"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. " (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV)
I received a call from another church this morning -- one where there is division between the Pastor and elders, including some staff, and the congregation at large is frustrated. It's a story that seems to repeat itself over and over, church after church, all over the nation. It usually goes something like this: people begin to leave because it's easier to escape than to confront the problem and they take their bad feelings with them. It becomes harder to find leaders because people don't want to enter the fray. The youth (who nearly always see right through the 'Sunday Christian' facade of the adults) lose interest in 'church' because they see it as irrelevant -- or they seek other places to be fed spiritually (like the church down the road where their friends attend). Their parents become dissatisfied and begin to look for another church home, taking their whole families with them. Now the children's ministry and other outreaches begin to suffer. Before long, only a small core is left and they are proverbially circling their wagons to stop the bleeding. The church focuses on itself -- its human and financial resources used almost exclusively to meet the needs and desires of those who are already members of the church -- resting squarely in survival mode. The community views the church as dysfunctional (because it is) having heard ample stories from those who fled -- and has concluded that that church is full of hypocrites.
There are many variations on this story, but it is way too familiar to many Christians. It may take several years for the whole story to unfold, but a majority of Christians in America today say that they either currently attend or have left a church like that at some time. It's so sad.
Paul tells us that when we are in Christ, we change -- and that change is from God. God then gives that changed community a ministry -- specifically, a ministry of reconciliation (that's the Great Commission, the church's "prime directive"). He also gives that changed community a specific message of reconciliation (that's the gospel of the risen Christ). With those tools, we literally become Christ's ambassadors, representing him and his work to this world. Paul writes, "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
And this reconciliation also impacts our earthly relationships. In the context of sending us as his ambassadors out into the world, Jesus prays to the Heavenly Father,
"As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." (John 17:18-23 ESV)
The world knows Jesus' mission and his love through his people. We are called to Christ-centred unity. The local church's witness to the world rests on that unity -- one with Christ and one with each other in Him. It's not a forced ecumenical unity, but one that naturally flows out of a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17) in a changed community. And without it, there is no gospel -- no "good news."
It's a hard and unpopular reality to face, but fewer and fewer churches in America today (even within Evangelicalism) live out this life. We meticulously proclaim our doctrine and the gospel, but in our faith-communities we remain at odds with each other! We call the world to reconcile to God while at the same time we dishonor our God in our disunity. And rather than taking the biblically prescribed steps to address the problem (e.g., Matthew 18:15ff), we either break fellowship (go to another church, taking our baggage with us) or we live in disunity. The world watches us, hears us declare our "ministry of reconciliation" and the proclamation of our "message of reconciliation," and sees that we remain unreconciled with our own brothers and sisters in Christ. No wonder they are no longer interested in what we have to offer. Without the unity Christ describes, our proclamation is empty words. We posture and defend, but in the end, we are not united in Christ and, therefore, we have no authentic gospel to share.
So what's missing? What will bring us back to this unity and empower our message and our ministry? Three things: repentance, confession and forgiveness. Until individuals begin to truly live in ongoing repentance, nothing will change. But once our hearts are broken in transparency and repentance, then we will once again begin confessing to one another and forgiving one another. Only then will we be truly one with one another again.
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