic, prophetic foundations as described for example in Ephesians 2:19-22, your church has at its very root a passion to be sent and to send. In other words, we exist not only to meet the needs of our existing members, but to constantly desire to go and meet the needs of those who are not yet a part of us".

Oh for more churches with this apostolic/prophetic foundations!