Please HONOR the copyright of these documents by not retransmitting or making any additional copies in any form (Except for private personal use). We appreciate your respectful cooperation.
______Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) P.O. Box 30183 Portland, Oregon 97294 USA Website: www.tren.com E-mail: [email protected] Phone# 1-800-334-8736 ______
ATTENTION CATALOGING LIBRARIANS TREN ID#
Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) MARC Record #
RE-VISIONING LOCAL CONGREGATIONS AS BEING THE EXHIBITION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD TO THE WORLD
A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
BY
JAMES A. TWEEDIE JULY 2011
ABSTRACT
Re-visioning Local Congregations as Being the Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World James A. Tweedie Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2011
The goal of this study is to explore the relationship between the biblical and theological understandings of Jesus’ image of the kingdom of God and a local congregation. This paper argues that Jesus’ image of the kingdom of God can provide a more comprehensive and effective model for the life and mission of Reformed Protestant congregations in Hawaii than other images and models that are more common and more widely used. The thesis was tested through new membership classes, sermon series, Bible study groups in Mililani Presbyterian Church in Mililani, Hawaii, and Ocean Beach Presbyterian Church in Seaview, Washington. Through an examination of Scripture this study identifies the kingdom of God as the central theme of Jesus’ thought and teaching and the preeminent image used by him to represent the “abundant life” accessible to his followers. A review of contemporary Christian writers demonstrates that new emphasis on the kingdom of God is having a positive influence on Christian thought. A further review of the historic “Six Great Ends of the Church” in the Presbyterian Church U.S. A. discerns the sixth “Great End,” “the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world,” to be relevant and applicable to a local congregation. Lastly, a model for interpreting and integrating the image of the kingdom of God into the life and ministry of a local congregation is presented and introduced to two congregations. The study concludes that Jesus’ preferred image of the kingdom of God provides a dynamic and comprehensive way to organize and interpret the purpose and life of a local congregation to its members. While some church members found the image to be helpful many others preferred different images for the church that were more traditional and which had been previously integrated into their life.
Content Reader: Randy L. Rowland, DMin
Words: 295
In memory and in honor of my Father The Rev. Herbert C. Tweedie 1915-1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
PART ONE: CONTEXT
Chapter 1. THE MINISTRY SETTING OF REFORMED PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN HAWAII 6
Chapter 2. MODELS FOR MINISTRY AT MILILANI PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 21
PART TWO: RESEARCH AREA
Chapter 3. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN SCRIPTURE 42
Chapter 4. BRIEF SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD 75
Chapter 5. THE PCUSA “SIX GREAT ENDS OF THE CHURCH” AND TRADITIONAL WAYS IN WHICH THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS MADE MANIFEST 107
PART THREE: STRATEGY
Chapter 7. INTRODUCTION OF THE IMAGE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL FOR CHRISTIAN LIFE AND MISSION 131
Chapter 8. INTRODUCING THE MODEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD INTO THE LIFE AND MISSION OF THE CONGREGATION 168
CONCLUSION 178
BIBLIOGRAPHY 181
iv
INTRODUCTION
‖During the past sixteen years I can recollect only two occasions on which I have heard sermons specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom of God . . . I find this silence rather surprising because it is universally agreed by New Testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.‖1
This paper argues that Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God can provide a more comprehensive and effective model for the life and mission of Reformed Protestant congregations in Hawaii than other images and models that are more common and more widely used. This idea arose, formed and came to fruition in the following way. Some years ago, as Pastor of Mililani Presbyterian Church (MPC), I joined with the Session
(i.e., the governing board of elders) and congregation members in rewriting our mission and vision statements. After a process lasting several months we adopted a mission statement that read: ―To Glorify God; To Know and Serve Jesus Christ; and To Live and
Share His Good News.‖
Several months later I read Rick Warren‘s Purpose-Driven Church and found that our mission statement matched, point by point, Warren‘s ―five purposes‖ for the Church: worship (―glorify God‖); discipleship (to ―know Jesus Christ‖); ministry (to ―serve Jesus
Christ‖); fellowship (to ―live His Good News‖); and evangelism (to ―share His Good
News‖).2 During this time our Session was enlarged to allow two elders to serve on the five corresponding ministry teams. A sixth team, ―facilities and finance,‖ was also allotted two elders but, in keeping with our mission statement and the ―Five Purposes‖ of the Church, it was designated a ministry support team.
1 Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1981), 2.
2 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 27. 1 As a pastor serving a congregation in the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) I was also happy to note that our MPC mission statement, along with Warren‘s ‖Five
Purposes,‖ also corresponded nicely with what the PCUSA Book of Order calls the ―Six
Great Ends of the Church.‖3 The first five of these ―Great Ends‖ matched perfectly, being: ―The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind‖ (evangelism);
―The shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God (fellowship); ―The maintenance of divine worship‖ (worship); ―The preservation of the truth” (discipleship); and, ―The promotion of social righteousness‖ (ministry). The Sixth Great End, however, had no parallel in either the MPC mission statement or Warren‘s ―Five Purposes.‖ This sixth ―Great End of the Church‖ declares that the Church is called to be ―the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.‖
I pondered and prayed about this sixth ―Great End‖ or ―purpose‖ of the Church for a long time before coming to the conclusion that it was not so much a particular purpose (as with the other five) but a cumulative purpose, becoming a tangible reality only when the other five were being lived out in the life of a local church or the Church as a whole. In short, I concluded that when a local congregation like MPC was faithfully living out the ―Five Purposes‖ of the Church it would provide the world with a glimpse of what the kingdom of God is like. To distill this thought even further, I came to believe that, if true, this meant that the ultimate end or the over-arching purpose of the Church was to become, both within itself and to the watching world, conformed to what Jesus described as the kingdom of God. I found that looking at my local congregation in this
3 Book of Order (Louisville, KY: The Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 2008), G-1.0200. 2 way completely reshaped my understanding of who I was to be as their pastor and what my congregation was to be as one example of ―the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.‖
As a student enrolled in the Fuller Theological Seminary Doctor of Ministry program I presented the idea of using the model of the kingdom of God as the subject of my Final Project. By a remarkable coincidence, which could also be viewed as either providential or a ―God-incidence,‖ I became immersed in the course, ―Ministry and
Spirituality,‖ led as a two-week spiritual retreat by Dallas Willard and Keith Matthews.
As I absorbed the pre-class reading I encountered, especially in the writing of Willard himself, the same theme of the kingdom of God as the preeminent image for both the
Christian life and the Church. Willard‘s lectures during the class also spoke to this theme, and, through him, I found my own thoughts being artfully and cogently articulated in new and compelling ways.
As I continued my readings for subsequent classes, I kept my eyes open for other new and repeated themes that compared the Christian life and Church as becoming visible, observable manifestations of the kingdom of God in the world. My search was not disappointing as I found the theme repeatedly alluded to by many writers. Few of the writers, however, presented Jesus‘ preferred model of the kingdom of God as the central and definitive model for who and what God is calling us to become as both individual and collective disciples of Jesus Christ. In Willard's writings, I found the subject to be presented with both persuasive power and passion. His thoughts began to influence my own ideas to such a degree that I had to set his writings aside for a period of over two
3 years in order to allow my own personal vision and model of the local church as the visible manifestation of the kingdom of God to emerge and to take shape.
In this paper, I have tried to create a simple, yet comprehensive model that demonstrates how a local congregation and its members might begin to view themselves as both becoming and being the very real presence of the kingdom of God in the world. It is my hope that just as my (re)discovery of this model radically transformed my view of the local church it will similarly offer to others a new way to think and imagine our individual and corporate life in the Body of Christ in ways that will be directly connected to the vision given to us by Jesus himself. The unarguable fact that the image and model of the kingdom of God was the one preferred by Jesus should cause every one of his disciples to pause and take a good, hard look at its potential for guiding and reshaping us into the people and Church that God has called us to become.
In this paper all scripture citations are taken from the New International Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted. For the purpose of continuity and clarity the phrases
―kingdom of heaven‖ and ―kingdom of God,‖ except when citing a particular text, will be rendered as ―kingdom of God‖ with the intention that the subtle distinctions unique to each phrase be understood to both be present in that singular one.
4
PART ONE
MINISTRY CONTEXT
5
CHAPTER 1
THE MINISTRY SETTING OF REFORMED PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN HAWAII
Perhaps it was because Hawaii had once been a kingdom itself. In any case, as a pastor who lived there for seventeen years, my interest in applying Jesus‘ vision of the kingdom of God to the local congregation I served emerged slowly but clearly in my mind as I observed the ongoing intersection of the living culture of the congregation with the living Word of God in scripture. What follows is a description of the setting in which this idea emerged and came to take a central place in my life and ministry.
Demographics
In many ways Hawaii is unique among the various states that make up the United
States of America. It is the only state in which Caucasians are not the majority race.1 It is one of only two states that was once a fully-recognized independent nation. It has the only royal palace in the nation and the flag of the former Kingdom of Hawaii still flies over the islands as the state flag. The former national anthem, ―Hawaii Pono‘i,‖ is still
1 Hawaii: 22.87 percent Caucasian, 40.79 percent Asian, U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, http://www.censusscope.org/us/s15/chart_race.html, (accessed March 22, 2009). 6 sung, along with the American national anthem, before all sports and civic events. It is the only state completely surrounded by water, being composed of eight major islands and many other, smaller ones. While it is the fifth smallest state in land area it is the second largest in distance from one end, near Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, to the other, over 1,600 miles to Kure Atoll to the North West, beyond Midway Island.
Hawaii is a veritable stir-fry of races, languages, and cultures, particularly influenced by the cultures of Polynesia, of which it is a part, and Asia. It is the home of
Pearl Harbor, with the sunken, yet still-commissioned battleship, USS Arizona resting only a few hundred yards from the still-floating but decommissioned battleship USS
Missouri, each serving as a visual bookend marking both the beginning and end of the
United States' participation in World War II. Hawaii is the home of Spam musubi, shave ice, plate lunch (―two scoop rice‖), manapua and poi.
Hawaii is the home of Waikiki and Diamond Head, active volcanoes and the highest sea cliffs in the world. Average days bring sunshine, tropical showers and rainbows. Shoes (or ―slippahs‖) are taken off before entering a home. Family gatherings, luncheon meetings and sometimes even Sunday worship services begin on ―Hawaii time‖ after people have arrived both leisurely and late. Surfing and volleyball are major sports and, not surprisingly, Hawaii has been rated as having the ―least stressed‖ population in the country.2 It also has the only portion of the United States Interstate freeway system that does not go ―interstate.‖
2 David G. Moriarty, et al, ―Geographic Patterns of Frequent Mental Distress: U.S. Adults, 1993– 2001 and 2003–2006,‖ American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 36, Issue 6 (June 2009): 497- 505.
7 Of the state‘s 1.2 million population, 876,000 or 72.3 percent of the people live on the island of Oahu,3 most within the urban sprawl of the city of Honolulu. Even in paradise traffic slows to a crawl during weekday morning and afternoon commutes from outlying communities like Mililani Town in central Oahu. People in Hawaii also pay
―POP,‖ the ―Price of Paradise,‖ as they endure some of the highest average gasoline prices, food prices, and housing costs in the nation. The historic agricultural economy of pineapple and sugar cane has been replaced by an economy increasingly based on tourism and supplemented by a large, resident but transitory military population. Many so-called ―local‖ residents speak a Hawaii-style English dialect called pidgin, distinctly different from the Caribbean version that goes by the same name. The religious diversity of the state is also unique, having the largest per capita non-Christian population in the nation.4 Even so, it is the only state in the nation where attendance at Christian services of worship is currently increasing faster than the population as a whole.5
History
Hawaii is the newest state in the Union (celebrating fifty years of statehood in
2009) and its history, especially since its ―discovery‖ by Captain James Cook in 1778, is also unique. Before the year 1810 when King Kamehameha I united the islands into one kingdom by military conquest, each island had been ruled by one or more kings, who represented the ali'i, or royal family lines. The spiritual health of the islands was overseen
3 State of Hawaii, 2000 State of Hawaii Data Book (Honolulu: Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, Section 1), 10.
4 U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, Section 1, 60.
5 David T. Olson, ―The American Church Research Project,‖ http://www.theamericanchurch.org/facts/9.htm, (accessed March 30, 2009). 8 by the priests, or kahunas, who enforced the kapu system of right and wrong behavior among the people and administered the rites of worship and sacrifice at the many sacred sites and temples (heiau).
One young man who came to be called Henry Opukahai‘a, a nephew of the priest who oversaw the heiau at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii (where Captain
Cook was killed in a skirmish with local Hawaiians in 1779), traveled from Hawaii to
New England on a sailing ship in 1808. Along the way he became a convert to the
Christian faith. He was befriended by many, including the president of Yale College.
There he not only mastered the English language but Latin, Greek, and Hebrew as well.
As time passed he became increasingly concerned for the spiritual darkness that he believed had hidden the truth of the saving love of God from his people back in Hawaii.
Opukahai'a began to speak and to write about how God had saved him for the purpose of bringing the Christian faith to the people of Hawaii. Although he died in 1818, his
Memoirs,6 which sold over 50,000 copies, stirred up a passionate interest among New
England Christians to send missionaries to Hawaii. This helped spur American participation in the first Protestant world missionary movement since the Reformation.
People of many different denominations, including Congregational, Methodist,
Lutheran, and Presbyterian, contributed to what became known as the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Seven missionaries (each required to be accompanied by a wife) were recruited to form the first missionary company in 1819.7
6 Edwin W. Dwight, Memoirs of Henry Obookiah (Honolulu, HI: Woman‘s Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands, 1990).
7 Historical details for Hawaii have been drawn from Gavan Daws, Shoal of Time, A History of the Hawaiian Islands (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1974). 9 Sailing from Boston on the brig Thaddeus in October of that year, they finally arrived in
Hawaii via Cape Horn on April 4, 1820. To their surprise they discovered that King
Kamehameha I had died the previous year and that his son and successor, Liholiho, had banished the kapu system (which made up virtually the entire social and religious structure of the Kingdom) and ordered all idols (ki’i) burned and all heiau dismantled.
Strangely, nothing had been offered in its place.
Unlike many of the other foreigners who came to Hawaii to take what they could get, the missionaries' character and motives impressed the Hawaiian ali’i in such a way that they not only welcomed them but used their knowledge of Western ways to create a more practical government system, transforming the Kingdom of Hawaii into a constitutional monarchy. After a series of spiritual revivals swept the islands, the vast majority of the ali’i and the kanaka maoli (common native people) became converts to the Christian faith. The missionaries took the Hawaiian language, put it into written form, and then built schools where they taught both children and adults how to read. Within a span of less than thirty years Hawaii, which had been 100 percent illiterate, became, per capita, the nation with the highest literacy rate in the world. The missionaries installed the first printing press west of the Mississippi River and built churches and clapboard, New
England style homes in Honolulu only a few years after Lewis and Clark had returned from their trek across North America to the Pacific Ocean and back.
Following advice given by the missionaries, the Hawaiian monarchs systematically changed their style of clothing and social order into conformity with those of the United States and England. Many of the traditional Hawaiian ways, such as hula and sacred chants (oli) were banned by royal edict. In 1863 the churches in Hawaii had
10 become so strong that they were released by the missionary board to organize themselves in whatever way they thought best. Following a Kingdom-wide church conference, the leadership voted to organize as a Congregational-style denomination. By that time, the major American denominations had created their own missionary boards. By a comity agreement, the American Presbyterian Churches agreed to no longer support ministry in
Hawaii (that would be seen as unnecessary competition) but to allocate their resources elsewhere in places like Korea and China.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Kingdom of Hawaii had developed into a modern and sophisticated nation. Hawaii could even boast that their royal residence,
Iolani Palace, had installed electricity and telephones before the White House. King
Kalakaua, who built the palace in 1888, began to restore much of the cultural heritage of old Hawaii, including the oli and the hula. His successor, Queen Liliuokalani, was not only a well-traveled and well-educated leader but also a fine seamstress and musician, being the organist at the Kawaihao Church and writing music (such as ―Aloha o’i‖ and the ―Queen’s Prayer‖) that is still sung and performed today.
In 1893, the Queen and her government were overthrown by a group of political and economic leaders headed by pineapple baron Sanford Dole and other non-Hawaiians who had become wealthy during their years in Hawaii and influential due to their privileged relationship with the royal family. Several were children of the early missionaries and, although there were some distinguished native Hawaiians who supported the overthrow, the vast majority of native Hawaiians were devastated by it.
Many of the non-Hawaiian Christian leaders in the Congregational churches supported the overthrow. Subsequently, over the next few years, tens of thousands of the Hawaiian
11 people abandoned the churches and either joined other denominations, started their own churches, or simply took their faith home with them. Some even rejected Christianity as a ha’ole (―foreigner‘s‖) religion and returned to the spiritual practices of their ancestors, tempered, of course, by the foundational ethics of Christianity. Those who overthrew the
Kingdom of Hawaii found that their first efforts to become part of the United States were rebuffed, so they instead established themselves as an independent republic headed by
Dole as President. Eventually, however, a new administration in Washington, D.C. saw the advantage of annexing Hawaii as a United States territory. Dole, not surprisingly, was appointed as the first governor of the new Territory of Hawaii.
By the mid-1950s, there were enough expatriate Presbyterians living in Honolulu for them to ask that their counterparts on the U.S. mainland send someone to start a
Presbyterian congregation in that city. Under the authority of what was then known as the
Presbytery of Los Angeles, two ministers, the Rev. Bill Pfeifer and the Rev. Philip Lee, were sent to Hawaii to serve as the first Presbyterian ministers in Hawaii since the old missionary days. Several years after chartering the First Presbyterian Church of
Honolulu, Philip Lee was given permission to begin another congregation in the soon-to- be developed suburban bedroom community of Mililani Town in Central Oahu.
Mililani and Mililani Presbyterian Church
Before the mid-1960s, the area that was to become Mililani Town had been a mix of deep, river carved gulches and broad agricultural lands covered in pineapple and sugar cane. The small plantation community of Kipapa became the location for the first phase of the Mililani Development and the Rev. Philip Lee, with the support of the Los Angeles
12 Presbytery, purchased a one-acre plot of land, directly across from the old Kipapa plantation school and park. Coincidentally, the old plantation Methodist Church had stood on part of what was now the property for the new Presbyterian church development. The terms of the purchase required that the new church build and operate a preschool as its contribution to the newly-emerging social fabric of Mililani.
The first building was constructed, and the preschool opened in May of 1970.
Church members were drawn from the town‘s first residents, and the congregation became chartered in the spring of 1971. From the beginning, the congregation was made up of a representative mix of people from the growing community. Although primarily
Caucasian, the Mililani Presbyterian Church‘s membership remains a remarkable mix of races, cultures, and language groups even today, forty years after its founding.
I had the pleasure of serving as the congregation‘s pastor from 1993 to 2010, the fourth installed minister to hold this position. Over the years since its founding, the congregation‘s membership has fluctuated from a high of 300 to the current level of 130 active adult members. Members include those from the Philippines, Okinawa, Japan,
China, Korea, Germany, South Africa, Nigeria, the Congo and almost every corner of the
United States, including, of course, Hawaii. At least fifteen separate languages are spoken by members, including Hawaiian and pidgin. Several of the church families represent inter-racial marriages, which are very common in Hawaii. Their children often can claim ancestors from many different nations in both Europe and Asia. The diversity that would ordinarily create divisions has been wonderfully overcome by the common bond of Jesus
Christ as the head of the body that bears his name.
13 Aside from this remarkable diversity, the other unique and distinguishing mark of
Mililani Presbyterian Church is the significant presence of military and U.S. civil service personnel, many of whom are only temporarily residents of Hawaii. Approximately one- third of the congregation‘s members will only be in Hawaii for three to five years and some of them for less than that. I was deeply impressed by the experience of receiving fifty new members and then losing the same number in my first year as pastor. The experience was much like Dorothy in the movie The Wizard of Oz when, in Munchkin
Land, she exclaimed, ―My! People come and go so quickly here!‖8 Like Alice in Through the Looking Glass, I discovered that ministry in Mililani sometimes ―takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place!‖9
Mililani Town, begun in 1969, has recently completed the final phase of its development. It now provides homes and town houses for over 56,000 people, three major shopping centers, five elementary schools, one middle school and one high school, as well as one Roman Catholic Church, seven protestant churches of various kinds, two
Buddhist temples, and four Mormon wards. Most of Mililani could be described as middle or, perhaps, upper-middle class. People are generally well-educated, and most employed adults commute in the direction of Honolulu every day, a twenty mile drive that can take over an hour during the daily rush hours. Others work or serve on the military bases of Pearl Harbor (Navy), Schofield Barracks (Army), or Wheeler Army
Airfield. Still others work in the military intelligence center in Kunia or the military telecommunications center in Whitmore Village. Some serve in the Central Joint
8 Wizard of Oz, Dir. Victor Fleming, MGM Studios, Hollywood, CA, 1939.
9 Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass (Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing, 2001), 26. 14 Command for Asia and the Pacific at Camp Smith or at Hickam Air Force Base.
Alongside Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel there are times when members of the
Coast Guard or even a Marine or two become active in the congregation.
Military families frequently bring both strong, personal faith and strong leadership skills into the ministry of MPC. Along with them come new ideas and enthusiasm for recreating successful ministries that they have led or participated in elsewhere. On the other hand, the transitory nature of their leadership and presence brings a constant sense of discontinuity to both our short-term programming and our long-term visioning. It is hard for people to know where the church is going when so many of them have no idea where the church has been.
As a result, leadership development is an ongoing process with elders and deacons frequently being replaced before their three-year terms of office have been completed. As they move away, they are no longer present to assist in the training and mentoring of their replacements. Psychologically and emotionally, the congregation is constantly experiencing various degrees of grieving as those who have become friends in ministry move away. As grieving reduces energy and enthusiasm, it leaves little emotional energy to be invested in the welcoming of new visitors or in investing in new friendships with people who will, at some point in the not-too-distant future, be leaving.
To simply keep the congregation functioning at a constant level requires a never- ending cycle of welcoming, recruiting, training, supporting, involving, and fare-welling individuals and families on a regular basis. Just as new members are received and celebrated during Sunday worship, departing members are also celebrated and then
―commissioned‖ as missionaries sent out into the world by the congregation. One
15 interesting effect of this ―coming and going‖ of members is that, while the transitory members remain fairly young, the resident members have slowly been aging, with many of their children now grown and no longer present in the life of the congregation. This results in fewer people to lead and participate in the very sorts of programs that are attractive to the younger families who visit, searching for a church home.
Since 2003 the military community has been severely disrupted by a series of massive deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. At one point, there were fifteen people connected with MPC who were deployed to the Middle East, including three elders serving on our Session and, in the case of our Session clerk, a three-month Army Reserve activation to Kansas. A great deal of effort was spent in supporting both the deployed personnel and their families who stayed behind. Because of the deployment cycles, there has been a decline in the number of families who have the time or energy to become committed members of the congregation. Sometimes non-deployed spouses returned to the mainland with their children during the twelve to eighteen months of deployment. In this way many families who once would have been active leaders with young children in our church were no longer available to attend or to serve in these rolls.
Ministry/Theology/Mission/Vision/Program
In response to this transitory and discontinuous component of its membership and leadership Mililani Presbyterian Church made a focused effort to provide clear and compelling mission and vision statements to let the newcomers know who we are and what we are trying to become as a congregation. The congregation‘s mission statement, previously cited in this paper‘s Introduction, reads as follows: ―To glorify God; To know
16 and serve Jesus Christ; and To live and share His Good News.‖ This is printed in the bulletin each week and in the church newsletter every month. Most of the church leadership have memorized it and know that it embraces the ―five purposes‖ or ministry areas that we attempt to address and promote, both in the congregation and the surrounding community.
The organizational structure of the church Session, detailed in their standing rules, is drawn directly from the model of ministry articulated in this mission statement.
Ministry is divided up among these five ministry areas and is administered by five ministry teams. Other areas of the congregation‘s life that stand outside of these areas, such as facilities and finance, personnel, pastor support, master planning and preschool oversight have been designated as ministry support teams, since they exist to enable the church to be the church and (with the notable exception of the preschool, which is a significant ministry of the congregation) not necessarily created to be areas of ministry themselves.
The MPC vision statement is, in its summary form, as follows: ―We are a place of welcome for all, having a particular passion for the needs of children, youth and their families. Building on who we are, God is calling us to be a church that reaches out as well as welcomes in with the Good News of God's saving love in Jesus Christ.‖ This expands upon the traditional motto of MPC which is, ―Welcome to the Church of the
Open Doors,‖ an allusion to the architectural design of the worship center building where all four sides of the square structure can be (and generally are) completely opened up, allowing for natural air flow. The vision statement goes on to articulate the desire to be:
―A church where every child and adult is Committed to Christ; (affirms the saving
17 Lordship of Jesus Christ); Assimilated into the Body of Christ (becomes part of the church ―family‖); Integrated into the Body of Christ (becomes part of the church ―team‖);
Equipped for the Body of Christ (experiences growth in faith and ministry skills);
Supported by the Body of Christ (enjoys relationships of friendship and prayer); Inviting others to become a part of the Body of Christ; and Sent into the world to serve as part of the Body of Christ.‖10
Virtually everything done in these five ministry areas of worship, education, fellowship, missions and evangelism are measured and guided by this part of our Vision
Statement. This portion of the Vision also reflects the ongoing need to rapidly and intentionally assimilate and involve those who number among the transitory members.
This part of the vision has been relatively successful, resulting in proportional rates of worship attendance and leadership involvement significantly higher than congregations that are more stable or static in their membership.
Since its inception, the MPC congregation has taken shape around the idea that it exists to serve the needs of both its members and the early childhood needs of the
Mililani community. The major focus of the latter need has been met by the operation of the Mililani Presbyterian Preschool, a program that currently enrolls ninety-five children ages one to four-plus years and employs a staff of fourteen teachers and aides, all administered by a full-time director. Two-thirds of the church budget is concerned with the operation and maintenance of this very important ministry. Including the preschool, the congregation has recently begun moving over $1 million through its books each year.
10 The Mission and Vision Statements of Mililani Presbyterian Church can be found at http://pacificpresbytery.org/mililani/index.html. 18 Additional outreach to neighborhood children has been addressed by a mid-week children‘s ―Kids for Christ‖ dinner ministry modeled after the Logos11 program, and a very successful vacation Bible school program each summer. The congregation also hosts a church-chartered Boy Scout troop and provides meeting space for several Girl Scout troops, two AA groups and a Narcotics Anonymous group each week.
As mentioned earlier, it takes so much energy to keep the congregation functioning at a steady level that there has been little time to vision a more expansive role in evangelism or in mission beyond the congregation. In recent years, however, efforts have been made to expand ministry to the local community through ongoing support of our neighboring Kipapa Elementary School (through donation of supplementary student funds and supplies and through participation in a one-on-one student mentoring program) and to an inner-city Christian mission ministry in Honolulu where church members lead worship and feed two-hundred homeless guests once every other month. Adult members have also joined with our youth group in traveling to Mexico every other year where they have now built four homes with Amor Ministries in the expanding outskirts of Tijuana.
One other outreach worth mentioning is the partnership that has been made with three immigrant congregations that ―nest‖ in the MPC facilities. These include a Samoan congregational church, a Micronesian Pentecostal church (with members primarily drawn from the island of Nama, located some miles away from Chuuk) and a Korean
Presbyterian congregation of our own PCUSA denomination. Use of facilities is extended free of charge as part of the congregation‘s commitment to mission, and the pastors and
11 ―The Logos Ministry is a non-denominational Christian ministry that works in partnership with local church leaders to build young disciples of Jesus Christ.‖ From Logos website: http://www.thelogosministry.org/default.aspx?name=about_mainministry, (accessed March 22, 2009). 19 members of these non-English speaking churches are included in special, combined worship and social events throughout the year.
It is not completely clear what the future holds for the mission and ministry of
MPC but, with the completion of the final phase of the construction and development of
Mililani Town, it will no doubt involve a slow but general aging of the local population along with a similar trend in the congregation‘s membership. An ongoing commitment to provide a ministry for children and youth will hopefully preserve the level of enthusiasm and energy that has such been an important part of MPC‘s identity. Most assuredly the congregation will continue to be ―a church that reaches out and welcomes in with the good news of God‘s saving love in Jesus Christ‖ for many years to come.
In February 2010 I left Hawaii and began serving as Pastor of Ocean Beach
Presbyterian Church in Seaview, Washington. This congregation is semi-rural rather than suburban, ethnically homogenous rather than diverse but, like Hawaii, a long way from most anywhere else. Although it is unclear as to whether the vision of a local congregation being the exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world would have emerged here as it did in Hawaii, I have found the model presented in this paper to be as equally applicable here as it was there. After all, the Church is the Church wherever it may be. Christ is still the Lord and proclaims the good news of God‘s coming kingdom regardless of the location of any particular congregation.
20
CHAPTER 2
MODELS FOR MINISTRY AT MILILANI PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The members of Mililani Presbyterian Church, along with all who follow Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior throughout the ages, have dealt with many different images, labels, and models as they have tried to describe and understand themselves as a community of faith. Most of these terms, such as ―Christian,‖ the ―Church,‖ the ―Body of
Christ‖ and (the) ―Family (of God)‖ have been taken directly from scripture. Others, such as ―team,‖ have been borrowed from secular social culture and have been found to be useful in explaining or describing what a group of people who follow Jesus might be like.
This chapter will explore these images and consider their strengths and limitations in serving as models for the faith and life of a local congregation such as Mililani
Presbyterian Church.
The Local Congregation as Being Made Up of “Christians”
From the beginning the followers of Jesus tried to find words or ideas that would somehow help them to describe themselves or to explain to others what their fellowship with God and with one another through Jesus Christ was like. One description was first
21 given to Jesus‘ followers in Antioch. It was there, we are told in Acts 11:26, that believers were first called Christians; a word that loosely means ―of Christ‖ or, more literally, ―Christ follower.‖ Both believers and non-believers seemed to agree from the outset that those who confessed Jesus to be their Lord and Savior made every effort to become as much like Jesus in their lives and relationships as possible.
The New Testament writers emphasized this idea repeatedly as they challenged believers to ―be conformed to the image of God‘s Son‖ (Romans 8:29), to be ―imitators of . . . the Lord‖ (1 Thessalonians 1:6), and that their ―attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus‖ (Philippians 2:5). Jesus himself demanded that his followers ―love one another as I have loved you‖ and to be ―lights of the world‖ just as he was ―the light of the world‖ (Matthew 5:14 & John 8:12). In Jesus‘ day any disciple who studied under a rabbi was expected to become as much like his teacher as possible in how they thought about God, the Scriptures, the world and how they lived their lives, especially in relationship with others.1
To put it simply, to be a follower of Jesus means to be ―like Jesus;‖ which, is, of course, what the word ―Christian‖ is really all about. Robert Sheldon‘s book, A Life Once
Lived, is a classic attempt to describe what it might look like if people actually tried to live out the life that Jesus taught his followers to live. More recently, and along the same lines, the phrase, ―What would Jesus do?‖ was translated into an onslaught of ―WWJD‖ bracelets, books and bumper stickers which, if nothing else, served to make modern day
1 Jacob Neusner, First Century Judaism In Crisis (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1982), 95. 22 followers of Jesus consider that asking such a question might actually be both important and relevant to their lives.
The members of Mililani Presbyterian Church regularly use the word ―Christian‖ to describe who they are as followers of Jesus Christ. But it is not always clear whether they understand that term to describe their individual and corporate passion to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus or whether simply to identify themselves as being affiliated with a system of faith that affirms a certain set of doctrinal beliefs about God,
Jesus, sin, heaven, salvation, love, and the like. The personal and corporate descriptive power originally contained in the word ―Christian‖ has been lost among many people who casually embrace that name today. It has been lost to the extent that ―Christians‖ can be asked the question, ―If you were arrested for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?‖ and not know whether the answer would be ―Yes‖ or ―No.‖
Like ―salt that has lost its savor‖ (Matthew 5:13) the term ―Christian‖ has, in much of American society today, come to describe little or nothing about what a person believes or how they live their lives.2 Those who deal with statistical research have discovered that they have been forced to replace the word ―Christian‖ with other, more specific words. Phrases such as ―born again‖ must now be used in order to distinguish those for whom the word means something more than just a social label.3
2 ―When asked to identify their activities over the last thirty days, born-again believers were just as likely (as ‗non-born-agains‘) to bet or gamble, to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal, nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person‘s back.‖ David Kinnaman, Unchristian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007), 47.
3 According to Christian pollster George Barna, 83% of Americans describe themselves as being ―Christian.‖ The word is so amorphous that, for statistical purposes, Barna sub-classifies ―Christians‖ into 23 In many places in the world the term ―Christian‖ still carries with it an identity that marks a person as being representative of a way of life and faith that is distinctly different from the prevailing culture. In contemporary Western Culture, even in Hawaii, the word no longer coveys the radical transformation of a person from one way of living in and looking at the world into a new way that is modeled after the life and teaching of
Jesus. While the meaning of the word needs desperately to be reclaimed it will require the use of some other image or model of faith and life to redeem it. Until then it is hard to say that, among Americans at least, the word means what it meant when it was first used to describe the followers of Jesus in Antioch.
The Local Congregation as the “Church”
In the four Gospels we find Jesus using the word ―church‖ only twice: Once, in
Matthew 16:18, where he commends the faith of Peter and again in Matthew 18:17 where he discusses how his followers should exercise spiritual discipline among themselves. In both places the word translated ―church‖ is the Greek word ―ecclesia.‖ This word, which means ―a gathered assemblage‖ or ―the called-together (or ‗called out‘) ones,‖ was drawn from Greek and Roman secular culture where it was used to describe an assembly of people who had come together for a political or religious event.4
three sub-groups (―evangelical,‖ ―non-evangelical born again,‖ & ―other self-identified Christians‖). David Kinnaman, Unchristian, 47.
4 Joseph Henry Thayer, tr., Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894), 195. ―έκκλήσία‖
24 In some ways the word ecclesia parallels the Hebrew word synagogue which also means an assemblage of people.5 The early Christians clearly used those words interchangeably to describe their fellowship gatherings.6 As time passed and the
Christians communities become increasingly dominated by Gentile believers the word synagogue came to be used only in reference to Jewish places of worship. For Christians, the word ecclesia (translated ―church‖ in English) became the image of choice to describe themselves as local communities of faith and as a world-wide fellowship of believers.7
From its beginning the word ―church‖ referred neither to a building nor a place but to a people gathered together, joined by a common faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In spite of this understanding of the word ―church‖ the name ―Mililani
Presbyterian Church‖ on a sign in front of a suburban property covered with buildings of various shapes and sizes could easily lead one to come to the conclusion that the
―church‖ was, in fact, the buildings. But those who are members of that particular congregation have been taught that when they ―join the church‖ they are not simply becoming members of MPC or becoming ―Presbyterians‖ but that they are entering into the fellowship of Jesus‘ disciples who meet in a multitude of places and who represent a vast array of denominations and traditions around the world. Indeed, one of the
5 Joseph Henry Thayer, tr., Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament. 600. ―συναγωγή‖
6 See James 2:2 where the Greek word ―synagogue‖ is generally translated into English as ―assembly.‖
7 The meaning of the word ―church‖ will be covered in greater depth in Chapter 6.
25 membership vows they are asked to affirm is that, ―I promise to seek the fellowship of the church wherever I may be.‖8
In a place like Hawaii, where hurricanes slingshot across the Pacific Ocean from the West Coast of North American each year, the members of Mililani Presbyterian
Church are very much aware that, should the buildings on the MPC property be destroyed, the church itself would continue without missing a beat. Understanding the word ―church‖ in this way helps to forge a strong sense of being joined together with one another in a local congregation. In its wider sense it also has the potential to enable local congregations of varying traditions to embrace one another in shared worship and ministry together. In its widest sense the word ―church‖ can provide a sense of perspective that might even prevent a local congregation from thinking that it is, in and of itself, more important and influential than it actually is.
The word ―church‖ implies both the particular and the universal which are distinct yet inseparable from one another. In John 17:20-26 when Jesus prayed for all those who would one day come to be numbered among his followers, he most certainly must have had an image in mind that was very similar to that implied and contained within the meaning of the word ―church.‖ This image is also reflected in John‘s vision of the New
Jerusalem in Revelation 21. In that heavenly city there was no longer any need for a temple, for the gathered together people of God who dwelt there were themselves the
Church and the object of their worship was no longer unseen but tangibly and eternally dwelt amongst them in the fullness of his glory.
8 United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., The Worshipbook (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1970), 49. 26 The word ―church,‖ however, becomes less useful when stretched into its full abstract theological breadth which, of necessity, embraces both the church visible and invisible as well as those believers now living, those yet to come and that ―cloud of witnesses‖ who have already ―died in the Lord.‖ Like a cut diamond, the word ―church‖ contains many different facets, each offering a meaning unique and distinct from the others. In this sense although it is a valuable and important word it is little more than a static, abstract concept that captures only a part of what the collective fellowship of
Christian believers is all about. In the end the word ―church‖ offers little in the way of serving as a substantive model for what the day-to-day dynamics of Christian life and faith are or ought to be. For this we must look elsewhere.
The Local Congregation as the “Body of Christ”
The Apostle Paul was fond of comparing the collective fellowship of Christian believers with the human body. In Romans 12:4-5, for example, Paul explains that, ―Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.‖ Paul repeats this theme in other letters9 and, in Colossians, he adds that ―(Christ) is the head of the body‖ and that the body of which Christ is the head is ―the church‖ (Colossians 1:18).
Paul uses this analogy because he is trying to teach two important truths to his readers. First, he is trying to show that every follower of Jesus, regardless of their natural or spiritually-gifted talents or abilities, has an important and interdependent part to play
9 This image of the church as the Body of Christ can also be found in 1 Corinthians 12:12ff & Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:1ff. 27 as an integral part of Christ‘s Body, the Church. Second, all parts are inherently equal insofar as they are all equally dependent upon Christ, who is the ―head,‖ and are equally serving one another for the common good of all. Hence Paul can say,
God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (1 Corinthians 12:24-27).
Baptism, which is the sacramental means of entry in this body, is also an act of surrender that renders every follower of Jesus equal in standing before the Lord (1
Corinthians 12:23; Galatians 3:27-28). Alongside the unity and equality in the Body of
Christ there are, however, different degrees of leadership and responsibility as well as many different forms of service (Ephesians 4; 1 Corinthians 12:28-29). But every believer has full and equal access to the greatest and highest gift of all, the Spirit-filled gift of ―love‖ (1 Corinthians 13:1ff).
Paul introduces the image of the ―Body of Christ‖ to address different issues which arrived in different places at different times in the life of the early church. In 1
Corinthians the specific context for this image emerges out of a discussion of the nature of various spiritual gifts and their symbiotic relationship among those who are part of
Christ‘s Body, the Church. In Romans, Paul‘s context for introducing the image of the
Body of Christ is the need for mutual respect and humility. In Colossians it is to express the common Lordship of Christ over all who belong to him. In each context Paul emphasizes the overarching theme of our common dependence on the love that comes to us from God in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John uses a different analogy to make the same point when he says,
28 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit . . . If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us (1 John 4:13-17).
In John‘s gospel Jesus himself declares that the common unity to be seen his disciples will be that they will ―Love one another as I have loved you‖ (John 13:34).
This ―body‖ is, of course, not bound by time and space as is a physical body. New parts or new members can be grafted onto or transplanted into the body with new gifts and new contributions to be made for the good of the whole. This spiritual Body of Christ has no limits to its size or shape.
Part of the genius of this image of the Church as the ―Body of Christ‖ is that it both elevates the ―least of these‖ and humbles the ―proud and the haughty‖ to an even level of redemptive value to God. In the ―Body of Christ‖ ―every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low‖ (Isaiah 40:4). In Christ, as in a body, every part needs every other part and so it becomes mandatory that respect is to be shown equally to all.
While the image of the Church as the ―Body of Christ‖ effectively describes the inter-relational dynamics of a local congregation it does not provide a similarly strong analogy to the Church‘s relationship with the rest of the world outside. How, for example, are new body parts grafted in? Paul‘s analogy of a vine in Romans 11:17 is much more effective on this point. Or, for another example, how effective is this image as a description of the Church universal as also being the ―Body of Christ‖ when, using
Paul‘s own analogy, it would be made up of many different smaller bodies?
29 For a local congregation like Mililani Presbyterian Church, the image of the local church as the ―Body of Christ‖ serves well when used in the same somewhat limited context that Paul intended it to be used: Namely, that every Christian community is made up of diverse parts, each important in serving the will of Christ and in contributing to the well-being of the whole; that all are equal in value before God; and, that all serve one another for the common good of all. Beyond those contexts, however, the analogy falls short of being a model for the individual and corporate Christian life taken as a whole.
The Local Congregation as a “Team”
There is no word in either the Old or New Testaments that has been translated into English as ―team.‖ Clearly, the modern understanding of this word was present in biblical groups pursuing a common interest. In this sense the word ―team‖ can be projected onto the efforts of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and in the efforts of James, John, their father Zebedee and the other men who labored together on the Sea of Galilee as partners in their family fishing business. In recent years many churches have adopted the image of ―team‖ to serve as a model for their ministry and mission. Wayne
Cordeiro, the founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Hawaii has written a book entitled Doing Church as a Team. In the Introduction he writes,
Each of us has been given a ―paddle‖ by God. A gift. A calling. And like the paddlers of a canoe, each of us has a place or a role to fill. On each paddle is our unique thumbprint, our own individual circuitry, designed by God Himself. He then places each of us in a community, and more specifically in a local church with a divine purpose. He fits us alongside others who have a similar assignment and calls us a family, a team, the Church. No one person is meant to carry this assignment alone. It wasn‘t designed that way. We were created to do church as a team! 10
10 Wayne Cordeiro, Doing Church As a Team (Honolulu, HI: New Hope Publishers, 1998), 16-17. 30
Cordeiro and many others Christian leaders have embraced this image in part because it is not a biblical word and because it is easily understood by the non-Christian men and women who they are trying to reach through their ministries of outreach and evangelism. People outside the Christian faith not familiar with the Christian and biblical images of the ―Church,‖ the ―Body of Christ,‖ the ―Family of God‖ or the ―Kingdom of
Heaven‖ cannot readily access these concepts, at least not until they have become more familiar with the biblical and theological vocabulary of the Christian faith. According to recent research, non-churched people often even identify the word ―Christian‖ with certain negative connotations such as ―judgmental,‖ ―hypocritical,‖ ―intolerant‖ and the like.11 Using a culturally neutral word like ―team‖ can provide a simple, concrete way to translate and distill various biblical concepts into a secular image that will communicate in a less threatening or more comfortable way what it means to be in community with
God and with others as a follower of Jesus Christ.
As with Paul‘s image of the Body of Christ the image of ―team‖ provides a way to demonstrate how each follower of Jesus is called by God to serve alongside other believers in some area of service that will make a contribution to the work of the community of faith as a whole. The image used by Cordeiro at New Hope Christian
Fellowship is that of a Hawaiian canoe where each member of the crew has a unique responsibility based on the position where they sit and whether they are calling the cadence from the front, steering the canoe and giving direction from the rear or propelling the canoe forward with the right thrust with a paddle from the middle. If one
11 David Kinnaman, Unchristian, 27. 31 paddler or crew member is absent or not fully committed to the task at hand then the success of the entire crew suffers. The image of ―team‖ emphasizes that everyone has an important role to play in the life of the church and that, for any church to move forward, it needs everyone to join in and be an active and contributing member of some area of ministry on church ―team.‖ A team is a coordinated collective effort towards a common purpose. Participation carries with it the idea of having a relationship with others and includes a sense of belonging to something.
At Mililani Presbyterian Church the word ―team‖ has been adopted to replace the word ―committee.‖ The ―Worship Committee‖ became the ―Worship Ministry Team,‖ the ―Evangelism Committee‖ became the ―Evangelism Ministry Team‖ and so on. The hope was that people would be more willing to become part of a ―team‖ than they would to join a ―committee.‖ It was also felt that the word ―team‖ better described the way each particular ministry actually functioned insofar as the word ―team‖ implied actually doing something as opposed to simply sitting around and talking about it.
Recently there has been some rethinking of this word insofar as it has been applied to the leadership of these ministry areas. If the leadership are the ―team‖ then the assumption might be made that the leadership are the ones doing the work of the team.
This further implies that all teamwork is leadership work and this may, in fact, scare people away from serving in these ministry areas. Better, perhaps, to call the leadership team ―Worship Ministry‖ and then the actual groups that do the work ―Usher and
Layreader Ministry Team‖ and ―Music and Praise Ministry Team,‖ etc.
One difficulty with using the word ―team‖ in the context of a congregation is that it is a word with an inherent predisposition towards actively doing something. This is
32 helpful and constructive when applied to the ministries of a congregation but not so helpful when it comes to being in a saving relationship of love with Christ or in friendship with others or the context of one‘s personal or communal participation in the spiritual disciplines of worship, prayer, fasting, the reading of Scripture, and giving. The word can even unnecessarily evoke the image of sports competition with the church being one ―team‖ competing against other spiritual, secular or religious teams whether
Christian or not. Like the biblical word ―body‖ the word ―team‖ can serve as an immediately accessible image for important areas of the life and faith of a congregation.
It is not, however, an image large enough to serve as a comprehensive model for what
Christ has called his followers to become and to do in his name. For that we must look elsewhere.
The Local Congregation as the “Family of God”
In both the Old and New Testaments images of ―family‖ are used to describe the people called by God to be in a covenant relationship with one another and with God.
Abraham was promised that his ―children‖ would be a blessed multitude. These
―children‖ were later given the descriptive name, ―children of Israel‖ (i.e. Jacob). Hosea
(and others) drew upon the image of marriage with God as the husband and Israel (or the
Church) as his bride. The term ―born again‖ implies entry into a new family and, on an even grander scale, a genealogy that can trace its roots back to ―Adam, the son of God.‖
Jesus had a special fondness for the image of ―family.‖ In his life and ministry he urged his followers to consider themselves to be ―brothers‖ and ―sisters‖ to one another and to view God as their (heavenly) Father. The special and unique relationship that Jesus
33 enjoyed as the eternal Son of the eternal Father, joined as one through the common bond of the eternal Spirit, was a relationship that Jesus passionately invited his followers to claim for themselves. For Jesus, God was not only ―his‖ Father but was to be seen even more broadly as ―our‖ Father.
Jesus urged his followers to consider their common spiritual bond of faith to be stronger than the bonds of their natural, physical families. ―‘Who are my mother and my brothers?‘ Jesus asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said,
‗Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother‘" (Mark 3:33-35). And again, ―He said to another man, ‗Follow me.‘ But the man replied, ‗Lord, first let me go and bury my father.‘ Jesus said to him, ‗Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God‘" (Luke 9:59-60).
And, most poignantly of all, from the cross, ―When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‗Dear woman, here is your son,‘ and to the disciple, ‗Here is your mother.‘ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home‖ (John 19:12-17).
Paul and other New Testament writers also embraced the image going so far as to exclaim, for example, ―For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name‖ (Ephesians 3:14-15) and, ―To all in
Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ‖ (Romans 1:7). In Hebrews 2:11 the idea is expressed in this way: ―Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.‖
34 The analogy of ―family‖ carries with it many social and cultural connotations some of which are more or less universal (i.e. ―father,‖ ―mother,‖ ―son‖ and ―daughter‖) and others that may be limited by context (i.e. plural marriage, definition of incest, etc.).
Some of the more common traits associated with the word ―family‖ are also applicable to the life and faith of a local congregation as the following examples demonstrate:
Headship—A family has a structure with a clearly-defined order of authority with rules, spoken or unspoken, that guide and govern behavior and relationships; Heritage—A family has values that are passed from generation to generation; Home—A family has a sense of place or a more general context where the inter- relationship play out and where the family members experience a sense of belonging; Inescapable Diversity—As Charlie
Brown‘s father once put it, ―You can choose your friends but you can‘t choose your family.‖ Families are not to be confused with social clubs where we can exercise the freedom and luxury of deciding who our friends will be. Family members are simply
―there‖ to be dealt with in one way or another. Dynamic Change—Family members experience birth, adoption, growth, marriage, divorce, death, and the passing of one generation to another; Inheritance—Being part of a family includes the right to share in its responsibilities, privileges and in its accumulated assets; and Social Relationships—A family experiences the complex, dynamic human experiences of harmony, conflict, trust, betrayal, judgment, forgiveness, reconciliation and the like.
At Mililani Presbyterian Church the image of ―family‖ serves as an important model for how we are to understand our relationship with God and with one another. The image of ―family‖ is so important and central that, apart from it, both the clear sense of scripture and the faith and life of the congregation will become essentially unintelligible
35 and meaningless. The image of ―family‖ is an especially important model for Christian faith and life for the people of Hawaii. Here the concept is closely tied to the Hawaiian word ohana, which, in turn, is closely allied with the biblical Greek word oikos. These words, each of which can be translated as ―household,‖ refer to a dynamic, extended network of relationships that defines a person‘s primary sense of identity or sense of belonging. Children in Hawaii born into one family but raised by another are considered to be hanai, adopted and equal to the natural children of the family that raised them. In this sense, many Christians in Hawaii are able to embrace the biblical concept that, in
Jesus Christ, they are now hanai members of God‘s ohana with full access to the rights and privileges thereof.
Although the image of ―family‖ is central and vital to a biblical understanding of the Christian faith and life it is also limited by its dependence on a certain level of cultural and social homogeneity that belies the real-life diversity that is so apparent among actual communities of faith in the real world. Although the Apostle Paul tries to assert the inherent unity of all such communities by declaring that they are bound together by ―one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all,‖ (Ephesians
4:5) it is, in practice, sometimes difficult to see how Roman Catholics and Southern
Baptists (for example), with their different understandings of baptism, the Lord‘s Supper, headship and heritage, can actually be part of the same ―family‖ at all.
Somehow we need an image or model for Christian faith and life that is more transcendent and all-inclusive than that of ―family.‖ This image or model should be able to help any particular congregation, such as Mililani Presbyterian Church, to form a comprehensive understanding of both their individual and corporate life of faith and
36 practice as well as their relationships with God, with those from other Christian traditions and with those not bound to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives at all.
The Local Congregation as “The Kingdom of God”
The thesis for this paper is that the image of the Church as the ―kingdom of God‖ is preeminent among all models and images. It is, first of all, the image most favored by
Jesus himself and, second, the most comprehensive of all images that have been used for this purpose. Jesus‘ use of the image of the kingdom of God as a model for the Church
(and for so much more) will be explored in the following chapter.
Every image for the Church that has been previously explored and discussed in this chapter has been shown to have fallen short in serving as a comprehensive model for a local congregation or the Church universal. The image of the kingdom of God, however, has no such limitation. The kingdom of God model, for example, would embrace the image of ―Christian‖ as those who have pledged fealty to the rule of God‘s will in their lives and in the lives of their families through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their Lord and Savior. In God‘s kingdom Christians are those who, as disciples of Jesus, hunger and thirst for lives filled with the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians
5:22-23) and for loving God and loving their neighbor with the same love that was in
Jesus.
Christians are not, of course, the only people who are to be associated with the kingdom of God, they are merely those who are most publicly and visibly identified with it in the world. Jesus himself said that there were those who belonged to him who had not yet heard or recognized the sound of his voice. While the original context for his words
37 was most likely concerned with the distinction between Jews and gentiles his followers quickly came to understand them as referring to all those who would one day come to faith but had not yet heard the proclamation of the gospel. These were the ―fields white for harvest‖ (John 4:35), the ―sheep not of this fold‖ (John 10:16), the ones in the world for whom the disciples were commissioned to preach the gospel, to make disciples, to baptize and to teach all that Jesus had commanded and taught them about himself, repentance, forgiveness of sins and the kingdom of God.
By the Holy Spirit God was pouring out his presence in every nation and every people; preparing the way for the disciples that would one day preach and teach the gospel to them. Those ―yet to come to faith‖ may as yet be invisible members of the kingdom of God but they belong to it nonetheless. The visible Church may not be the kingdom of God in its entirety but, insofar as it is made up of citizens of that kingdom, it most certainly bears a living witness to it. In this way the image and model of the kingdom of God embraces a larger understanding of the Church than the image captured by the word ―Christian‖ alone.
In a similar way the image and model of the kingdom of God extends the breadth of God‘s rule beyond the context of the word ―Church.‖ While it is true that God‘s kingdom is present and visible in and through the Church, God‘s rule is not limited to that precious and invaluable realm. It is clear that God reigns over all dominions and powers and asserts his influence and will both independent of and sometimes in spite of those ―gathered together‖ in covenanted faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In this way the image of the kingdom of God transcends the more limited image of the ―Church‖ as a comprehensive model for God‘s rule in the world.
38 Again, the image of the kingdom of God both includes and exceeds the image of the ―Body of Christ.‖ While the image of the Body of Christ serves as a useful model for the interaction and function of Jesus‘ followers in a local congregation it does not adequately convey the dynamic interaction of that ―Body‖ and its constituent parts with those beyond the bounds of itself. The image of the kingdom of God, however, serves as a useful model for showing how others do, in fact, relate to the Body of Christ. In this model they can be clearly viewed, for example, as those visiting the kingdom as
―tourists,‖ observing it from afar, standing in opposition to it or simply being completely indifferent to its existence. In this and in many other ways the image of the kingdom of
God is a far more descriptive and versatile model than that of the ―Body of Christ.‖
The limitations inherent in the image of the Church as a ―team‖ are also more than covered by the image and model of the kingdom of God. It is, of course, impossible to imagine a kingdom society of any kind without the presence of social order and a functional, personal, particular and contributing role played by every citizen of that realm. In this sense the idea of ―team‖ is easily subsumed into the larger image and model of the kingdom of God.
Yet again, the image of the Church as the ―Family of God‖ is also contained within the image and model of the kingdom of God. In a kingdom, individuals and families are bound together by the one who holds authority and power over them all.
Indeed, all who forsake the ways of a sinful word and who follow Jesus into the kingdom of God are ―adopted‖ into God‘s eternal family. It is a kingdom where every citizen holds the status of being a child of the ruling monarch with all the privileges and responsibilities that come along with being a member of the royal family. In this way the
39 image of the kingdom of God both contains and expands the image of the ―Family of
God‖ into an even grander and more biblically comprehensive model for God‘s rule in the world and our place in it.
Although each of the more common images for the local congregation or the
Church as a whole are adequate descriptions of one or more aspects of God‘s realm it should be clear that Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God exceeds them all as a dynamic, comprehensive and descriptive model for the larger revelation of God given in scripture through the prophets, apostles and Christ Jesus himself. Above all else, at least for the purpose of this paper, it has been shown that Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God can provide a more comprehensive and effective model for the life and mission of Reformed
Protestant congregations in Hawaii than other images and models that are more common and more widely used.
40
PART TWO
RESEARCH AREA
41
CHAPTER 3
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN SCRIPTURE
Jesus was born in Bethlehem but was raised in Nazareth in Galilee, the eldest child of Mary, the wife of Joseph the carpenter. As an adult he lived in Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a vast lake called Kinneret (or Gennesaret) by the Jews and
Tiberias by the Romans. He knew the scriptures as well as if he had written them himself.
Few doubted that he would one day become a great rabbi, a teacher who would gather disciples who would dedicate their lives to learning from him and, in the custom of those days, yearning to become as much like him as possible. There were already those who would have considered it an honor to be chosen as one of his followers. Even the prophet
John the Baptist had declared that Jesus was greater than himself.
Many wondered if Jesus might be the Messiah, the Christ, the long-awaited anointed one of God whose coming had been foretold by the prophets of old. Perhaps he was the very son of David, the one who would restore the Kingdom of Israel and fulfill
God‘s covenant promise that David‘s descendents would reign forever. Or perhaps Jesus was the suffering savior, the Lamb of God, who would once and for all remove the stain of sin from God‘s chosen people, the children of Israel. Perhaps he would become a
42 leader like the High Priestly Maccabees and lead a revolt that would drive out the
Romans, free the people from occupation, and bring glory to God.
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the day came when Jesus began a public ministry of preaching and teaching. The first words that he spoke were words carefully chosen and very familiar to those who had heard them spoken by the prophet John. Yet, when spoken by Jesus, these same words carried a sense that what John had said was soon coming had, in fact, actually arrived. So it was that Jesus, having gathered a small crowd together in a public place, opened his mouth and spoke words that were, at one and the same time, a command, an invitation and a promise. ―Repent,‖ he said, ―for the kingdom of heaven is near‖ (Matthew 4:17).
During the next three years Jesus did become a rabbi. He did choose a small group of disciples and he attracted a much larger group of followers. He spoke and acted with a power and authority that seemed as though his spirit and the Spirit of God were one and the same. He healed the sick and even raised the dead to life. Yet his message never really changed. Again and again he returned to the image of the kingdom of God or, as Matthew‘s Gospel remembers it, the kingdom of heaven.1 Since those days many have tried to explain what Jesus was trying to tell us about that kingdom but, as Jesus himself pointed out, he taught in parables so that those who saw would understand and those who did not, would not.
Many books have been written on the subject of the kingdom of God but, for the purposes of this paper, Jesus‘ own words are simple and straight-forward enough for even
1 Greek βασιλεία ούρανών. With the second word being plural the phrase is more accurately translated, ―kingdom of the heavens.‖ 43 a blind person to see them clearly. For Jesus, the kingdom of God was the eternal reality of human life as it was originally created to be and, by God‘s grace, what it is destined to become. There are those who desire to live in such a kingdom as this and there are those who do not. To the former Jesus said, ―Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for to these belongs the kingdom of God‖ (Matthew 5:6). To the rest Jesus said, ―I do not know you‖ (Matthew 7:23). To the former Jesus taught what life in the kingdom of God was like. It was as though Jesus was speaking from first-hand experience. It was as though Jesus had come from such a place and had carried it with him like a cutting from a grapevine or a seed from a mustard tree with the intention of planting it so that it might grow to become a tangible reality in this world; in our midst, bearing fruit that we might taste and branches on which we might live.
For Jesus the kingdom of God was close enough to touch but, in its fullness, yet to come. Those who followed him as disciples were taught and commanded to live their lives as though it had already come. They would not live it perfectly, of course, but the
Spirit of God would guide them along the way. Jesus‘ suffering, death and resurrection were understood to have removed the ―sin of the world‖ (John 1:29) and ―broken down the wall of hostility‖ (Ephesians 2:14) that had kept men and women from enjoying intimate fellowship with God and with one another. After Jesus, life in the kingdom of
God would never again be merely a dream, wishful thinking or a vain fantasy drawn from the human imagination. Jesus‘ followers were to pray that the kingdom would come and that God‘s will would be done on earth, here and now, just as it was done in heaven where God‘s kingdom had been established from the beginning (Matthew 6:10). Life in the kingdom was no longer to be hoped for; it was to be lived out. And Jesus laid the
44 foundation for this life with descriptive eloquence and in no uncertain terms. For his followers, to live such a life was not an option, it was a command.
For those who have been chosen by Jesus to follow him today it remains a command. To follow Jesus is, in fact, to enter the kingdom of God and to experience living the eternal, abundant life with God and with other followers of Jesus beginning now, today. This life was important enough to Jesus that he was willing to die for it. He calls his followers to do the same.
According to Jesus, and in his own words, in the kingdom of God, God‘s will is always carried out (Matthew 6:10), the meek inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5), those who seek, find (Matthew 7:7) and no one rests until every hurt is healed, every tear is dried
(Revelation 21:4 & Isaiah 25:8) and everyone who is ―lost‖ has been ―found‖ (Luke
15:24). In such a world everyone is eager to forgive one another and everyone who repents of a sin is forgiven and their sin is forgotten (Luke 17:3). In such a realm each person‘s life is ―abundant‖ and ―full‖ (John 10:10). The love of God is known and accepted by everyone. This love guides all that is said and done. In imitation of Christ, each person loves others freely and is freely loved by all in return (John 13:34). There is nothing to fear in a world such as this (1 John 4:18).
The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament
Jesus called this the kingdom of God but he did not invent the idea. The dream of a world of peace and freedom is present in the first two chapters of the Bible. In Genesis
1 & 2 we read how ―God created the heavens and the earth‖ (Genesis 1:1), including men and women, ―in his own image‖ (Genesis 1:27). God then prepared a place where the
45 first human partners in this creation could live in perfect freedom and in perfect peace with the world, with one another, and with God. This special place, commonly known as paradise or the ―Garden of Eden,‖ was the first of many images that God used to keep his chosen people‘s hearts and minds fixed on the way life was supposed to be lived.
For the prophet Isaiah this image emerged as a ―peaceable kingdom‖ where lions lie down with lambs and children and snakes play together without fear of one another
(Isaiah 11:6-9). For Isaiah such a world would be filled with health, vitality, fruitfulness and abundance of all kinds (Isaiah 65:17-25). For the prophet Amos it would be a world where ―justice rolled like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream!‖ (Amos
5:34) and for Ezekiel such a world would offer security and prosperity (Ezekiel 34:25-
31). For the prophet Micah it would be known as a place where swords would be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks; a world where war would become a thing not only forgotten but inconceivable to all (Micah 4:1-4); a world where people would
―act justly . . . love mercy and . . . walk humbly with (their) God‖ (Micah 6:8).
After Jesus‘ resurrection it finally became clear that these were the sort of images that Jesus had in mind for humanity and for all creation when he spoke of the kingdom of
God. But, for those who first heard Jesus speak of this kingdom, there was certainly much confusion over what he was, in fact, talking about. This is because the Old Testament scriptures contain a confusing mix of different allusions to God, his kingdom and what sort of kingdom it was, is, or will one day become.
A brief survey of the Old Testament shows that God considered himself to be king over his people (1 Samuel 12:16) and that his people rejected God by asking for a
46 human king like the other nations (1 Samuel 10:19). God‘s sovereignty over Israel2 is repeatedly affirmed in many and diverse places and times throughout the Old Testament3 so, in this sense, the ―kingdom of God‖ was clearly the people and nation of Israel.
But the scriptures also held that God‘s realm was not limited to Israel alone, for
God is repeatedly affirmed to be ruling over the ―kingdoms of the nations.‖4 In this sense, the kingdom of God was clearly inclusive of all nations since God was, even in ancient
Israel, considered to be the ―king of Kings and Lord of lords‖ (Revelation 19:16). This view of God became codified in the Jewish berakhah or ceremonial blessing which, in
English, begins with the phrase, ―Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe.‖5
Scripture further affirms that God‘s throne was in ―heaven‖ and that his rule thereby included the heavens as well as the earth (Ezra 7:23). In this sense the phrase
―kingdom of heaven‖ (which does not appear in the Old Testament) could be understood to refer to the vast realm of God that embraces all of creation, both ―visible and invisible.‖6 All things are to be seen as being under the ruling authority of God.
The Old Testament also affirms that it was always God‘s intention to establish the kingdom of Israel as one that would have no end to it. In 1 Samuel 13:13 we read Saul being chastised by Samuel, ―You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave
2 And later only of Judah when it became a nation separate from the northern kingdom of Israel (see 2 Chronicles 13:8).
3 See Psalm 5:2; 44:4 & Isaiah 44:6 for examples.
4 See 2 Kings 19:15; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Psalm 45:6; Isaiah 37:16 & Daniel 5:21 for examples.
5 Jonathan Sacks, The Koren Sacks Siddur: A Hebrew/English Prayerbook (Jerusalem, Koren Publishers, 2009), 1.
6 A phrase well-known from the Nicene Creed where we read, ― . . . creator of all things visible and invisible.‖ 47 you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.‖ Later, with David, God did establish his kingdom for all time (2 Samuel 7:16). Much later, in the Book of Daniel, we read of a future kingdom that God will establish that ―will not be destroyed and will never end‖ (2:44 & 6:26).7
All of these diverse images of God and his various realms are seemingly consolidated into one vision found in Daniel 7:27. Here we read, ―Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.‖ Although it is impossible to know how, exactly, to relate this verse to either history or eschatology, it is a verse that appears to consolidate much of the kingdom language and images that appear in the New Testament as well as the Old, including many of the teachings of Jesus on the subject.8
In summary, the Old Testament contains many and varied understandings of what might constitute a ―kingdom of God‖ or a ―kingdom of heaven.‖ And, while there was some consolidation of these competing views before the time of Jesus it was Jesus who first revealed how these various parts fit together as a whole. For Jesus, the ―peaceable kingdom‖ and its parallels represented, in fact, the very sort of human life that would arise when God‘s ―will was done on earth as it was in heaven.‖ This was the kingdom that God had planned from the very beginning. It was and would be God‘s kingdom and,
7 It is not clear from the context of these passages whether Daniel presents this vision of the eternal kingdom of God as being the future of Israel or of some greater realm that would complete what Israel never was able to attain in and of itself.
8 See, for one example, Matthew 19:28, where Jesus says to the Twelve, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.‖ 48 with Jesus, it had arrived at last. It would be called the new ―Israel of God‖ (Galatians
6:16) and Jesus, both by birth9 and by divine decree,10 alone was worthy to sit on the throne of David (Luke 1:32) and reign over God‘s kingdom forever and ever (Revelation
5:12-13).
Sin and the Kingdom of God
The Bible declares that, apart from Jesus, all hope for such a world was dashed through the human inclination to use freedom in ways that were not consistent with
God‘s good and perfect will. So ingrained did this tendency become that it became impossible for anyone to live out such a life even if they desired to do so. We read that ―a person‘s heart is evil from his youth,‖ (Genesis 8:21) and that the best we can do is no better than ―filthy rags‖ to God (Isaiah 64:6). No one but God could remove this stain of sin and evil from our souls.
When Jesus began calling people to repent of their sin and to begin living life in the kingdom of God he took a major step away from the water baptism for repentance and forgiveness of sin proclaimed by John. Such cleansing from sin was only temporary in the same way that an atoning sacrifice in the Temple was temporary. With a cycle of sin controlling our lives how could anyone hope to experience the sort of kingdom life described by Jesus? John the Baptist had declared that, while he only baptized with water, the one who would come after him (Jesus) would baptize ―with the Holy Spirit and with fire‖ (Luke 3:16). In John 3:5 Jesus says, ―I tell you the truth, no one can enter the
9 Jesus‘ genealogies in both Matthew 1 & Luke 3 establish him as a descendent of David.
10 At Jesus‘ baptism (cf. Luke 3:21-22) God the Father publicly bestows on him the royal title of ―my Son.‖ 49 kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.‖ Jesus is clearly saying here that without God‘s help and presence it is impossible for anyone to live their life according to God‘s plan and purpose.
So it was that near the end of his ministry Jesus declared to his followers that after he was gone, ―the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things‖ (John 14:26). After his resurrection this promise was fulfilled when the risen
Jesus breathed on his followers and said, ―Receive the Holy Spirit‖ (John 20:22). Several weeks later, on Pentecost, the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was
―poured out‖ on the disciples and worked its power among the gathered people in
Jerusalem who were able to understand the words they heard as if they had been spoken in their own languages (Acts 2:8).
Jesus‘ death and resurrection had broken down the wall that had divided sinful humanity from God and from one another since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23). The coming of the Holy Spirit meant that God‘s abiding presence had been re-established on earth. Once again, men and women could walk with
God ―in the cool of the evening‖ (Genesis 3:8). Once again, it had become possible for men and women to enter the kingdom of God and share in the ―love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control‖ (Galatians 5:22) that are part of a Spirit-filled, Christ-like and godly life.
Jesus and the Kingdom of God
When Jesus taught about the kingdom of God he tended to be very specific about the sort life that would be lived under God‘s rule. When we take Jesus‘ own words on the
50 subject and gather them together in summary form it is astonishing how clear and descriptive they are.11 According to Jesus, the kingdom of God is like a person sowing seed (Mark 4:26f); a mustard seed (Mark 4:30ff); Yeast (Luke 13:30); a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44); a priceless pearl (Matthew 13:45ff); a fishing net full of fish
(Matthew 13:47ff); a king who forgives the debts of repentant servants (Matthew
18:23ff); a landowner who pays his laborers the same wage (Matthew 20:1ff); a king who invites everyone to a wedding banquet (Matthew 22:2ff); and, ten virgins whose lamps were ready when the bridegroom arrived (Matthew 25:1ff).
Every image, story or parable in this list conveys a dramatic vision of extravagant growth, extravagant value, extravagant generosity, extravagant patience or extravagant desire. Whatever else the kingdom of God might be it is, according to Jesus, most definitely not a status quo sort of place. The kingdom of God is different, larger than life and brings transformation and change to the world of sin, suffering and injustice that now dominates the world.
According to Jesus, the kingdom of God requires repentance to enter (Matthew
4:17) and offers blessing for the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). It offers blessing for those persecuted for righteousness (Matthew 5:10) and blessing for those who keep God‘s commandments (Matthew 5:19). It requires righteousness of the heart (Matthew 5:20) and the doing of God‘s will (Matthew 6:10). It contains new treasures as well as old
(Matthew 7:21) and requires the trusting dependent heart of a child (Matthew 13:52). The kingdom of God requires humility (Matthew 18:3), comes with power (Matthew 18:4),
11 The following citations represent those times in the Gospels where Jesus makes a specific reference to the ―kingdom of God‖ or the ―kingdom of heaven.‖ 51 offers blessing for the poor (Mark 9:1), and requires complete and total commitment
(Luke 6:20). It will not include everyone (although all are invited) (Luke 13:28), cannot be scientifically observed, acted into law or controlled (Luke 17:20), and requires being
―born again‖ (or ―born from above‖ i.e. ―spiritual birth‖) (John 3:3).
Once again the key word that ties these images together is ―change.‖ Through repentance people are to leave their past behind. Their ―old self‖ is to be replaced by a
―new birth‖ that is less concerned with ―things‖ and more concerned with others. New kinds of power and wealth come to those who are humble, poor, faithful, suffering unjustly, trusting, seeking God‘s will and who are totally committed to becoming the person that God created them to be.
According to Jesus, the kingdom of God is near at hand (Matthew 4:17), where
God‘s will is done (Matthew 6:10), and is filled with people from every place on earth
(Matthew 8:11). It is where demons are cast out by God‘s Spirit (Matthew 12:28), and is hard for the rich (worldly-minded) to enter (Matthew 19:23). It is filled with repentant sinners (Matthew 21:32) and entered only through steadfast faithfulness to God (Matthew
21:43). It is a secret that has been revealed to us (Mark 4:11), the good news of the gospel
(Luke 4:23), where the sick are healed (Luke 9:2), and. in the end, it is more important than anything else (Luke 9:60).
Here Jesus seems to be saying that the kingdom of God is much like the sort of things he was doing, the way that he related to people and the way that people responded to him. For Jesus his life and ministry was itself a living parable of what the kingdom of
God is all about. In short, Jesus was saying that the kingdom of God is so near at hand that we can see it, taste it, hear it, feel it and smell it in Jesus. When, in John 14:6, Jesus
52 said that he was the ―life‖ he most certainly meant that his was the true way of life that his followers were to emulate. In short, Jesus‘ life was the kingdom of God,12 and all who joined with him in that life would find that they had left the kingdoms of this world behind and were now in ―fellowship with‖ Jesus‘ followers and in ―fellowship . . . with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ‖ (1 John 1:3).
According to Jesus, those who live in the kingdom of God will13 be comforted
(Matthew 5:4), be humble (meek) (Matthew 5:5), hunger and thirst for righteousness
(Matthew 5:6), and give and receive mercy and forgiveness (Matthew 5:7). They will live in the presence of God (Matthew 5:8), be peace makers (Matthew 5:9), influence the world like salt and light (Matthew 5:13-15), and love God and neighbor (Matthew
5:17ff). They will live out the full intent of God‘s law (Matthew 5:17ff), control their anger and show respect for all (Matthew 5:22ff). They will be quick to reconcile with others (Matthew 5:25), demonstrate self-control of their sinful urges (Matthew 5:27ff), be generous in settling disputes (Matthew 5:25ff), and be faithful in their covenanted promises, including marriage (Matthew (5:31). They will always speak the truth in love
(Matthew 5:33ff), resist personal retaliation against others (Matthew 5:38ff), love their enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:44). They will do good works in secret without need for public recognition (Matthew 6:1), be generous in meeting the needs of others
(Matthew 6:2ff), seek to worship God for God‘s sake and not for impressing others
12 ―Jesus‘ good news, then, was that the Kingdom of God had come, and that he, Jesus, was its herald and expounder to men. More than that, in some special, mysterious way, he was the Kingdom.‖ Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus: the Man who Lives (London: Collins, 1975), p. 61
13 The list that follows is drawn from Jesus‘ ―Sermon on the Mount‖ in Matthew 5-7. Not all teachings are cited and Jesus does not explicitly set them all within the context of the kingdom of God. In this paper that context is assumed. 53 (Matthew 6:5ff). They will prioritize their lives according to spiritual truths rather than according to material or monetary considerations (Matthew 6:19ff), recognize that all good things are provided by God, including food, clothing, etc., and will not stress over these things (Matthew 6:25ff). They will avoid condemnation of others, especially for sins common to us all (Matthew 7:1-2), and be (painfully) honest concerning their own faults and be far more concerned about these than the faults of others (Matthew 7:3ff).
They will be persistent in prayer and in seeking God‘s will (Matthew 7:7ff). They will completely trust in God‘s goodness (Matthew7:11), know true spiritual life and be able to reject teachers of false doctrine (Matthew 7:15). They will live out their faith in deed and not in word only (Matthew 7:16ff), and be guided by the words of Jesus (Matthew
7:24ff).
Jesus adds that14 his way of life is difficult, like carrying a cross (Luke 14:27). He will share the burden of this way of life with us so that it can actually be lived (Matthew
11:28-29). Few will actually enter this kingdom and live this life to the full (Matthew
7:13-14).
In many ways these teachings on the kingdom of God are a theology insofar as they reveal the will of God for those who live under God‘s authority and rule. It is God‘s kingdom after all and the teachings of Jesus on this subject must be in agreement with the heart, mind and character of the God who reigns in that dominion. In John 14:23-24 Jesus declared, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not
14 The following citations are, again, subsumed into the context of the kingdom of God by this paper. 54 obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.‖ It is, in fact, through Jesus that we discover a clear sense of who God is and what God wills and desires for creation in general and for humanity in particular.
Jesus‘ teachings on the kingdom of God are also an ethic insofar as they describe a way of life that is right and good in God‘s eyes and which nurtures the best in human behavior and relationships. According to Jesus (Matthew 22:40) everything he taught was a consistent application and extension of the commandments to ―love God‖
(Deuteronomy 6:5) and to ―love your neighbor‖ (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus and his followers taught that the ―love of God‖ was the ―first and greatest‖ of the two (Matthew
22:37-38) and that the ―love of neighbor‖ was the ―fruit‖ (John 15:5) or natural response of a person‘s authentic love for God. Those with authentic faith and love for God would be known by their ―fruit‖ or, in other words, the concrete demonstration of their love for others through acts of kindness and mercy (Matthew 7:20). Everything Jesus ever taught concerning the kingdom of God was predicated on and grounded in this twin understanding of love.
The Kingdom of God Is Both Here and Now as Well as “Not Yet”
A quick glance at the summary list of Jesus‘ teachings on the kingdom of God will show that Jesus was not so much interested in how people might live after they had experienced death and resurrection as he was interested in how they ought to be living here and now. When Jesus (or Matthew) uses the phrase ―kingdom of heaven‖ he is not talking about a place where people go after they die. He is talking about the rule of God
―on earth as it is in heaven.‖ Like the Old Testament prophets Jesus was very much
55 interested in leading humanity into ―abundant life‖ right away; immediately if not sooner
(John 10:10).
Jesus announced that, ―The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.
Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it‖ (Luke 16:16). With these words he was not describing some future time but the actual contemporaneous entry of real people into the kingdom by repentance and faith. For Jesus the kingdom of God was ―coming with power‖ during the lifetime of his followers (Mark 9:1).
The Jewish, Herodian and Roman leadership in Jerusalem also understood that
Jesus was not just a visionary proclaiming heavenly rewards after death. They sensed that he was a very real threat to their power and authority. His words and miracles created a situation that had an immediate and noticeable impact on the small corner of the world they were attempting to control. It was for his disruption of the social order, his apparent blasphemy and his challenge to both the political and religious authorities that he was condemned by the Sanhedrin and sentenced to death by Pilate. It is telling that Pilate then placed the words ―King of the Jews‖ on the cross; a declaration written in the present tense. It was clear to all that, when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, he was seeking to change the old world order into something else entirely beginning there and then.
Even so Jesus and his followers were under no illusions that the world in which they lived was to become ―the kingdom of our God and of his Christ‖ (Revelation 11:15) until the day when the Son of Man would be seen by all, coming on the clouds of heaven
(Daniel 7:13; Matthew 26:54). Only then, on that ―great and dreadful day of the Lord,‖
(Malachi 4:5; Acts 2:20) would ―every knee . . . bow and every tongue confess that Jesus
56 Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father‖ (Philippians 2:9-11). Until that day arrived
Jesus‘ followers were to be in the world but not of it (John 17:15-16). They were to be
―strangers and aliens‖ (1 Peter 1:2:11) who had seen the promise of God‘s kingdom fulfilled in Jesus and who would now wait patiently for the bridegroom to return to claim his bride (John 3:28-30; Ephesians 5:31-32) so that the eternal dwelling place of God would once again be with men and women of faith (Revelation 21:3).
As can be seen in the previous paragraph, the Old and New Testaments mix many metaphors for the now and future life in the kingdom of God. But this is clear: Although
God wills that we be ―holy as (God is) holy‖ (Leviticus 11:45) and ―perfect as (our)
Father in heaven is perfect‖ (Matthew 5:48) we are still to see ourselves as those running a race (2 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 12:21). In other words, we are not there yet but we are on our way.
The Future Coming of the Kingdom of God
Although the central focus of Jesus‘ ministry was on the ―here and now‖ there were times when he spoke of the kingdom of God as a reality that would be experienced in its completeness only in the fullness of time.15 On the cross Jesus used the image of the
Garden of Eden as a metaphor for the sinless, post-resurrection life that would be experienced by those who were already entering the kingdom of God by repentance and faith. The repentant thief who was on the cross to Jesus‘ right asked, ―Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.‖ And Jesus replied, ―I tell you the truth, today
15 In theological terms, the eschaton.
57 you will be with me in paradise‖ (Luke 23:42-43). In Matthew 24,16 Jesus declared that
―he who stands firm to the end will be saved‖ (verse 13) and, in verses 30-31, ―At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.‖
Here Jesus is declaring that, at the end of history, those who belong to him (John
10:1-16) and who ―have been called according to (God‘s) purposes‖ (Romans 8:28) (here called ―his elect‖) will be saved from the cataclysmic travails of the dies irae, the day described in Malachi 3:2 when the question will be, ―But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?‖ and the answer will be, ―no one.‖
Jesus, however, carefully explained to his followers that their eternal future was safe and secure in his hands. This matter is gently but firmly dealt with in John 14:1-4 where Jesus says, ―Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.‖ Later, when he stood before Pilate, Jesus defended himself against the charge that he had claimed to be the
―King of the Jews.‖ To this charge Jesus replied, ―My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place" (John 18:36).
16 See parallel passages in Mark 13 & Luke 21. 58 In each case Jesus asserts that the world as we know it is not where his kingdom lies in its eternal ―now.‖ It is, of course, his guaranteed promise that the hopes and dreams of the righteous will be fulfilled; but not in this time or in this place. The comfort that this future-oriented, second-coming event brought to Jesus‘ followers is wonderfully captured by the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 1:12, where he says ―I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.‖ Although Jesus passionately and repeatedly condemned the Pharisees for hypocrisy he did agree with them on one important theological matter: resurrection. Jesus taught about resurrection, defended it against the Sadducees and even spoke of his own impending death and resurrection as being a confirmation of his divine authority as the
Son of God, the Son of Man and as the long-awaited Christ/Messiah.17
There is much that can be said about the relationships between resurrection and the kingdom of God but Jesus himself, apart from his conversation with the thief on the cross, made little or no direct link between them. Since Jesus did not speak to this subject and since the focus of this paper is on the Church as ―the exhibition of the kingdom of
God to the world‖ I will, having made reference to resurrection, leave this subject and its relationship with the kingdom of God for another time and another place.
Jesus, the Kingdom of God and the “Beatitudes”
Although Jesus affirmed that the kingdom of God is both ―now‖ and ―not yet‖ it has been shown that Jesus‘ primary predilection was in introducing people to the kingdom of God and inviting them to enter that kingdom ―now.‖ Nowhere in the Gospels
17 See Matthew 12:29-31 where Jesus uses the life-story of Jonah as a sign for his impending suffering, death, resurrection and subsequent vindication. 59 is this more clearly shown than in his first extended discourse in Matthew 5-7, a collection of Jesus‘ teachings known most familiarly as the ―Sermon On the Mount.‖
Jesus introduces the ―sermon‖ with a series of blessings commonly referred to as the
―Beatitudes‖ (Matthew 5:3-10). The biblical Greek word generally translated as
―blessed‖ is makarios, a word that refers more to the effect of being blessed than to the blessing itself. In this sense the word has also been translated as ―happy‖ which is, in a way far more profound than the simple superficiality of the word might imply. It is probably as close to the meaning of makarios as we can find in English.
In the New International Version the Beatitudes read as follows:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, or they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
There are many ways to approach these words but, for the sake of this paper, they will be understood as being Jesus‘ summary introduction to the kingdom of God. In what follows, the second lines of the beatitudes will be cited to illustrate what the kingdom of
God is like. Next, the first lines will be cited to illustrate what sort of people might be found there
In the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3) there will be found comfort (v 4) and inheritance (v 6). For there to be ―inheritance‖ there must also be family and relationships so these must also be a part of the kingdom. There is also filling and fullness and fulfillment (v 6) as well as mercy (v 7). God will be present (v 8) and there will be those
60 who will be designated as God‘s own children (v 9). No doubt it is these who will be the inheritors of God‘s ―incomparable riches‖ (Ephesians 2:7) as they are distributed according to God‘s good and gracious will. Of such is the kingdom of heaven made
(Matthew 5:10). And, as a bonus, there are also rewards for those who are judged worthy of them by God (Matthew 5:12).
The first line of each beatitude tells us the sort of people who will feel at home in his kingdom. These include the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), those who mourn or grieve
(v 4), those who are humble and do not ―insist on their own way‖ (v 5 and see 1
Corinthians 13:5), those who desire and seek what is right and good in the eyes of God (v
6), those who show mercy to others (v 7), those whose hearts are pure and unstained by sin (v 8), those who mediate and place themselves in harm‘s way as they seek to bring reconciliation, healing and peace where there is division brokenness and conflict (v 9) and those who suffer at the hands of others either because their way of life reflects God‘s law of love or because of their being viewed as followers of Jesus (v 10 & 11).
Such people as Jesus describes appear to have the characteristics of being strong, determined, assertive and resolute—but without the destructive traits of abusive power or hard-heartedness. Citizens of the kingdom do not appear to be self-seekers or to even be very conscious of themselves at all. In each beatitude their concerns or desires are always for the highest and best of others, including their neighbors and God.
There is a strong sense of family in the Beatitudes under what Jesus might have called the Fatherhood of God. God, as we will find later in Matthew 5:35, is the King of the Kingdom. As sons and daughters and heirs of this King, those who enter the kingdom will share in the power and wealth and privilege of royalty. Such familial relationships
61 also must entail the responsibility of ruling wisely and well in ways that bring honor to the family name.
By a careful extrapolation of the images embedded in these few short verses it is not difficult to find a clear and consistent thread that leads us directly to virtually every parable or teaching in Jesus‘ ministry and, most particularly, to those (cited earlier in this chapter) that are specifically referenced by Jesus to the kingdom of God. Above all, as in everything that Jesus said or did, the Beatitudes must always be viewed as descriptive but not definitive; as spirit but not as law. As prophesied in Jeremiah 31, the teachings of
Jesus are far more likely to be found engraved on the human heart than on tablets of stone
(2 Corinthians 3:3).
It is also worth noting that Jesus is careful to use the present tense in the
Beatitudes. For Jesus, and for us, the kingdom of God is something that is here and now.
There is an immediacy to his words. The blessings are now, today. The kingdom ―is‖ and, in those few places where a future tense is used, it is an emphatic ―will be.‖ The kingdom is indeed ―at hand.‖ It is close enough to touch. It is close enough to enter. The gate, small and narrow as it may be (Matthew 7:13), is open to all who might wish to enter. Like the gates of Disneyland, when thrown open to the morning crowds, the people of God are eager enough to be forcing their way into the kingdom with abandon and joyful anticipation. (Luke 16:16).
Jesus, the Kingdom of God and the “Sermon On the Mount”
Following the Beatitudes is a large collection of Jesus‘ teachings on life in the kingdom of God commonly referred to as the ―Sermon on the Mount.‖ Jesus makes it
62 clear that the moral and ethical demands of the (Old Testament) scriptures, including the
Law (Torah) and the Prophets, are eternal principles that will forever guide those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
It is here, in the context of the Old Testament Law, that Jesus explicitly introduces the kingdom of God as the realm where faithfulness to God and obedience to the law of love are to be lived out.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-20).
Rather than replace the commandments Jesus reinterprets them in ways that reject both the more liberal interpretations of the rabbis and the more repressive demands of the
Pharisees. It is almost as if Jesus goes back to the beginning and asks the question, ―What would life look like if we actually took the commandments to ―Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength‖ and to ―Love your neighbor as yourself‖ seriously enough to live them out consistently in every area of our lives? In the teachings that follow Jesus embraces the extended summary of the Law contained in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5) and uses them as a starting point for his own interpretation of their application to human life.
63 Jesus not only quotes from the Ten Commandments18 but from other passages in the Torah19 that had been interpreted in ways that Jesus found to be contrary to the spirit of love that was to be at the heart of every human thought and action. He even cites rabbinical interpretations of the Law20 and reinterprets them in the same manner. In these references Jesus makes it clear that not all interpretations of the Law are equal in their validity. In his sermon‘s concluding statement he goes so far as to say that the only true interpreter of the Law is himself. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock‖ (Matthew
7:24) and, even more explicitly, in Matthew 24:35 where he declares that, ―Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.‖
Here, in a clear echo of Matthew 5:18, Jesus makes the audacious claim that his words and teachings are to be understood as being indistinguishable from and identical to the words of the Law and the Prophets.21 He is, in fact, claiming to be the living word of
God with all of the divine authority that would come with being ―the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being‖ (Hebrews 1:3). It is, in fact, God himself who teaches us of the kingdom, who explains the rules of behavior and who invites us to enter into eternal fellowship with the Father, the incarnate Son, the Holy Spirit and with
18 Jesus cites two of the Ten Commandments: ―You shall not murder,‖ (Matthew 5:21; Exodus 20:13) & ―You shall not commit adultery‖ (Matthew 5:27 Exodus 20:14).
19 Jesus cites ―Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce,‖ (Matthew 5:31 Deut. 24:1) & ―Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth‖ (Matthew 5:38 Exodus 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21) .
20 Jesus cites ―Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.'‖ (Matthew 5:33), & ―Love your neighbor and hate your enemy‖ (Matthew 5:43).
21 ―I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished‖ (Matthew 5:18). 64 everyone else who, by faith, has been called to live this life of loving and obedient service to God and to one another.
For Jesus and for his listeners the Sermon on the Mount was not simply another superfluous exercise in theological, philosophical or ethical dialogue over various opinions or speculative interpretations of an ancient collection of Middle Eastern literature largely derived from the ambiguous and historically tentative oral tradition of one insignificant tribe of patriarchal nomads among many others. For Jesus and for his listeners what was spoken and heard were ―wonderful words of life‖ without parallel and without precedent. They were living words that challenged, called and commanded all humanity to leave their nets, homes, families, countries, and wealth behind and follow
Jesus into a new kingdom; a way of life that the righteous had previously only dreamed and hoped for from afar.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is specific and clear about how God is calling people to live with one another. In the sermon, Jesus saves his only parable for his conclusion. Every other word spoken is clear and its meaning is beyond question. There is hyperbole, of course, to underscore the radical change that was being presented. When joined, however, with the many other teachings of Jesus on the subject of the kingdom of
God, the Sermon on the Mount represents the very core of what Jesus was calling all humanity to be and become. Some years ago a book on Matthew‘s Gospel was given the title, The Origin and Destiny of Humanness.22 In the Sermon on the Mount that is exactly what Jesus so eloquently described: The origin and destiny of those who ―love him and
22 Herman C. Waetjen, The Origin and Destiny of Humanness (Corta Madera, CA: Omega Press, 1976).
65 are called according to his purpose‖ (Romans 8:28). In Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of
God we hear echoes of what God had originally planned for his ―chosen people‖ Israel. It was God who was to be their Lord and King and no other.
In the Sermon on the Mount, and in virtually every parable and miracle, Jesus revealed what a kingdom ruled by God would be like for those who served him in faithful love. There were, of course, many in the crowd of listeners who still preferred to be like all the other nations, with a human king to lead them and to go out before them and fight their battles. Such a king, whether a Herod, a Caesar or a descendent of David would provide the discipline and security that they longed for.
There were others in the crowd, however, who felt as if they had become slaves both to Rome and to sin. Like their ancestors who had been enslaved in Egypt, they cried out from their bondage. They cried out for God to deliver them and set them free. They cried out for relief from both the life they had chosen and from the life that the world had imposed on them. With Jesus, God was giving the world a second chance as he invited his people to return to serve him alone as Lord and Savior and King. God was making a new covenant with a new people; not a people who would belong to him by means of race or by birth but by faith and desire. As Jesus put it to the Jewish leaders who opposed and rejected him, ―Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit‖ (Matthew 21:43).
Such a people would no longer be bound by the limitations of the Mosaic
Covenant. This new people would be made up of both Jews and gentiles alike, ―all who call upon the name of the Lord‖ (Joel 2:28-32; 1 Corinthians 1:2). Their Law would no longer be carved in stone but written on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 2:14-
66 16) or, as the Apostle Paul would later say, quoting Hosea 2:23 and 1:10, "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God'" (Romans 9:25-26). The
Apostle Peter says much the same thing when he says, ―But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God‖ (1 Peter 2:9-10).
Jesus was calling for followers who would leave the past behind, be ―born again‖
(John 3:3),23 and enter into a ―new covenant in (his) blood‖ (Luke 22:20). Twice, in the
Gospels, Jesus describes these followers, this newly covenanted people, as being the
―gathered together ones‖ which in Greek is ecclesia and in English is ―the Church‖
(Matthew 16:18 & 18:17). Jesus also knew that those who covenanted with him to live in the kingdom of God would need to interact with those outside this community of faith.
He commanded them to ―love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you‖
(Matthew 5:44). He advised his followers to, ―settle matters quickly with your adversary‖
(Matthew 5:25) and to ―not resist an evil person‖ (Matthew 5:38). But mostly Jesus was concerned about how his followers would live in an active relationship with God and with one another. He commanded the people who would become his ―Church‖ to be both salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-14) and, at the same time, to be ―not of the world‖ at all (John 17:16). They would be destined to ―go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
23 Or ―born from above.‖ 67 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20) and yet be bound together in a bond of love for eternity (Matthew 16:18).
The first Christians took this new way of life very seriously and, insofar as it was up to them, sought to live in peace with one another (Romans 12:18). After Jesus departed from them, leaving behind the Holy Spirit as their Counselor, the early Church needed considerable guidance as to how it was to be united in having the mind of Christ in all things (1 Corinthians 1:10 & 2:16). The task of ―teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you‖ had been left for the Apostles. In the New Testament epistles we discover how the Apostles were led to apply the gospel of the kingdom of God to the faith and life of the Church as a whole and, more importantly, to the individual needs of particular congregations.
The Kingdom of God in Acts and the Epistles
In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the risen Jesus spent his final days speaking about the kingdom with his disciples (Acts 1:3). So central was this message that, when he was about to ascend into heaven the most important question his disciples could think of was to ask, ―Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to
Israel?‖ (Acts 1:6). Even after all this time with Jesus his followers were still thinking of the kingdom of God as being somehow synonymous with the kingdom of Israel. How typical of fallen humanity to see the vast and incomparable realm of God‘s rule through the narrow and cramped lens of human experience and mortal imagination.
Even so, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, poured out on Pentecost, the
Apostles‘ minds and hearts were opened to understand, perhaps for the first time, that the
68 kingdom of God had, in fact, come with power as Jesus had promised (Mark 9:1). They found that they had become citizens of a new country and they would spend the rest of their lives inviting others to leave the kingdoms of this world behind and join them in the kingdom of God as followers of the Way (Acts 22:4). They would be the called and elect people of God: the Church.
Luke, as the author of Acts, proceeds to show how the apostles ―preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ‖ (Acts 8:12). They strengthened the disciples and encouraged them ―to remain true to the faith, ‗We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,‘ they said‖ (Acts 14:22).
Following his dramatic conversion to the Christian faith, the Apostle Paul also began ―arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God‖ (Acts 19:8). As his ministry ended in Rome we read how, ―from morning to evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus‖ (Acts 28:23). And, in the final sentence of the entire book we see how Paul ―boldly and without hindrance . . . preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ‖ (Acts 28:31).
Clearly, Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God was a central element in the earliest expressions of the Christian faith. Indeed, as Jesus himself did many times,24 the apostles declared that the ―kingdom of God‖ and the ―good news‖ (or ―gospel‖) were inseparable from one another (Acts 8:12). The kingdom was the good news, the good news was the kingdom and each of them was inseparable from the person of Jesus Christ. The first
24 See Matthew 4:23; 9:35; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43; 8:1 & 16:16 where Jesus speaks of the ―good news of the kingdom. 69 Christian believers understood that to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior was to follow him into a new way of life in the kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God and Paul
In his letters, Paul constantly contrasted the difference in life for those in the kingdom and those outside of it. ―[W]e dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory‖ (1 Thessalonians 2:11).
And, in Colossians 1:11-14 we read,
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work . . . and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And even more pointedly in Colossians 3:5-6 where Paul says, ―Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived."
For Paul the old sinful life of the ―flesh‖ was illustrated by ―life-styles‖ that involved idolatry, prostitution, sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, drunkenness, envy, adultery, slanderers, swindlers, thieves, greed, anger, lust, slander, malice, filthy language and evil desires (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21 & Ephesians 5:5).
Such people Paul considered to be ―wicked‖ (1 Corinthians 6:9) and taught that ―those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God‖ (Galatians 5:21).
70 It was not so much the specific behaviors of such people that offended Paul but the sinful desires of stubborn, unrepentant hearts (Romans 1:24; 2:5) that led them to fill their lives with such demeaning attitudes towards themselves and towards others. Paul, like Jesus, knew that the kingdom of God was not simply a place where everyone obeyed the written law but, rather, where each person‘s heart was motivated by love. ―For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men‖ (Romans 14:17-18), and ―For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power‖ (1 Corinthians 4:20).
For Paul, the kingdom of God does not so much concern behavior at all (as the law requires) but an inner attitude of love towards others and towards life in general.
Those living in the kingdom of God will ―give thanks in all circumstances,‖ (1
Thessalonians 5:18) and reflect ―love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,‖ in their lives (Galatians 5:22). ―Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,‖ those who live in the kingdom of
God will ―think about such things‖ (Philippians 4:8). They will ―eagerly desire the greater gifts‖ and seek ―the most excellent way‖ of love (1 Corinthians 12:31). In short, according to Paul, those who live in the kingdom of God will ―have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus: Who . . . made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant‖
(Philippians 2:5, 7a), They will, in full submission to God‘s will, discover that they have been ―conformed to the likeness of his Son‖ (Romans 8:29) and been given ―the mind of
Christ‖ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
71 For Paul, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God is to have eyes that see the world and others with the eyes of Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus is to have a mind that thinks like Jesus and a heart that loves like Jesus. Or, as Paul puts it in 1
Corinthians 15:49-50 (Contemporary English Version), ―Just as we are like the one who was made out of earth, we will be like the one who came from heaven. My friends, I want you to know that our bodies of flesh and blood will decay. This means that they cannot share in God's kingdom, which lasts forever.‖ Here, of course, Paul is referring to the resurrection but the principle is just as true for the life we live in the here and now.
Paul knew that his experience of the Christian life as ―a servant25 of the Lord
Jesus‖ (Romans 1:1) was but ―a poor reflection as in a mirror‖ (1 Corinthians 13:12) compared to the fullness of life that awaited him in resurrection. Accordingly he could say that, ―For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far‖ (Philippians
1:21-23). Towards the end of his life he wrote to Timothy with words that beautifully capture the heart of faith, hope and love that Paul had found in Christ. ―The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen‖ (2 Timothy 4:18). For Paul, as for Jesus, the kingdom of God was both ―here and now‖ and ―not yet.‖ But, again like Jesus, Paul knew that the one followed from the other and that the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God would one day be experienced as being even better than even he could ever imagine.
25 Or ―slave.‖ 72
The Kingdom of God and Other New Testament Writings
It is curious and somewhat surprising that Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God is hardly reflected at all in any of the non-Gospel New Testament writers apart from Paul.
James, Jesus‘ brother, is clearly familiar with this image and includes a reference to it in his letter when he writes, ―Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?‖ (James 2:5). It is hard to tell whether James is referring to a future inheritance or a present one. Paul uses the same phrase, inherit the kingdom‖ (1
Corinthians 6:9, 10; 15:50; Galatians 5:21 & Ephesians5:5) in the sense that the receipt of the inheritance must be preceded by repentance, faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and a corresponding change of heart. In this sense, Paul and James, when speaking to those coming into the Christian faith or new to it continue to speak of the kingdom of
God as so ―near at hand‖ that it can be received as an inheritance when one becomes adopted into the family of God and becomes an ―heir.‖ Jesus, of course, spoke of the kingdom of God in the same way and, in one of his ―kingdom parables,‖ used the same terminology in the same way saying, ―"Then the King will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world‖ (Matthew 25:34).
In 2 Peter 1:10-11 we again read of the kingdom of God in its future, ―yet to come‖ fullness. ―Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.‖ And in the Book
73 of Revelation we find several references to the coming kingdom of God in such well- known passages as, ―The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever‖ (Revelation 11:15), and "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his
Christ‖ (Revelation 12:10).
Somehow, apart from Luke (Acts) and Paul, the kingdom of God proclaimed by
Jesus as being the guiding image for life under his Lordship is virtually invisible in the rest of the New Testament. Perhaps the image was too subversive or treasonous to be used among those who daily faced the not-so-velvet fist of Roman oppression and suppression of non-Jewish religious cults. Perhaps it was an image that, over time, simply did not ―translate‖ well from the Jewish context and culture of Jesus. On the other hand, the early Church Fathers seemed to have no difficulty in drawing upon the image in their writings so the answer to these speculative questions must certainly be ―No.‖26 In more recent times, Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God has again fallen into disuse. Its value as
Jesus‘ central image for the Church has been overlooked for far too long and, as demonstrated in the second chapter of this paper, has been supplanted by other images, less rich, less comprehensive and less tied to what Jesus taught and demonstrated in his own life. It is time for the Church to once again rediscover and reclaim this image so that it can self-consciously and intentionally understand and proclaim its witness to and its exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.
26 Cyril Richardson, Early Christian Fathers (New York: Touchstone, 1996) contains ―kingdom of God‖ citations from Clement, 62; Ignatius, 92; Polycarp, 132; and Justin, 247, among others. 74
CHAPTER 4
BRIEF SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
George Eldon Ladd and the Kingdom of Heaven
When we ask the Christian Church, ―What is the Kingdom of God? When and how will it come?‖ we receive a bewildering diversity of explanations. There are few themes so prominent in the Bible which have received such radically divergent interpretations as that of the Kingdom of God.1
Dallas Willard was once asked to recommend a book on the subject of the kingdom of God. Without hesitation he replied, ―You should read a little book written back in the 1950s by George Ladd called The Gospel of the Kingdom. I don‘t know if it is still in print but it would be worth your time to find it.‖2 Fortunately, the book is still in print along with an earlier book, also written by Ladd, Crucial Questions about the
Kingdom of God.
In the earlier book Ladd bemoans the fact that, ―There has not been written a comprehensive study of the kingdom of God in the New Testament from a conservative
1 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959), 15.
2 Dallas Willard. Personal conversation with the author of this paper, June 5, 2007.
75 premillennial position which takes into account the critical literature; in fact, there does not exist an up-to-date conservative critical treatment of the kingdom of God from any point of view.‖3 Ladd, was, in fact, at that very moment writing that book and described his .intentions as follows: ―I have tried to discover for myself what the New Testament in general and our Lord in particular teach about the kingdom of God, and without assuming any system at the outset, to make my way through the modern literature to whatever conclusions the biblical data might require.‖4 Seven years later, he produced The Gospel of the Kingdom, an even more complete survey of the subject.5
“Crucial Questions” originated as a series of lectures that inter-wove Ladd‘s twin interests in the kingdom of God and in a critique and defense of premillennial theology.
Although the central theme of the book is the kingdom of God the subject of premillennialism forms a counterpoint that distracts from rather than adds to the books overall structure and unity. In the second book premillennialism is no longer a subject of inquiry but, instead, simply appears as the theological context for Ladd‘s scriptural and theological discussion of the book‘s central theme, the kingdom of God.
What Is the Kingdom of God?
In each of these books Ladd suggests a definition of the kingdom of God. ―[W]e may say that our study of the New Testament data has led to the conclusion that the
3 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1952), 59
4 Ibid., 14.
5 Noteworthy is the effusive introductory declaration by Oswald Smith that ―(The Gospel of the Kingdom) will make the Bible a new book.‖ George E. Ladd The Gospel of the Kingdom, 12.
76 kingdom of God is the sovereign rule of God, manifested in the person and work of
Christ, creating a people over whom he reigns, and issuing in a realm or realms in which the power of his reign is realized.‖6
And again,
The Kingdom of God is basically the rule of God. It is God‘s reign, the divine sovereignty in action. God‘s reign, however, is manifested in several realms, and the gospels speak of entering into the Kingdom of God both today and tomorrow. God‘s reign manifests itself both in the future and in the present and thereby creates both a future realm and a present realm in which man may experience the blessings of His reign.7
In the context of the second definition Ladd explains that, ―The primary meaning of the New Testament word for kingdom, basileia, is ‗reign‘ rather than ‗realm‘ or
‗people.‘ A great deal of attention in recent years has been devoted by critical scholars to this subject, and there is a practically unanimous agreement that ‗regal power, authority‘ is more basic to basileia than ‘realm‘ or ‗people.‘‖8 He then cites Jesus‘ parable of the
―Ten Minas‖ in Luke 19:11-27 in support of this understanding by saying, ―When the nobleman returned having received his basileia, he at once exercised this new kingly authority which he had received over his subjects by rewarding the faithful and punishing the rebellious. Here the basileia is clearly neither the domain nor the subjects, but the authority to rule as king in the given domain over its people.‖9 10
6 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 80 (italics in original).
7 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 11.
8 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 78.
9 Ibid., 79.
10 While acknowledging the limitations of a gender-specific vocabulary, I would suggest that another word that captures this sense of basileia might be ―kingship,‖ a word that can refer both to the king‘s authority and to the king‘s exercise of that authority. The phrase ―the kingdom of God‖ could then 77 Thus the kingdom of God is real and present wherever and whenever the ―divine sovereignty in action‖ is effectively made manifest through the working out of God‘s will in various realms found within creation in general and in human society specifically. The kingdom in its fullness is be experienced in the future but also now, today, even in the midst of a broken, sinful world still in full rebellion against God‘s reign. ―The Kingdom of God belongs to the future, and yet the blessings of the Kingdom of God have entered into the present Age to deliver men from bondage to Satan and sin. Eternal life belongs to the Kingdom of God, to The Age to Come; but it too, has entered into the present evil
Age that men may experience eternal life in the midst of death and decay.‖11
Ladd arrives at these definitions only after a thorough review of both scripture and the many and varied theological interpretations that have been applied to the idea of the kingdom of God throughout history. He also points to what he sees as several distinguishing characteristics of this kingdom. He asserts, for example that
The Kingdom of God as Jesus described it is an absolute. It is, as we shall shortly see, the absolute reign of a Holy God. In the lives of men, this reign of God ultimately demands the very holiness of God (Matt. 5:48). It demands a righteousness so absolute that anger is viewed as though it were murder and a lustful look as although it were adultery. That his absolute demand of the perfect reign of God is coupled with a realism may be seen in the provision of forgiveness and the extension of grace to sinners. Nevertheless, the reign of God demands of its subject and finally will make them to become what the very be represented by the phrase ―the kingship of God,‖ a phrase far more inclusive of meaning than ―the reign (or realm or rule) of God.‖ If this meaning is what Jesus intended then it would follow that his invitation to ―enter the kingship of God‖ would not only mean to submit to God‘s authority and will but to also join with God in the administration and exercise of that authority and will. In this way we would indeed ―reign with Christ‖ (Rev. 20:6) as ―heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ‖ (Romans 8:17). Jesus would then be inviting us to not only enter a ―place‖ or ―realm‖ (where God‘s ―will is done‖) but to enter into a participatory ―partnership‖ with God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit. The theological pursuit of this idea would, of course, require a thesis paper of its own but the implications would be not only significant but relevant to this paper‘s own thesis.
11 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 71.
78 character of a holy God must require. Ultimately there are no degrees of holiness, nor is righteousness relative: both are absolutes.12
And again,
The Kingdom of God is a miracle. It is the act of God . . . Men cannot build the Kingdom, they cannot erect it. The Kingdom is the Kingdom of God; it is God‘s reign, God‘s rule. God has entrusted the Gospel of the Kingdom to men. It is our responsibility to proclaim the Good News about the Kingdom. But the actual working of the Kingdom is God‘s working. The fruitage is produced not by human effort or skill but by the life of the Kingdom itself. It is God‘s deed.13
And yet again, ―The Kingdom of God is God‘s redemptive reign. It is God‘s conquest through the person of Christ over His enemies: sin, Satan, and death.‖14
The Kingdom of God Is Both Future and Present
Among the central concerns of his research Ladd notes that, ―The problem of whether the kingdom of God is both present and future has challenged both liberals and conservatives. The search still goes on to find a key which will provide an essential unity between these two aspects and which will do justice to the data of the Gospels.‖15 To articulate such a ―key‖ is, in fact, one of the primary interests that motivated him to write the second book on this subject. An entire chapter is devoted to the subject, ―Can the
Kingdom Be Both Future and Present?‖ At the time The Gospel of the Kingdom was written American Christianity was virtually polarized between the premillennialist extreme which held that the kingdom of God was strictly a future hope and most
12 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 73 (italics in original).
13 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 64 (italics in original).
14 Ibid., 95.
15 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 59.
79 everyone else who believed that the kingdom of God was to be found in either the visible
Church,16 the invisible Church,17 or was present in the world like leaven, waiting for the
Church to expand it to the point where ―the earth shall be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea‖ (Habakkuk 2:14).
This last view, which will be examined in Chapter 5, was held by both amillennialists and postmillennialists including those influenced by the Social Gospel as evolved from Albert Ritschl through Walter Rauschenbusch along with various
―truimphalists‖ such as B. B. Warfield (who) was sure that the Church would lead the way for the gospel to overcome the world. ―The earth—the whole earth—must be won to
Christ before He comes.‖18 ―There is a ‗golden age‘ before the Church—at least an age relatively golden gradually ripening to higher and higher glories as the Church more and more fully conquers the world and all the evil of the world.‖19
Although he was a staunch premillennialist, Ladd concluded that, ―We find no logic in the millennial interpretation which excludes a present aspect of the kingdom.‖20
This bold judgment concerning the ―present aspect of the kingdom,‖ being articulated by a professor at the biblically conservative and fundamentalist bastion of Fuller Theological
Seminary, came to influence many evangelicals. As a result, Ladd‘s endorsement of this particular view removed, or at least effectively reduced, part of the theological chasm that
16 Roman Catholicism, drawing from Augustine.
17 Protestant and especially Reformed churches.
18 B. B. Warfield, Biblical Doctrines, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 663.
19 Ibid., 664.
20 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 64. 80 separated ―liberals and conservatives‖ within the Body of Christ. Ladd offered a point of
―unity‖ where both could find common ground, especially in areas of social concern.
Simply put, the essential substance of Ladd‘s interpretation of the kingdom of
God is likely applicable to most Christian churches and denominations regardless of their eschatology. Most would likely agree that the fulfillment and consummation of the kingdom of God is a future reality that has not yet been established. And most would likely agree that Jesus inaugurated and laid the foundation for a continuing (although yet- to-be perfected) presence of that same kingdom in the world. Through Jesus, God has, established a beachhead in enemy territory as an effective and continuing presence of
God‘s sovereign rule in the midst of a world still in near universal rebellion against God‘s divine authority.
Citing scripture, Ladd asserts that, ―The Word of God does say that the Kingdom of God is a present spiritual reality. ‗For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit‘‖21 (Romans 14:17). In fact, says
Ladd, ―In order to enter the future realm of the Kingdom, one must submit himself in perfect truth to God‘s rule here and now.‖22
At the Second Coming of Christ, His Kingdom will appear in power and glory. But this glorious Kingdom of God which will be manifested at Christ return has already entered into history, but without the outward glory. The future has invaded the present. The Kingdom of God which is yet to come in power and in glory has already come in a secret and hidden form to work among men and within them . . . The life of God‘s Kingdom which will be realized in its fullness when Christ comes, when our very bodies shall be redeemed—that life of the future Kingdom has entered into the present so that men may now be born again and enter into God‘s Kingdom—the sphere of His reign, the realm of His
21 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 16.
22 Ibid., 21.
81 blessings. The Holy Spirit who one day will completely transform us so that we become like the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified body has come to us before the arrival of the New Age to dwell within our hearts, to give us the life of the Kingdom here and now that we may enjoy fellowship with God. Tomorrow is here today. The future has already begun. We have tasted the life, the powers, the blessings of The Age to Come.23
But what response are we to make to the news of the arrival and continuing presence of this kingdom? What are we to do when we hear that ―the kingdom of God is at hand?‖ Ladd responds that,
The basic demand of the Kingdom is a response of man‘s will. Men must receive it. They must yield to it. God‘s Kingdom does not ask us to find in ourselves the righteousness that it demands; God will give us the righteousness of his Kingdom. God‘s Kingdom does not ask us to create the life that it requires; God‘s Kingdom will give us that life. God‘s Kingdom does not set up a standard and say, ―When you achieve this standard of righteousness, you may enter the Kingdom.‖ God‘s Kingdom makes one demand: Repent! Turn! Decide! Receive the Kingdom; for as you receive it, you receive its life, you receive its blessing, you receive the destiny reserved for those who embrace it.24
And again,
God has sent His Son in advance of that day. Christ has come among us to confront us with the blessings and the demands of God‘s Kingdom. ―Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.‖ Receive it! We may make a decision for that future Kingdom long before it comes in glory and judgment, because He who will be the future Judge has appeared among men to offer to them the life and blessing of that Kingdom here and now . . . Tomorrow has met today. The Age to Come has entered This Age. The life of tomorrow is offered to us in the here and now. Heaven, if you please, has kissed the earth. What are we to do? One thing. The Kingdom of heaven has come near. Repent! Turn around, and receive the good News. Surrender to its rule. This is the demand of the Kingdom25.
23 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 95.
24 Ibid., 97.
25 Ibid., 106.
82 The Kingdom of God and the Local Church
The thesis of this paper seeks to identify the local church as a place where the presence kingdom of God is both experienced from within and yet visible to those outside. Ladd makes numerous statements that directly support and advance this position.
The local church is a place where men and women of faith learn how to live out the kingdom life together. Ladd finds evidence for this in the Lord‘s Prayer.
We should also pray, ―Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done‖ in my church as it is in heaven. The life and fellowship of a Christian church ought to be a fellowship of people among whom God‘s will is done—a bit of heaven on earth. ―Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done‖ in my life as it is in heaven. This in included in our prayer for the coming of the Kingdom. This is part of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.26
The local church is a place where the agape love of God is experienced and internalized so that it can be lived out in relationship with others.
Love is that gift of the Spirit . . . which will characterize our perfected fellowship in the Age to Come. This love we now enjoy, and the Church on earth will be a colony of heaven, enjoying in advance the life of The Age to Come to that extent to which we permit the Holy Spirit to manifest the gift of love in our mutual relationships, especially in those areas where our imperfect knowledge leads to differing interpretations of the Word of God in the details of theology.27
The local church is where eternal life is experienced and embraced.
This is what eternal life means. This is what it means to be saved. It means to go about every day in the present evil Age living the life of heaven. It means that every local fellowship of God‘s people who have shared this life should live together and worship and serve together as those who enjoy a foretaste of heaven here on earth. This is what the fellowship of a Christian Church ought to be. May God help us to live the life of The Age to Come in the midst of an evil Age. God has already brought us into fellowship with Himself. This is the promise, the
26 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 23.
27 Ibid., 72.
83 down-payment, the earnest, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the life of The Age to Come. This is the gospel of the Kingdom. This is the life of The Age to Come.28
The local church is where we experience a taste of the future kingdom when it will established by Christ in its full glory.
The blessings of the future eschatological kingdom have already come to men in the experience of forgiveness of their sins, the release from the power of Satan, in short, in the messianic salvation. The fullness of this salvation is not yet received, but the essence of it, the power of it, has come. In this sense one may ―enter in‖ to the realm of blessing and salvation even though the kingdom in its perfected form is yet to be entered in the future.29
The local church is where Jesus‘ kingdom teachings are proclaimed and salvation by grace through faith and not by works is taught (Ephesians 2:8). ―Those in whose lives
God now reigns, those who become the citizens of the kingdom of God are to have a new righteousness.‖30 And again, ―But the new righteousness, the reign of God in a man‘s life, demands precisely an inner righteousness, a righteousness of the heart.‖31
Ladd goes on to say,
The Sermon of the Mount furthermore teaches that only those who accept the present manifestation of the rule of God and so realize within themselves the new righteousness of God shall have entrance into the consummated kingdom of God of the future. It is not enough to have an external righteousness. It is not enough to have rendered service in the name of Christ. Only those who surrender their hearts to the newly manifested reign of God, who thereby come to possess the inner righteousness which the old law could not produce will have access to the final glorious kingdom when it shall come. Others who have only an external righteousness, who on this ground will claim a place in the kingdom, will be cast out.32
28 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 78.
29 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 92.
30 Ibid., 126.
31 Ibid., 126.
32 Ibid., 127.
84
Even so, Ladd warns that we must resist the temptation to think of either the local church or the Church universal as being the kingdom of God on earth. Ladd, in his definitions of the kingdom of God, makes it clear that the Church is only one of the earthly realms where God‘s active rule is at work. Later he clarifies this by saying,
Do we not therefore have the Scriptural precedent33 to identify the Church with the Kingdom of God? Only in this sense: the redeemed are a kingdom because they shall reign upon the earth. They are not kingdom because the members of the Church are the people over whom Christ exercises His reign . . . The Church is a kingdom because it shares Christ‘s rule. The Kingdom of God in this verse is not the realm God‘s reign; it is God‘s reign itself, a reign which is shared with those who surrender themselves to it34
―The Church therefore is not the Kingdom of God; God‘s Kingdom creates the
Church and works in the world through the Church. Men cannot therefore build the
Kingdom of God, but they can preach it and proclaim it; they can receive it or reject it.‖35
Summary
Ladd himself summarizes his thoughts on the kingdom of God in this way:
As the messiahship of Christ involved two phases, a coming in humility to suffer and die, and a coming in power and glory to reign, so the kingdom is to be manifested in two realms: the present realm of righteousness or salvation when men may accept or reject the kingdom, and the future realm when the powers of the kingdom shall be manifested in visible glory. The former was inaugurated in insignificant beginnings without outward display, and those who accept it are to live intermingled with those who reject it until the consummation. Then the kingdom will be disclosed in a mighty manifestation of power and glory. God‘s kingdom will come; and the ultimate state will witness the perfect realization of the will of God everywhere and forever.36
33 A reference to Revelation 5:6
34 George E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 116-117.
35 Ibid., 117.
36 George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, 131-132. 85
In addition to simply affirming that this summary statement is consistent with this paper‘s general thesis and understanding of the kingdom of God, it is worth noting that another important implication can be drawn from Ladd at this point. If it is true that
Christ came first ―in humility to suffer and die;‖ and, if it is true that the kingdom of God was at that time ―inaugurated in insignificant beginnings without outward display‖ and that not until Christ‘s second coming will ―the kingdom . . . be disclosed in a mighty manifestation of power and glory‖ along with ―the perfect realization of the will of God everywhere and forever;‖ then it would seem to follow that the role of the Church in this present age is to serve Christ and bear witness to the kingdom of God in ―humility‘ and, in worldly weakness, with a willingness ―to suffer and die‖ with him.
If this is true then the visible Church is ahead of itself whenever it attempts to adopt the trappings of power, glory and worldly authority. Such things have been reserved for the future age ―when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father‖ (Philippians 2:10). When the Church in any shape or form attempts to force the kingdom of God onto cultures or nations it stands outside the authority given to it by Christ himself. This theme of present age weakness contrasted with future age power and glory is clearly articulated in the New
Testament37 and, I think, should give all who seek to enter the kingdom of God pause for
37 The contrast between the ―now‖ present and the ―not yet‖ future is clearly expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:10 where the good news is perceived as being ―weak‖ now with its power to be revealed later, in 1 Corinthians 13:12 where what we ―now‖ see ―dimly‖ we shall‖ then‖ see ―face to face,‖ and in Ephesians where the role of husband is to be modeled on the suffering, sacrificing Christ of his first coming (5:25) in contrast to the role of wives to honor their husbands as they would honor the risen, ascended and glorified Christ (5:22-24).
86 serious reflection as to how exactly the Church, whether local or universal, has been called by Christ to be the ―exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the world.‖
Dallas Willard—The Kingdom of God and Discipleship
Dallas Willard is a man who has spoken and written of many things as both a philosopher and a Christian theologian. As a philosopher he is particularly concerned with first principles, the foundational building blocks of thought that lead people to particular conclusions as to what sort of people they are, and the purpose and meaning of their lives. As a theologian Willard holds that these first principles also ought to lead people to discover how they should live and interact with one another and with God.
Willard has devoted much of his life to the task of awakening and restoring a new passion in both the Church and in individual believers, in what he believes to be the twin, foundational principles of Jesus‘ life and ministry. For Willard the twin pillars of
Christian faith and life are the ―kingdom of God‖ and ―discipleship,‖ each intricately tied to the other and to the person of Jesus himself. In his book, The Divine Conspiracy,
Willard laments that, ―Jesus as the actual teacher of his people has disappeared from the mental horizon of our faith. In that capacity he is not a part of how we ‗do‘ our
Christianity today. It is a main purpose of this book on Jesus and his kingdom to help us face this fact of the absence of Jesus the teacher and to change it.‖38
For Willard, the kingdom of God is revealed to us and expressed by us as we step into a personal, living relationship with Jesus alongside others who are doing the same. In
38 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 316 (italics in original).
87 Willard‘s words, ―The personal presence of Jesus with individuals and groups that trust him was soon understood by Jesus‘ first students to be the practical reality of the kingdom of God now on earth.‖39 He then clarifies and elaborates this thought as follows,
So the kingdom of the heavens, from the practical point of view in which we all must live, is simply our experience of Jesus‘ continual interaction with us in history and throughout the days, hours , and moments of our earthly existence. This is why we find Philip the Evangelist in the city of Samaria, as the new kingdom unit begins to spill our beyond Judea, ―proclaiming the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ‖ (Acts 8:12). The kingdom was reality to them through the name of Jesus. Through the use of the name, Jesus himself still acted.40
In his more recent book, Knowing Christ Today, he explores the idea further,
The way of Jesus Christ is a way of firsthand interaction—knowing by acquaintance—direct awareness of him and his kingdom . . .you can‘t really sustain a kingdom life, a life ‗not of this world,‘ without such interaction with the King. And such an interaction with God is the most precious thing available to any human being. It simply is eternal life (John 17:3) . . . Jesus is the human face on the kingdom of God. He makes it concretely accessible.41
Willard clearly believe that through Jesus, the presence of the kingdom of God is experienced with power to change people into the sort of people who would be happy to live there. For Willard, the process of change is the process of discipleship.
Of course it is discipleship, real-life apprenticeship to Jesus, that is the passageway within The Kingdom Among Us for initial faith in Jesus to a life of fulfillment and routine obedience. This is precisely why Jesus told his people, when they saw him for the last time in his familiar visible form, to make disciples, students, apprentices to him from every ethnic group on earth. And to make disciples they would certainly have to be disciples.‖42
39 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 279.
40 Ibid., 280.
41 Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today (San Francisco, CA: HarperOne), 2009, 142.
42 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 281
88
The Kingdom of God
Willard has written a trilogy of books devoted to the subjects of the kingdom of
God and discipleship. The first book in the series, The Divine Conspiracy, lays out the case for understanding Jesus through a renewed focus on the kingdom of God which was, for Jesus, always the context for his teaching and ministry. There is no doubt in Willard‘s mind that this is the primary reason that The Divine Conspiracy was written. Indeed, he explicitly describes it as a ―book on Jesus and his kingdom.‖43
Willard believes that the kingdom of God is, first and foremost, wherever God‘s will is done and his purposes fulfilled. ―Now God‘s own ‗kingdom‘ or ‗rule‘ is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom.‖44 And again, ―The kingdom of God is the range of his effective will. That is, it is the domain where what he prefers is actually what happens.‖45 Or even more succinctly, ―The kingdom of God is where God‘s will is done.‖46
In this sense, ―The kingdom of God is from everlastingly earlier and everlastingly later. It does not come into existence, nor does it cease.‖47 For Willard, not even the
Church, the context in which disciples of Jesus partner with him in living out the
43 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 316.
44 Ibid., 25.
45 Ibid., 259.
46 Dallas Willard, Lecture, June 5, 2007.
47 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 260.
89 kingdom life, is to be confused with the fullness of God‘s kingdom. For one thing, the
Church is too small a thing to contain the work of God. ―We shall get nowhere in our attempt to understand the gospel, the church, and our own lives today unless we understand that Christ is outside the church as we commonly identify it . . . If we do open the door he will come in and share with us, even though he will, in his greatness, find our little church—so very necessary to us—too small and confining.‖48 And for another thing, ―the kingdom of heaven is from everlasting to everlasting. The church is not from everlasting to everlasting. Therefore the church is not the kingdom of heaven.‖49
Even so, it is the kingdom of God that Jesus invites us to enter. It is there that we begin the lifelong process of learning from Jesus how to live as Jesus would if he were us. As Willard puts it, ―What is a disciple/student/apprentice of Jesus? As his apprentice I am learning from him how to lead my life in the kingdom of God as he would lead it if he were I.‖50 It is what ought to follow naturally from the experience of faith, or justification which, as a gift from God, leads people to take their first step out of the kingdoms of this world and into the kingdom of God. As regards the message of Jesus, ―To be ‗saved‘ was to be ‗delivered‘ from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear
Son as Colossians 1:13 says. We who are saved are to have a different idea of life from that of the unsaved. We are to live in a different ‗world.‘‖51
48 Dallas Willard, Spirit of the Disciplines (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988), 245 (italics in original).
49 Dallas Willard, Lecture, Honolulu ‘07 Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 29, 2007.
50 Ibid.
51 Dallas Willard, Spirit of the Disciplines, 36-37.
90 Willard acknowledges that the kingdom of God has not yet come in its everlasting fullness. But he is not willing to let this distract us from recognizing that the kingdom of
God is, in fact, already here.
[T]here certainly is a dimension of still future realization of God‘s rule. But the term eggiken—usually translated as ―is at hand‖ or ―has drawn nigh‖ in such passages as . . . is a verb form indicating a past and completed action. It is best translated simply ―has come.‖
The reality of God‘s rule, and all of the instrumentalities it involves, is present in action and available with and through the person of Jesus. That is Jesus‘ gospel. The obvious present reality of the kingdom is what provoked the responses we have just discussed. New Testament passages make plain that this kingdom is not something to be ―accepted‖ now and enjoyed later, but something to be entered now (Matt 5:20; 18:3; John 3:3, 5). It is something that already has flesh-and- blood citizens (John 16:36; Phil 3:20) who have been transformed into it (Col 1:13) and are fellow workers in it (Col 4:11).
. . . It is, as Jesus said, constantly in the midst of human life (Luke 17:21; cf. Deut. 7:21). Indeed, it means that it is more real and more present than any human arrangement could ever possibly be.52
But being obedient to the will of God, or keeping God‘s commandments, is not really what the kingdom of God is all about. According to Willard,
Jesus never expected us to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, bless those who persecute us, give unto them that ask, and so forth. These responses, generally and rightly, might be expected of a new kind of person—one who intelligently and steadfastly seeks, above all else, to live within the rule of God and be possessed by the kind of righteousness that God himself has, as Matthew 6:33 portrays . . . 53 Oswald Chambers observes; ‗The Sermon of the Mount is not a set of principles to be observed apart from indemnification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us.‘54
52 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 28.
53 Dallas Willard in, Spirit of the Disciplines, 7.
54 Oswald Chambers, The Psychology of Redemption (London: Simpkin Marshall Ltd., 1947), 34. Quoted by Dallas Willard in, Spirit of the Disciplines, 8.
91 Indeed, ―God‘s intention for each of us is that we should grow in character to the point where he (acting with us) can empower us to do what he/we wants.‖55 Meaning that we will do what God wants out of our new, transformed nature, because we no longer have any desire to do anything else (See Jeremiah 39).
For Willard, Jesus‘ image/metaphor of the kingdom of God is most clearly understood and applied to ourselves when it is applied consistently to the whole of our lives here and now. For example, Willard applies Jesus‘ image of the kingdom to the reader‘s of his book in the following way: ―To gain deeper understanding of our eternal kind of life in God‘s present kingdom, we must be sure to understand what a kingdom is.
Every last one of us has a ‗kingdom‘—or a ‗queendom,‘ or a ‗government‘—a realm that is uniquely our own, where our choice determines what happens. Here is a truth that reaches into the deepest part of what it is to be a person.‖56
The gospel of the kingdom will never make sense except as it is incarnated—we say ‗fleshed out‘—in ordinary human beings in all ordinary conditions of human life.‖57 So also it is that ―God . . . pursues us redemptively and invites us individually, every last one of us, to be faithful to him in the little we truly ‗have say over.‘ There, at every moment, we live in the interface between our lives and God‘s kingdom among us. If we are faithful to him here . . . [w]e discover the effectiveness of his rule with us precisely in the details of day-to-day existence.58
When people enter the kingdom of God they bring their personal kingdoms along with them and surrender them to the Lordship of Christ. Christ then returns those kingdoms to them so that they might now rule on his behalf. Willard puts it this way,
55 Dallas Willard, Lecture, June 5, 2007.
56 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 21 (italics in original).
57 Dallas Willard, Spirit of the Disciplines, 243-244.
58 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 24.
92 ―Only as we find that kingdom and settle into it can we human beings all reign, or rule, together with God. We will then enjoy individualized ‗rights‘ with neither isolation nor conflict.‖59 But Willard is not suggesting that each follower of Jesus rules their particular kingdom in isolation from other followers of Jesus. ―[God‘s] intent is for us to learn to mesh our kingdom with the kingdoms of others. Love of neighbor, rightly understood, will make this happen.‖60 Here we find a nice segue into the second foundational principle of Willard‘s understanding of Jesus, ―discipleship.‖ For Willard, discipleship is the primary, if not the only, legitimate activity of those who, while still in this life, have followed Jesus into the kingdom of God.
Discipleship
Whereas Willard‘s first book, The Divine Conspiracy, explains the relation between Jesus and the kingdom of God, his second book, Spirit of the Disciplines, explores in depth the relationship between Jesus and discipleship.
The assumption of Jesus‘ program for his people on earth was that they would live their lives as his students and co-laborers. They would find him so admirable in every respect—wise, beautiful, powerful and good—that they would constantly seek to be in his present and be guided, instructed and helped by him in every aspect of their lives. For he is indeed the living head of the community of prayerful love across all time and space.61
Willard sees discipleship as the means by which the followers of Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit, are transformed into the ―image of Christ,‖ ―born again,‖ become a ―new creation,‖ and experience sanctification. In short, according to Willard,
59 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 27.
60 Ibid., 26.
61 Ibid., 273.
93 Jesus‘ disciples are those who have chosen to be with him to learn to be like him. All they have necessarily realized at the outset of their apprenticeship to him is Jesus is right. He is the greatest and best. Of this, they are sure. That initial faith is God‘s gift of grace to them. So they have him. They do not yet have it. Living as his apprentices they are increasingly getting ‗it.‘ And as they move along they do indeed attain, by increasing grace, to an ‗advanced spiritual condition.62
The words ―disciple‖ and ―discipline‖ are inseparable, since the definition of a disciple is someone who practices discipline in conforming the way they think, act and believe to those of their teacher. Much of what Willard writes in Spirit of the Disciplines involves an examination of the central disciplines that Jesus himself practiced and which he modeled for his disciples to follow. These disciplines are not commended to us because God needs us to practice them but because they are useful and good for us.
Worship, for example, is something that shapes us. God is still God whether we worship him or not. We, however, will never become like our teacher, Jesus, unless we discipline ourselves with whole-hearted worship. This is true for the disciplines of prayer, fasting, the spiritual reading of scripture, the practice of giving and many others as well.
For Willard, Jesus‘ disciples are to practice these disciplines both individually and collectively, as the Body of Christ, the Church. Within every particular church ―The leader‘s task is to equip saints until they are like Christ (Eph. 4:12), and history and the
God of history waits for him to do this job.‖63 After all, ―The Church, the Body of Christ, is the place where we participate in experiencing and experimenting with the kingdom of
God.‖64
62 Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 318-319.
63 Ibid., 246. Italics and abbreviations are in the original.
64 Dallas Willard, Lecture, June 5, 2007.
94 Above all else, a disciple must become saturated with the ―love of God that was in
Christ Jesus our Lord‖ (Romans 8:39). True discipleship can only flow out of a genuine love for God and for Jesus. And, if discipleship is faithfully pursued it will always result in a generous love for others. In short, according to Willard, ―The Body of Christ is a
‗love incubator.‘‖65 Or, at least, it should be. After all, it was in the context of observing
Christians living out their discipleship together that the third century Roman pagans were quoted by Tertullian as saying of them, ―See how they love one another.‖66
Summary
According to Willard, when God leads us to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and
Savior, we find that we have made a commitment to establish permanent residency in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God we join our personal kingdoms together with those of other believers and, seeking full submission to the good and perfect will of God, discipline ourselves to a life of discipleship. Then, alongside Jesus, we will become more like him in our relationship with God and in our relationships with others. It is only by being disciples ourselves that we are enabled to fulfill the Great Commission which is to make ―disciples of all nations.‖ The primary purpose of the Church is to be the place where disciples are made and disciples disciplined in their discipleship. All else that Jesus taught and commanded will follow naturally and abundantly if we as individual disciples, and together as the Church, take these twin principles of Jesus seriously.
65 Dallas Willard, Lecture, Honolulu ‘07 Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 29, 2007.
66 Tertullian, Apology (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004), [39.6].
95 The Emergent Church and the Kingdom of God
In many ways the emerging churches appear to not only be postmodern in world- view but radically reactionary to the entrenched modernist cultural values of Western,
English-speaking, evangelical churches at the beginning of the 21st century. Indeed much of what has been written by and about these churches is not only self-consciously reactionary but also reflecting a self-conscious effort to ―re-imagine‖ the Church in new ways that are more attuned to the emerging postmodern culture. Brian McLaren, speaking through his character Neo in A New Kind of Christian, affirms this conclusion when he declares to a group of college students,
I believe that the modern version of Christianity that you have learned from your parents, your Sunday school teachers and even your campus ministries is destined to be a medieval cathedral. It‘s over, or almost over . . . Will you continue to live loyally in the fading world, in the waning light of the setting sun of modernity? Or will you venture ahead in faith, to practice your faith and devotion to Christ in the new emerging culture of postmodernity? . . . I want you to invest your lives not in keeping the old ship afloat but in designing and building and sailing a new ship for new adventures in a new time in history, as intrepid followers of Jesus Christ.‖67
Or, as Ray Anderson puts it, ―What is needed is the vintage gospel of Christ, the
Spirit and the kingdom of God.‖68
The theme of the kingdom of God appears frequently in almost every book surveyed in preparation for the writing of this chapter. Indeed, the importance of this theme places it at the very center of the theological self-awareness, spiritual motivation and functional purpose of emerging church leaders. Two authors, Bob
67 Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 38.
68 Ray Anderson, An Emergent Theology for Emergent Churches (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), 85.
96 Roberts69 and Ray Anderson70 devote entire chapters to a detailed discussion of this subject. Anderson repeatedly cites Darrell Guder for another remarkable discussion of the kingdom of God found in Chapter 4 of the book, Missional
Church.71 Dan Kimball, writing in the appendix to his book, The Emerging
Church, declares that, ―This book [The Missional Church edited by ‗Gruder‘
[sic]] is worth purchasing for chapters 4 and 5 alone.‖72
For Kimball, ―The church is God‘s instrument through which the Holy
Spirit moves and expresses his love and as Jesus redeems the world to come under
God‘s kingdom.‖73 And again, ―We must speak about the kingdom in our evangelism because post-Christians are more concerned with the kingdom in this life than with the kingdom in the next life.‖74 Clearly, Kimball sees Jesus‘ metaphor of the kingdom of God to be an all-encompassing image, embracing not only the central purpose for the church itself but forming the very core of the good-news message it has been called to proclaim. This over-arching theme of the kingdom of God has so captured the imagination of the emerging church that several of the movement‘s leaders have devoted entire books to the subject. Brian
69 Bob Roberts, Jr., ―It‘s All About the Kingdom—Not Missions,‖ in Glocalization (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007).
70 Ray Anderson, ―It‘s About Kingdom Living, Not Kingdom Building,‖ in An Emergent Theology for Emergent Churches (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006).
71 Note that ―Chapter 4‖ was not, however, written by Guder (who edited the book) but by George R. Hunsberger, who deserves the credit for having contributed one of the best summaries of the kingdom of God as drawn from the biblical teachings of Jesus and the apostles that has ever seen print.
72 Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, 2003), 257.
73 Ibid., 95.
74 Ibid., 203. 97 McLaren has done so in The Secret Message of Jesus, Rick McKinley in This
Beautiful Mess, and Hugh Halter and Matt Smay in The Tangible Kingdom.
In this image of the kingdom of God the emerging church movement has found the seed around which the pearl of Christian faith and life is to be shaped and formed. Several of the writers credit Dallas Willard for bringing the importance of the kingdom of God into their lives through his Fuller class on
Spirituality and through his books, especially The Divine Conspiracy. Others cite
John Yoder, George Ladd, E. Stanley Jones and N.T. Wright as those who influenced them to embrace Jesus‘ teachings on the kingdom of God as central to their understanding of what following Jesus is (or ought to be) all about.
McLaren wants to make certain that we do not think that the Church is one and the same with the ―kingdom of God.‖
[We must] distinguish the church and kingdom . . . The church exists . . . to be a catalyst of the kingdom. In other words, it doesn‘t just exist for its own aggrandizement. It exists for the benefit of the kingdom of God, something bigger than itself . . . The . . . kingdom represents God‘s work in the world at large—God‘s concern for the environment, God‘s work with people of other religions, God‘s identification with the poor and oppressed, God‘s dispensing of artistic gifts so that artists can express beauty and glory and truth, that sort of thing.75
The kingdom of God is, after all, God‘s kingdom. It is where God‘s will is done both on earth and in heaven. The Church is truly the Church only when it is in submission to God‘s rule and to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In this sense, the
Church is not the kingdom but is in the kingdom, seeking to discern God‘s will
75 Brian D. McLaren, A New Kind of Christian (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 83-85.
98 and to live it out in both word and deed. In so doing it becomes a reflection of what the kingdom of God might look like if it were to be embraced by the world.
David Fitch, claiming to quote Calvin, puts it this way, ―The local church has to be responsible for ‗making the invisible kingdom visible.‘‖76 Robert
Webber says, ―The church‘s mission is to be the presence of the kingdom‖77 and then goes on to quote Lesslie Newbigin, ‗In every culture Jesus is introduced as one who bursts open the culture‘s models with the power of a wholly new fact.‘78
Webber follows the quote by saying,
The fact is God‘s reign over the whole world through Jesus Christ. The church is now the ‗sign, instrument, and foretaste‘ of the coming kingdom. The church‘s mission is to show the world what it looks like when a community of people live under the reign of God . . . The church is not the same as the predominant culture. It is an alternative culture that points to the kingdom of God and the reality of the new heavens and the new earth.79
Tony Jones, quoting from an obituary for John H. Yoder, adds that, ―the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ‘s message, but to be the message.‖80 Doug Pagitt, summarized by Gibbs & Bolger, posits that one way of understanding the Church ―is seeing the church as not necessarily the center of
76 Fitch, David E., The Great Giveaway (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 87. Although this quote by Calvin is found in a number of books and in many places on the internet a thorough search of Calvin‘s works failed to locate an original source for it. It may be apocryphal or, if it exists at all, may or may not have originated in the same context in which Fitch places it.
77 Robert Webber, The Younger Evangelicals (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2002), 133.
78 Lesslie Newbigin, ―Christ and the Cultures,‖ Scottish Journal of Theology 31 (1978), 11-12.
79 Robert Webber, The Younger Evangelicals (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2002), 133.
80 Peter Steinfels, ―John H. Yoder, Notre Dame Theologian Is Dead at 70,‖ New York Times, (January 7, 1998), A17 quoted by Tony Jones, The New Christians (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008), 177.
99 God‘s intentions. God is working in the world, and the church has the option to join God or not. This . . . approach focuses more on the kingdom than on the church and it reflects the perspective of Solomon‘s Porch in Minneapolis and characterizes what Pagitt would classify as emerging.‖81
Ray Anderson makes this point even more clearly and succinctly:
The kingdom of God cannot be equated with the ‗church‘. It is instead the rule of Christ that includes the church but is larger than the church. The kingdom of God is the invisible sphere of Christ‘s power and reign into which we enter through the Holy Spirit and faith . . . The church does not drive the kingdom into the world through its own institutional and pragmatic strategies. Rather, it is drawn into the world as it follows the mission of the Spirit.‖82
This relationship between the Church and the kingdom has greatly influenced the ministries of these churches. Above all else this image has transformed their vision of the local church from being a gathering of the faithful (with an emphasis on what followers of Jesus believe) to a gathering of the fruitful (with an emphasis on how followers of
Jesus live). By submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ men and women, individually and as a community of faith, enter into the abundant life of the kingdom of God. The
Church‘s commission is to teach and proclaim and baptize people from every corner of the world into that faith. But this, as the emerging churches emphasize, is not the end of faith but only its beginning. The Christian life itself, and the major point of being
―church‖ in the first place, is to begin the grand experiment of trying to discern what life in the kingdom of God is like. As Jesus said, ―By their fruit you will know them‖
(Matthew 7:20) and, ―If you love me keep my commandments‖ (John 14:15). It is to
81 Gibbs, Eddie & Bolger, Ryan K., Emerging Churches (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 432.
82 Ray Anderson, An Emerging Theology for Emerging Churches, 109-110. 100 make this same point that John‘s Gospel never uses the static noun form of the word
―faith‖ but only the active (ad)verbial form(s) ―believe‖ and ―believing.‖ ―Faith without works is dead,‖ says James (James 2:20). And life in the kingdom of God must of all things never be dead.
Jesus does not want his Church to be alive to faith but dead to life. Jesus wants the members of every local congregation to be alive in love and service and sacrifice for one another. Jesus wants the Church to be light and salt and leaven. Jesus wants the kingdom of God to not only come but to be a reality for who gather together in his name. Jesus wants every member of every congregation to hold the pearl of great price in their hands and to feast their eyes on it. He wants them to marvel that the treasure they have found in the field is really theirs, and that the banquet so carefully prepared and so elegantly set in the kingdom of God is for them to eat and enjoy and to share with others.
As McLaren puts it via Neo, ―We hear ‗kingdom of heaven‘ and we think
‗kingdom of life after death.‘ But that‘s the very opposite of what Jesus is talking about.
Remember—he said repeatedly, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, has arrived! It‘s near, here, at hand, among you! It‘s not just about after you die, it‘s about here, now, in this life!‖83 Gibbs and Bolger marvel that,
It is strange how the church for so long missed the kingdom emphasis in the witness of the authors of the Gospels. The gospel, as proclaimed by Jesus Christ and as understood by the early church, was always more than simply a message of personal salvation and, even more narrowly, the way to get to heaven when one dies . . . Quite dramatically, emerging churches stress the kingdom of God much more than their new paradigm/purpose-driven/seeker parents ever did.‖84
83 Ray Anderson, An Emerging Theology for Emerging Churches, 107.
84 Eddie Gibbs & Ryan K., Bolger Emerging Churches, 47-48.
101 They go on to say, ―The idea of a kingdom focus instead of a church focus is a huge paradigm shift, one that does not come easy. But emerging churches are getting the message across.‖85 ―First and foremost is the kingdom, and the church follows.‖86
Kingdom Mission
When the kingdom of God becomes the focal point for life in a local church then certain things begin to happen. First and foremost is that the gospel ceases to be centered on ―self.‖ One can no longer be a ―member‖ of a church like one can be a member of a country club or Sam‘s Club where one receives benefits in return for paying dues. On the contrary, to be a part of the church is to be a naturalized citizen of God‘s kingdom. It is now all about, and only about, God‘s word, God‘s will and God‘s reign. To be a citizen of God‘s kingdom is to be submissively obedient to God‘s commandments to live one‘s life out of a selfless love for God and for others. No longer can a follower of Jesus get away with attending church simply in order to ―get something out of it‖ for themselves.
McLaren puts it this way, ―In my thinking, church doesn‘t exist for the benefit of its members. It exists to equip its members for the benefit of the world . . . The church doesn‘t exist to satisfy the consumer demands of believers; the church exists to equip and mobilize men and women for God‘s mission in the world.‖87 The church does minister to the needs of its members, but the reason for meeting needs is not an end in itself but a means to an even greater end: to set people free from the burdens of both spiritual sin and
85 Eddie Gibbs & Ryan K., Bolger Emerging Churches, 62.
86 Ibid., 91.
87 Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian, 155-157.
102 physical need so that they can then be more able to serve the needs of others. As James
Choung of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship puts it, ―The kingdom of God is . . . where the people who trust and follow Jesus are gathered. That‘s where heaven is. The kingdom of God is ‗on earth as it is in heaven‘ when poor are fed, the naked are clothed, the sick are healed, relationships, with nations, with us, with God, are all repaired. It‘s here. It‘s all around us.‖88
Kingdom Evangelism
This kingdom emphasis not only leads people away from their natural (and sinful) tendency to think of everything in terms of ―me‖ but also leads them to desire to share the kingdom life with as many others as possible. The first response to the kingdom life is mission the second is for evangelism—but not the sort of evangelism that has held the evangelical churches (as well as many others) in its grip for far too many years. Kingdom evangelism is not about seducing or convincing or arguing or frightening or bribing people into the kingdom of God but by demonstrating a transformed way of life that is so appealing, fulfilling and compelling to others that they will eagerly desire to become a part of it. David Fitch asks and then answers a key question for making evangelism relevant and effective in a postmodern world: ―How do we make sense of the Christian claim that ‗Jesus Christ is Lord‘ in a postmodern world where old ways to truth have broken down? The answer is that we display what these words mean in the way we live and worship so that its reality, once displayed, cannot be denied, only rejected or entered
88 James Choung, True Story (Downers Grove, IL:IVP, 2008), 132. 103 into.‖89 He later adds, ―As a living, vibrant people, Christians do not sell, they just live; they do not peddle, but do speak sincerely; they do not debate, they witness to his presence in worship and invite people into this great victory over sin and death we have in Christ‘s death and resurrection.‖90
Alan Hirsch, in The Forgotten Ways, quotes T.S. Eliot saying the same thing but in a very different way, ―The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.‖91 Peter Rollins, in How Not to Speak of God, puts it this way: ―As we all know, one does not learn to be a Christian, but rather, one engages in a process of becoming one.‖92 According to these church leaders living out the Christian life with integrity is how evangelism is, or ought to be, done. If lives are lacking in character or if the followers of Jesus are not able to ―walk the talk‖ in their daily interactions with others, then it will not matter how much knowledge or apologetics skill they possess or how many copies of the ―Four Spiritual Laws‖ they hand out.93 In the end the success or failure of their witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ will stand or fall on whether their own lives can be seen as having been transformed by that gospel for the better.
89 David Fitch, The Great Giveaway, 56-57.
90 Ibid., 70.
91 Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 101. The origin of this quote could not be located. It does, however, appear without citation in Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1992).
92 Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God (Brewster, MA: Paraclete, 2006), 77.
93 Bill Bright, The Four Spiritual Laws (Wayne, NJ: New Life Publications 1993). 104
What Else Is There To Say or Do?
If living life in the kingdom of God leads naturally to mission and evangelism then where else does it lead us? Bob Roberts, in Glocalization, states that ―The Kingdom of God is comprehensive—there is not a single area of life or society that God does not want to transform and bring hope to.‖ 94 Indeed, Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God is even more than just ―comprehensive‖ in scope. The kingdom is the very realm of God and is inclusive of all that is or was or will ever be in all of creation whether visible or invisible, mortal or immortal, physical or spiritual. All humanity, both individually and collectively, both in the church and beyond the church are, of course, included in this realm as well.
It is this vast range of scope, from the minute specificity of the hairs on a person‘s head to the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God who is One-yet-
Three, who makes the image of the kingdom of God so compelling. In the kingdom of
God heaven and earth meet and intersect. Life becomes touched by God and, through the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, all who trust in Christ have been redeemed and deemed to be holy in God‘s sight. In the kingdom of God life has meaning and purpose.
Jesus himself serves as the primary example for how men and women were created to live out their lives in relation with God and with others. This recapturing of Jesus‘ vision of the kingdom of God is having an immediate and dramatic impact on the ministry of the emerging and emergent church. When this vision is adopted it can help refocus congregational energy towards becoming a ―missional‖ or ―mission-focused‖ church. It
94 Bob Roberts, Jr., Glocalization, 38. 105 can also restore and reaffirm a strong belief that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is more than anything else, about learning how to live life in healthy and holy relationships—both vertically with God and horizontally with others.
James Choung offers a good summary and a fitting conclusion to this survey of the image of the kingdom of God in the emerging church
Christianity has largely focused on what people can get instead of what they can give . . . Our gospel presentations may have allowed people to think they‘re part of the kingdom without needing to embrace the purpose of loving and blessing others. But Jesus enticed people into a kingdom mission from the outset. ―Come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people.‖ His initial invitation included a selfless call to love and influence others for the sake of the kingdom. And his kingdom is near. We are invited into a space where God is really in charge, where what he wants to happen actually does happen. It‘s a place for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. It‘s about service and love, not domination and oppression It‘s inclusive instead of exclusive, a place for all where our relationships are right, good and healthy. What‘s more, we can enter into it now, before we die. That‘s good news—the gospel.95
It has been asked that, if the good news of Jesus Christ does not make a difference in peoples‘ lives here and now, what good is it? The emerging church acknowledges this concern in a positive way as it declares that the kingdom of God is here, and that ―we can enter into it now.‖ Good news, indeed.
95 James Choung, True Story, 198. 106
CHAPTER 5
THE PCUSA ―SIX GREAT ENDS OF THE CHURCH‖ AND TRADITIONAL WAYS
IN WHICH THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS MADE MANIFEST
As mentioned in the Introduction to this paper the central thesis, the local church as the exhibition of the kingdom of God, has been drawn from the ―Great Ends of the
Church‖ as found in the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. The six ―Great
Ends,‖1 of the Church are described as follows: ―The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the
Kingdom of Heaven to the world.‖2
Historical Origins and Context
This paragraph first appeared in a proposed draft for a new Book of Government and Discipline for the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) in 1904.
1 The word ―ends‖ being a rather quaint and dated way of saying, the ―mission‖ or ―purpose‖ of the Church.
2 Book of Order (Louisville, KY; Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 2008). G-1.0200. Note that the word ―humankind‖ was written as ―men‖ in the original. 107 Following an affirming vote from the required number of presbyteries the document, including the section on the ―Great Ends,‖ was adopted by the General Assembly in
1910. There is no record of there having been any debate or formal discussion on these
―Great Ends‖ and, indeed, it is not even clear who actually wrote them. A case has been made by Jack Rogers and Robert Blade that the author was most likely the Rev.
Alexander Gilfillan Wallace (1829-1913) who, among other things, chaired the
―Committee of Revision of the Form of Government‖ that presented the document to the
1910 General Assembly. Wallace is described by Rogers and Blade as the only person among many ―who seems to be a convincing choice.‖3
The phrase, ―Great Ends of the Church‖ appears to have been original to the
UPCNA, having first appeared in a simplified form in the 1865 Book of Government and
Discipline as follows: ―The great ends of the Church are the preservation of the truth and ordinances of true religion, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.‖4 In 1925 the
1904 statement was adapted to the context of a Confession of Faith drawn up in anticipation of what turned out to be a failed reunion with the Presbyterian Church,
U.S.A. Lacking the phrase, ―great ends of the Church,‖ the paragraph ―defines the visible church as organized for ‗the confession of His Name, the public worship of God, the preaching and teaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, the nurture and
3 Jack B. Rogers & Robert E. Blade, ―The Great Ends of the Church: Two Perspectives,‖ Journal of Presbyterian History, Volume 76, Issue 3 (Fall 1998): 184.
4 The Government of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (Pittsburg: United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1865), 4. Cited by Jack B. Rogers, & Robert E. Blade, ―The Great Ends of the Church: Two Perspectives,‖ Journal of Presbyterian History, Volume 76, Issue 3 (Fall 1998): 183.
108 fellowship of the children of God, the propagation of the gospel, and the promotion of social righteousness.‘‖5
By 1942 the paragraph had been expanded in the UPCNA Book of Government to read, ―The great ends of the Church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of men, the shelter, nurture, and holy fellowship of the children of God, the maintenance of Divine worship, the preservation of the truth and appointments of pure religion, the promotion of social righteousness, and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.‖6
When, in 1958, the PC(USA) and the UPCNA finally did merge to create the
United Presbyterian Church (USA) the new Form of Government retained the original
1904 version of the ―Great Ends.‖ The paragraph was further preserved when the UPC
(USA) merged with the Presbyterian Church (US) to form the present Presbyterian
Church (USA) in 1983. It remains a foundational tenet of the PC (USA) today.
It may appear strange to find such a progressive-sounding statement coming out of the theologically conservative UPCNA which, throughout its history, was committed to the Westminster standards of faith. Indeed, as Rogers and Blade point out, the PCNA
―practiced closed communion. They retained the Scottish free church practice of public covenanting to make their position known on moral issues. They were for the exclusive
5 The Digest of the Principal Deliverances of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, comp. O. H., Milligan, (Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Publication and Bible School Work, 1942) Page 24. Cited by Jack B. Rogers & Robert E. Blade, ―The Great Ends of the Church: Two Perspectives,‖ Journal of Presbyterian History, Volume 76, Issue 3 (Fall 1998): 184.
6 The Digest of the Principal Deliverances of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, comp. O. H., Milligan, (Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Publication and Bible School Work, 1942) Page 24.
109 singing of Psalms in worship, without instrumental accompaniment. And they refused church membership to members of secret societies that required the taking of oaths.‖7
Research shows, however, that in the years prior to 1904 the denomination had a bold voice in addressing the social controversies of its day. In 1811, one of its predecessor denominations, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, acted ―to declare the holding of Negroes in bondage to be a moral evil and it directed church members to set them free . . . In 1831, all slaveholders were excommunicated.‖8 Again, in
1853, another of its predecessor denominations, the Associate Reformed Church, declared: ―‘That Synod affirm that the right of voting for pastors is now extended to all communing members . . .‘ Thus women could now vote.‖9
The Fifth “Great End” and the Social-Theological-Historical Context
This background gives significance to the fifth ―Great End‖ which reads, ―The promotion of social righteousness.‖ No doubt this phrase (which also appears to be original and unique to this paragraph) reflected the denomination‘s efforts to address the national crisis of alcoholism and the related sufferings of women and children.10 More than this, however, given the date it was written, the phrase is tied directly to one of the
7 Jack B. Rogers & Robert E. Blade, ―The Great Ends of the Church: Two Perspectives,‖ Journal of Presbyterian History, Volume 76, Issue 3 (Fall 1998): 182.
8 Ibid., 182.
9 Ibid., 182.
10 The Report of the Permanent Committee on Reform‖ to the 1904 General Assembly of the UPCNA includes this notable reminder (1904 being an election year): ―The Assembly (1900) declares that the legalizing of the liquor traffic is a sin against God, and a crime against man, and that any party favoring the licensing thereof has no right to expect and should not receive the votes of Christian men.‖ ―Minutes of the 46th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (Pittsburgh, 1904, Presbyterian Board of Publication), Page 139. 110 most significant theological movements in American history, the so-called Social Gospel movement.
This movement, led by such luminaries as Walter Rauschenbusch, Richard T. Ely,
Washington Gladden and Charles Sheldon declared that ―social righteousness‖ was, in fact, or ought to be, central to the concern of the Christian churches as they bore witness to the gospel in their faith and life. Indeed, the phrase ―social righteousness‖ appears in
Josiah Strong‘s 1898, The New Era,11 as well as in Rauschenbusch‘s seminal work,
Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907).12 Strong‘s own words declare that, ―we shall not have social peace and ought not to have it until we have social righteousness—until right relations have been established between man and man.‖13
In a manner consistent with the Social Gospel the 1904 General Assembly of the
UPCNA addressed the need for social righteousness as follows:
The religion of the majority, in so far as it may be called a religion, is materialistic in character. Its center is self, and not Christ, as it should be. Men have their eyes upon the world and lust after worldly things. This world and life are looked upon by many as a great battle between material forces, the stronger of which is sure to win. Fortunes are being accumulated without regard to righteousness, and are held, not as trusts from God for which men are accountable, but rather as the rewards of trickery to be used in the pursuit of selfish ends. If we are not mistaken the one supreme aim of unregenerated men and women and the one which lies at the basis of all corruption in society is the gratification of desires which center in self. This awful serpent has wound itself around the heart of the race so tightly that nothing but its death will ever loosen its coils. Mr. Gladstone spoke in this wise on this subject: "Men clutch the earth with a demoniac grip while imagining
11 Strong, Josiah, The New Era (New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893), 251.
12 Water Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1907), 176 & 348.
13 Josiah Strong, The New Era, Page 348.
111 that they are moving heavenward. Unbelief gains easy access to the secularized and materialized soul."14
The most practical demonstration of these statements may be seen in such combinations of society as exist only for self-protection. Men organize themselves into social, political and commercial combinations for no other purpose except to advance their own social, political, or commercial interests, and this is often done regardless of the claims of others whose rights are also involved. Founded upon the principle of selfishness, they are wrong. Every organization among men which does not incorporate the law of love to God and love to neighbor is a plague spot in the social world, and becomes the legitimate point for attack by every reform movement of the present day. And the ministry and membership of the churches should be the leaders in the fight.15
Although the vanguard of the Social Gospel was theologically liberal their social concerns resonated with theological conservatives as well. In 1908 the Federal Council of
Churches, with input from Rauschenbusch, issued a Christian-Socialist manifesto entitled
―Social Creed of the Churches.‖16 Four Presbyterian denominations, including the
UPCNA, responded in 1914 by drafting and adopting ―a more biblically based foundation for social ministry‖17 in a ―United Declaration of Christian Faith and Social Service.‖18
A fine summary of this important document is provided by Gary Scott Smith who writes,
The report‘s fourteen declarations were closely related to those of the ‗Social Creed of the Churches.‘ Nine declarations dealt with subjects in the Social Creed, although most were reworded and some had different emphases. New declarations
14 The original source of this quote could not be located.
15 Minutes of the 46th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (Pittsburgh: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1904), 137
16 Federal Council of Churches, ―Social Creed of the Churches,‖ 1908, http://www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/1908-Social-Creed.pdf, (accessed March 23, 2011).
17 Gary Scott Smith, The Search for Social Salvation: Social Christianity and America, 1880-1925 (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000), page 365.
18 Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: 1914), Page 52ff. 112 stressed the social obligations of the affluent and called for a more equitable distribution of wealth, increased efforts to improve sanitation and alleviate congestion in the cities, better care of the handicapped, and more just and effective treatment of criminals. These recommendations and its five-paragraph preface gave the document a distinctively Presbyterian stamp. Its authors insisted that people should procure wealth only ‗in obedience to Christian ideals‘ and should administer all possessions ‗as a trust from God for the good‘ or others. They urged Americans to base the operation of both companies and labor unions on Christian principles, abolish child labor, meliorate working conditions for women, protect all laborers from dangerous machinery and occupational disease, furnish workmen‘s compensation, reduce hours of employment (in part by providing Sunday holidays) and use conciliation and arbitration to settle industrial disputes. While insisting that much poverty was due ‗to vice, idleness or imprudence,‘ the report argued that it often resulted from ‗preventable disease, uncompensated accidents, lack of proper education, and other conditions for which society‘ was responsible and which people must work to eradicate. It especially emphasized providing assistance to the aged and incapacitated.19
Clearly the 1904 declaration of the ―Great Ends of the Church‖ was not created in a vacuum. It arose in an atmosphere heavy with theological and social crisis. In the late
19th century, fresh removed from the tragic devastation of the Civil War and the brutal, yet successful, overthrow of slavery, Christian churches in America found themselves facing a growing set of social evils in the hidden shadows of the burgeoning industrial revolution. These evils represented the oppression and exploitation of labor (including women and children), a widely disparate and unjust distribution of wealth, growing and widespread poverty and an epidemic of moral chaos including the disintegration of the family symbolized and accentuated by the wide-spread abuse of alcohol.
In this context the phrase ―promotion of social righteousness‖ was written and affirmed by the UPCNA to assert that this was part of what Christ had created and called his body, the Church, to do. The adoption of this phrase was a declaration that Christ, in giving his Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), had included social righteousness in
19 Gary Scott Smith, The Search for Social Salvation: Social Christianity and America, 1880-1925, 366. 113 his charge to ―make disciples of all nations‖ and to ―teach them to obey all I have commanded you.‖ There is, arguably, no other time in Christian history when such an idea could have emerged full-blown and been expressed with such conviction as this.
The Sixth “Great End” and the Kingdom of Heaven
The sixth ―Great End,‖ ―the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world,‖ is also a product of that particular time and place in history. Just as ―social righteousness‖ had become a catch phrase for the Social Gospel movement, so also had the phrase
―kingdom of God‖ or ―kingdom of Heaven.‖ With an amillennial enthusiasm that seems beyond bold to our ears today, Rauschenbusch could declare that ―the essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God.‖20
According to Rauschenbusch the realm of the Church was to extend beyond the spiritual bounds of religious instruction and worship so as to exert a regenerating influence on the whole of society including not only individuals but institutions as well.
Church and State, both minister to something greater and larger than either, and they find their true relation in this unity of aim and service . . .The machinery of Church and State must be kept separate, but the output of each must mingle with the other to make social life increasingly wholesome and normal. Church and State are alike but partial organizations of humanity for special ends. Together they serve what is greater than either: humanity. Their common aim is to transform humanity into the kingdom of God.21
In addition, the Church needed to rediscover the social focus of Jesus‘ ministry insofar as his proclamation of the kingdom of God was not ―life after death‖ but life here
20 Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, xiii.
21 Ibid., 380
114 and now. ―There are two great entities in human life,‖ Rauschenbusch declared, ―the human soul and the human race,—and religion is to save both. The soul is to seek righteousness and eternal life; the race is to seek righteousness and the kingdom of God.
The social preacher is apt to overlook the one. But the evangelical preacher has long overlooked the other.‖22
And again,
But as eternal life came to the front in Christian hope, the kingdom of God receded to the background, and with it went much of the social potency of Christianity. The kingdom of God was a social and collective hope and it was for this earth. The eternal life was an individualistic hope, and it was not for this earth. The kingdom of God involved the social transformation of humanity. The hope of eternal life, as it was then held, was the desire to escape from this world and be done with it. The kingdom was a revolutionary idea; eternal life was an ascetic idea.23
Despite what Rauschenbusch was asserting, not all ―evangelical preachers‖ were setting their eyes on the life to come while turning a blind eye towards the social concerns of the world. While the UPCNA and the other Presbyterian denominations of that day maintained a self-affirming identity as being ―evangelical churches‖ in contradistinction to the more progressive members of the Federal Council of Churches (in which the Presbyterians participated not as members but as observers)24 their concern for the social area of human life was hardly lacking. In The Search for Social Salvation:
Social Christianity and America, 1880-1925, Gary Scott Smith cites a contemporary editorial in the UPCNA‘s magazine, United Presbyterian, where nearly the same
22 Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, 367.
23 Ibid., 162.
24 Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: 1914), 52ff. 115 sentiments as Rauschenbusch‘s are expressed. ―‗The individual and social emphasis‘ were ‗the two sides of the shield‘ and could not be separated.‖25 One of the editors of the
United Presbyterian at the time was none other than Alexander G. Wallace, the aforementioned leading candidate for the authorship of the ―Great Ends.‖26
To his credit, Rauschenbusch did not believe that the kingdom of God would appear on earth in its fullness through the efforts of men and women, Church and State alone. That day would not come, of course, until the return of Christ at his second advent.
In his own words,
At best there is always but an approximation to a perfect social order. The kingdom of God is always but coming. But every approximation to it is worth while. Every step toward personal purity and peace, though it only makes the consciousness of imperfection more poignant, carries its own exceeding great reward, and everlasting pilgrimage toward the kingdom of God is better than contented stability in the tents of wickedness.27
Even so, Rauschenbusch‘s enthusiastic optimism and that of his progressive colleagues was not particularly shared by his more conservative, evangelical and staunchly Calvinist brothers and sisters in the Presbyterian fold. On the one hand, the
Social Gospel leadership saw the Christianization of the world social order as the ―great end‖ of Christ‘s life and ministry, the ―great end‖ of the Church and the ―great end‖ of the kingdom of God. Those stolid Presbyterians, however, convinced as they were of the
25 Gary Scott Smith, The Search for Social Salvation: Social Christianity and America, 1880- 1925, 404.
26 Wallace was Associate editor of the United Presbyterian from 1868 until shortly before his death in 1913.
27 Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, 421.
116 total depravity28 of humanity and the fallen state of culture and social order, located the
―great end‖ of the kingdom of God not in the world but in the Church.
The Social Gospel‘s confidence in an ever-ascending, ever-improving, ever- civilizing redemptive evolutionary spiral of human spiritual and moral maturity29 was soon confronted by the harsh reality of human sin and barbarous evil in the sudden and unexpected eruption of the Great War. Afterwards for a time, the optimism continued to find expression in the formation of the League of Nations and the assertion that the Great
War was ―The War to End All Wars.‖ But the devastation of the war, the great influenza epidemic of 1918, the coming of the great world-wide depression, the rise of totalitarian dictatorships in Germany, Italy and Spain (among other places), the increasingly obvious failure of the Russian social experiment in Marxist-Leninist Communism, and the outbreak of what quickly became called the Second World War revealed the dream of transforming the world‘s social institutions into a likeness of the kingdom of God to be a false hope and failure.
In spite of these setbacks many of the social ills that had been addressed by the
Social Gospel and other Christians who responded to the myriad of social crises at the turn of the century were, in fact, ameliorated by U.S. Congressional legislation that supported the right of workers to strike, the legality of labor unions, the breakup of monopolies, the reduction of hours and days in a standard work week, the creation of the minimum wage, the imposition of safety and health regulations in the workplace, the
28 The first tenet of TULIP, the acronym for the five core doctrines of the Reformed Faith as adopted by the Synod of Dort in 1619.
29 See H. G. Wells‘ 2-volume Outline of History (Garden City, NY: Garden City Books, 1949), first published in 1920, as an example of the secular side of this positive, evolutionary view of history. 117 imposition of a vastly-expanded federal tax, the institution of the Social Security system and, much later, Medicare. These actions, along with the return of economic prosperity that followed the Second World War, did much to reduce the oppression and unjust suffering of American labor.
The ―promotion of social righteousness‖ as a purposeful ―end‖ for the Church continued through the Civil Rights Movement, the social unrests in inner-city slums and university campuses during the Vietnam War, the feminist movement for women‘s rights, the demand for rights of Native Americans and the current and ongoing, theologically and socially divisive battles over abortion and the civil and ecclesiastical rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered persons. As in the days of the Social Gospel, the churches and denominations in the United States today continue to be divided over exactly what forms of ―social righteousness‖ are to be ―promoted.‖ But, unlike one hundred years ago, the churches and denominations are now agreed that the ―promotion of social righteousness‖ is, or ought to be, one of the central, core purposes to which the
Church has been called by Christ to act upon.
“The Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World” In Contemporary Thought
As for the ―exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world,‖ the Church‘s interest in the subject of the kingdom of God waned dramatically throughout the 20th century. More recently, evangelical mainline missionaries such as E. Stanley Jones, social activists such as Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, evangelical fundamentalist scholars such as George Eldon Ladd, Baptist philosopher Dallas Willard, and Presbyterian professor Darrell L. Guder have researched and offered new insights
118 and understandings relevant for our day and age concerning the image of the ―kingdom of
God:‖ an image that was so pervasive in Jesus‘ ministry and central to the biblical testimony of the New Testament. These writers have encouraged and inspired a new generation to find new applications for the kingdom of God in Christian faith, local congregations, and in society at large. This paper is itself representative of this renewed interest in the subject.
Guder, in his small book, Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World, asserts that when a community of faith, or congregation, lives out the great callings of the first five ―Great Ends‖ then the world, when it observes the interactive life both within that congregation and between that congregation and the outside world, will catch a glimpse of what the kingdom of heaven is like. ―How the community functions before a watching world, how it is formed to light, leaven and salt, how it is, does, and says good news—these are all essential to the exhibition of the approaching reign of God.‖30
―‘Worthiness,‘‖ says Guder, ―is exhibited in the congruence of the community‘s life and actions with the message it shares. It is how the congregation witnesses to the fact that in Christ, God‘s kingdom is now breaking into human history . . . There is to be a visible correspondence between what we profess and how we live. The vernacular version of this fundamental missional principle puts it simply: We are called to walk our talk. As that happens, the kingdom of heaven is being exhibited to the world.‖31
And yet again, ―This is how the universal scope of the kingdom of heaven is exhibited: not in some kind of hierarchy of power, but in the harmony of Christian communities in
30 Darrell L. Guder, Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World (Louisville, KY: Witherspoon Press, 2007), 61.
31 Ibid., 67.
119 diverse cultures implementing our Great Ends in ways worthy of the gospel, wherever they are.‖32
Guder‘s analysis, therefore, is in harmony with that of Ladd, Willard and many leaders of the so-called ―emerging churches‖ in declaring that the primary way in which the kingdom of God is exhibited to the world, in both its individual and corporate manifestations, is in and through the lives of particular congregations. It is worth remembering that God‘s kingdom is not limited to or identical with any particular congregation or, in fact, with all the churches in the world put together. God‘s kingdom is wherever God chooses to be at work in the world. As with Jesus following his resurrection, God is ―going ahead of you‖(Matthew 28:7) and calling people, as individuals and as his Church, to follow where he leads as his followers bear witness to the saving Lordship of Jesus Christ and live out the kingdom life in their relationships with God and one another. As Guder puts it,
The inauguration of the kingdom does not follow human patterns or expectations. We cannot project, or manipulate, or program its inception. We don‘t possess the blueprints of the kingdom. We don‘t build it. We are invited into it. We receive it as a gift. We experience it as little children. It comes because God has started it and God will finish it.33
The Great Ends of the Church as a Mission Statement for a Local Congregation
This one small paragraph on ―The Great Ends of the Church‖ in the Book of
Order of the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues to inspire and guide both the
32 Darrell L. Guder, Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World, 70.
33 Ibid., 29. 120 denomination and its constituent congregations as to what Christ has called them to be and to do. Many congregations have adopted the ―Great Ends‖ as their mission or purpose statement and many others have used them for study, for preaching and even for new member classes. A series of books, including the one by Guder cited above, commissioned by the PCUSA General Assembly and published by Witherspoon Press, have been written on each of the six ―Great Ends.‖
In light of the recent phenomenon of Rick Warren‘s promotion of The Purpose
Driven Church as a model for local congregations to follow, there has arisen a renewed interest in congregations and their leaders to become more clear and intentional in both
―why the Church exists‖ and ―what it has been called to do.‖ Mission and purpose statements, along with vision statements, core values, goals and objectives and catchy congregational logos and slogans have proliferated at an astounding rate, all in an attempt by congregations to be more efficient and focused on the work that Christ has called them to do in his name.
As mentioned earlier in this paper,34 the similarities between Warren‘s five purposes for the Church and the PCUSA‘s ―Great Ends of the Church‖ are virtually identical. Each list affirms that Christ has commissioned the Church to gather for worship; practice education (or ―discipleship‖ or ―edification‖); provide fellowship; promote evangelism; and perform mission in service to the world. Yet it is the judgment
34 See Introduction to this paper, page 2.
121 of at least some that, ―when the two purpose statements are compared, the much older
Presbyterian statement would appear to be more comprehensive.‖35
To do these five things is, of course, right and good. To do these things is to be obedient to Christ. To do these things is to be true to scripture. But to do them only for the sake of doing them is, in the end, little more than a whole lot of holy busy-work. Far too many congregations are kept so busy juggling all of these ―great ends‖ and
―purposes‖ that they lose sight of why they are doing them in the first place. In doing these things in obedience to Jesus, the Church is, of course, supposed to somehow end up being reshaped into the likeness and image of Christ. These five purposes can all too easily turn into new commandments carved into stone instead of onto our hearts
(Jeremiah 31:33 & 2 Corinthians 3:3). There is indeed a ―purpose‖ to these purposes insofar as they are not ends unto themselves but, in fact, are means to an even greater end. Warren‘s model hides this deeper purpose in the text where it must be ferreted out and highlighted with a yellow marker. But, when his book is closed, and the five purposes for the Church have been memorized, the yellow highlighting is far too often forgotten.
The writer of the ―Great Ends of the Church,‖ however, perhaps by some act of inspiration, spiritual insight or by divine providence, added a sixth ―great end‖ to make sure that the greatest end of ends would not be missed or forgotten. When all is said and done; when the labor of the Church in the world is over and done; the central question of the One sitting on the judgment seat will not be, ―Did you worship well and celebrate the
35 Jim Singleton, & Quinn Fox, ―The Great Ends: Mission Statement for Every Presbyterian,‖ http://www.pfrenewal.org/missionally-minded/354-the-great-ends-mission-statement-for-every- presbyterian (accessed February 20, 2011). 122 Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord‘s Supper properly?‖ or ―Did you have good fellowship?‖ or ―Did you teach everything I commanded you?‖ or ―Did you proclaim the good news effectively?‖ or ―Did you feed the hungry and clothe the naked as if they were me?‖ No doubt the Lord will know the answers to these questions without even asking them and will be pleased with a positive reply. Yet the question that will be asked and answered by the searching of each person‘s heart will be to see how much it has become the heart of Jesus.
Although the purpose of the Church is to partner with Christ in changing the hearts of others it is all to no avail if the hearts of those within the Church are not transformed into the likeness and image of Christ. When lived out in faith, the five purposes will strengthen, enlarge and equip the Body of Christ for works of service. But the ultimate end of it all is to facilitate the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit in transforming the people of God (those who belong to Christ) into people who are so eager to enter the kingdom of God that they are happily and enthusiastically living it out among themselves in the here and now. In this way, according to the sixth ―Great End,‖ the Church, and its members, will be the ―exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the world.‖ This is, or ought to be, the chief end of every local congregation.
If, as the famous opening question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism declares, ―The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever,‖36 then the chief end of the Church should be to serve alongside Christ in getting as many people as possible ready to ―share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light‖
36 Book of Confessions, ―Westminster Shorter Catechism‖ (Louisville, KY: The Office of General Assembly, 2004), 7.001. 123 (Colossians 1:12). It is here, of course, in the kingdom of God, where we will ―glorify
God and enjoy him forever. And that eternity of glory and joy has already begun here and now in the Church.
Traditional Ways In Which the Kingdom of God Is Made Manifest
In the previous section the origin and relevance of the ―Great Ends of the Church‖ were discussed. What was not discussed was what, exactly, is meant by the particular use of the word ―church‖ in that document and how that word is being applied to the subject of this paper. The following section will attempt to provide that explanation.
Meanings of the Word ―Church‖
Among the four Gospels the word ―church‖ appears only in Matthew, and there only twice, in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. In each case the word is used by Jesus as a singular noun but, in context, the word is used in two very different ways with two very different meanings. In Matthew 16 Jesus commends Peter for his confession of faith and declares that, ―On this rock I will build my church‖ (Matthew 16 18). Here the word
―church,‖ insofar as it means ―those gathered together‖37 clearly refers to all who will be joined together by a common faith in Jesus as Christ the Lord, the saving Son of God.
Here Jesus is speaking of one Church, inclusive of all who will, in all times and places, share in that faith.
In Matthew 18, however, Jesus uses the same word, again in the singular, in a totally different way. In reference to a hypothetical follower who refuses to repent of sinful behavior after being confronted privately, Jesus continues by saying, ―If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat
37 The Greek world translated ―church‖ is ecclesia which means, ―the ones gathered together‖ 124 him as you would a pagan or a tax collector‖ (Matthew 18:17). Here the word ―church‖ could refer to either an open meeting of a local fellowship of believers or possibly only to those who, in leadership, act on behalf of a local church.38 In either case the word is clearly used in a local, specific sense rather than a universal sense. In the New Testament letters the word ―church‖ is used in both of these senses, often with subtle nuance of meaning given the particular context of the letter and its intended audience.
These multiple meanings of the world ―church‖ have posed a difficulty ever since.
As Presbyterian songwriters Avery and Marsh once put it, ―The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a dwelling place the church is a ―people.‖39
This song, of course, helps to make a distinction between the post-New Testament use of the word ―church‖ to describe the building in which the gathering of Christ‘s followers takes place, and the people who worship there. But it does not help in making a distinction between the church as ―people‖ in a universal, catholic sense or ―people‖ in a specific, local sense.
When the word ―church‖ is used today it is always important for the reader or listener to discern the particular way in which the writer or speaker intends it to be understood. In general usage the word can be used in many different ways. It can refer to a building designated for Christian worship or to the full number of publically confessing members of the universal, catholic church at any given time in history. It can refer to the full number of those who belong to Christ both known and unknown at any given time in
38 In the same sense that the Gospel of John uses the term ―Jews‖ to refer to Jewish leaders in general and to the members of the Sanhedrin in particular.
39 Richard Avery & Donald Marsh, The Avery and Marsh Songbook (Port Jarvis, New York: Proclamation Productions, Inc., 1972). 125 history or it can refer to the full number of those who belong to Christ both known and unknown in all times and places. It can also refer to those who are members or participants in a particular local fellowship or congregation, i.e. Ocean Beach
Presbyterian Church or to refer to a collective group of local churches bound together by a particular set of doctrines, polity or organizational structure, i.e. Roman Catholic
Church or Presbyterian Church (USA). No doubt there are other uses of the word
―church‖ but, for the purposes of this paper these should be sufficient. Yet the question remains: Which sense of the word ―church‖ is meant in the historical Presbyterian declaration of the ―Great Ends of the Church?‖
It is, of course, impossible to know the minds of those who wrote and endorsed these words so long ago. But it is probably safe to say that their intentions did not include the understanding of the word ―church‖ as being in reference to a building. Beyond that, as we apply the declaration of the ―Great Ends of the Church‖ to the other understandings of the word ―church‖ listed above, we find that it functions equally well in describing a clear biblical purpose for each of them in turn. Whether in a universal, catholic, visible, invisible, national, denominational or local sense, the Church is being the Church when it is clearly engaged in the business of worship, fellowship, discipleship, evangelism and service to others. And however we might use the word ―church,‖ the sixth ―Great End‖,
―the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world,‖ is equally applicable as well.
Since at least the time of St. Augustine, the Church as the kingdom of God has been largely understood and applied in its universal sense. Just as the old Roman Empire was viewed as one kingdom made up of many parts Saint Augustine, in The City of God, applied this political understanding of kingdom to the spiritual realm of authority of the
126 one true Church.40 The Church universal was understood to be the kingdom of God on earth. Even after the break-up of the ―one holy catholic and apostolic Church‖ into ―east‖ and ―west‖ the western church continued to identify itself as the ―one true Church‖ and the physical manifestation of its spiritual authority as the ―Holy Roman Empire.‖ No local church or individual church member could hold any standing in the kingdom of God unless they were pledged in fealty to the Church where the authority of the kingdom was administered by the ―princes of the church‖41 under the divinely appointed rule of God‘s anointed, the Pope, 42 the enthroned and crowned-head of the Church in Rome.43
The Protestant Reformation rejected the conflation of the kingdom of God with the realm of the earthly church or with Papal authority. For Calvin the Church, in its all- inclusive, universal sense, while a preeminent part of Christ‘s kingdom on earth,44 was not to be equated with it. Calvin believed that the kingdom of God, insofar as it is being made manifest, also embraces civil authority (which functions separately from but not in isolation from the Church) and, in fact, extends beyond the bounds of the visible church to all people, all nations and, indeed, to all creation. The kingdom of God is, in its
40 Saint Augustine, The City of God (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009). XL, 1, 311. Here Augustine asserts that the earthly city (i.e. the kingdom societies of this world separated from God by sin) and the heavenly city of God (which Augustine here conflates with the kingdom of God) are ―in this present world commingled, and as it were entangled together.‖
41 A term still applied to the members of the College of Cardinals.
42 The literal meaning of the Latin word, papa, or ―Pope,‖ is ―father.‖
43 Note here ecclesiastical titles and images normally associated with royalty and kingdoms.
44 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975). IV.2.4, 1046.
127 essence, a spiritual kingdom45 that is coming but is not yet come in its fullness.46 Entry to the kingdom is available by grace through faith to every individual. Where ―two or three are gathered‖ (Matthew 18:20) in the name of Christ, Christ is indeed present and, where
Christ is present, his kingdom is also, by necessity, present.
The Local Church as the ―Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World‖
From New Testament days to the present there has seemed to be an understanding that the local church was somehow, like the arm or leg, a part of something larger than itself. There has seemed to have been a sense that, just as a body is made up of many members, so also is the Church, as the Body of Christ, made up of many congregations which, in turn, are made up of many members. The tendency has been to identify the kingdom of God with the larger components of the Church, with Christ as the head of it all. With few exceptions, it does not appear to have occurred to anyone that the kingdom of God might be just as present in a local church as it is in the Church as a whole.
The genius of the ―Great Ends of the Church‖ is that it does not, in any way, appear to exclude the local congregation from taking its place as ―the church‖ with equal standing and purpose alongside the Church universal. While the forms they take may differ, the purpose of the one is identical to the purpose of the other. Indeed, if we agree that the ―great end‖ of the ―Great Ends‖ is for the Church to be ―the exhibition of the
Kingdom of Heaven to the world‖ then the importance of the smaller ―part‖ may well be as important as the larger ―whole.‖ After all, if local churches fail to be ―the exhibition of
45 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.15.3-4, 485-486.
46 A short summary of Calvinist thought on the kingdom of God can be found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Book of Confessions, ―Westminster Shorter Catechism‖ (Louisville, KY: The Office of General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. 2004). 7.001, Q. 102. 128 the Kingdom of Heaven to the world‖ then the ―one holy catholic and apostolic church‖ will fail to be ―the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world‖ as well.
Clearly, there is a growing awareness that Christ and his kingdom are made manifest to the world most powerfully and most effectively through the intersection of
Christian individuals and local congregations with the people and communities in which they live and serve. People do not encounter the risen Christ universally or even denominationally but always in a context that is local, specific and personal. While this encounter may at times take place at a revival meeting, a summer church camp, a parachurch ministry or with a personal friend, the experience of the ―ones gathered together‖ in the name of Jesus will, most always, eventually, be affirmed, celebrated and lived out in the context of a local congregation.
The substantive thesis of this paper is that local congregations will move beyond
―doing things‖ for Jesus and discover their true purpose when they embrace Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God as the model for what they have been called to be and become. Of all that the local congregation is and does, its purpose is best expressed as being an
―exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.‖ The final chapters of this paper will present a model that can help a local congregation claim and embrace Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God as being central to who, what and why they are as the Church.
129
PART THREE
STRATEGY
130
CHAPTER 6
INTRODUCTION OF THE IMAGE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS A
COMPREHENSIVE MODEL FOR CHRISTIAN LIFE AND MISSION
Introduction
One of the most striking things about Jesus‘ vision of the kingdom of God is its tangible sense of space. A person can ―enter‖ it or be ―cast out‖ of it. Life takes place within it and human relationships abound. Although, according to Jesus, it is a kingdom
―not of this world‖ (John 18:36) it is a kingdom nevertheless, both here and now and in a place and time to come of God‘s own making. When Jesus spoke of the ―kingdom of
God‖ he always spoke of it as though it was a real place where real people lived real lives. Those who heard Jesus speak about this kingdom had considered such a realm as
Jesus described to be little more than a dream, an idea, a vision or a hope. Yet, whether speaking in parable, metaphor, simile, allegory, analogy, or even, at times, without any ambiguity at all, Jesus consistently proclaimed that the kingdom was a reality that could be entered, experienced and lived beginning here and now. Although it is tempting to render this vision into a theological, ethical or spiritual abstraction it is striking to note that Jesus never did. For Jesus, the kingdom of God was as earthy and relevant to our
131 lives today as the dust on a road and the bandits who hide alongside it. For Jesus, entering the kingdom of God is much the same as passing through a narrow gate in a wall or crossing a border from one realm of authority into another.
The simplicity of Jesus‘ presentation of the kingdom of God as recorded in the
Gospels has been subsequently taken by theologians and Bible scholars and all too often obfuscated beyond recognition. Yet those who heard him face to face ―listened to him with delight‖ (Mark 12:37) and seemed to catch the essence of his message without the help of a Bible commentary or a post-graduate seminary education.
The thesis of this paper is one that asserts that Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of
God offers congregations and their members a new way to think and imagine their individual and corporate life in the Body of Christ in ways that will be directly connected to the vision given to us by Jesus himself. One of the foundational assumptions of this thesis is that Jesus‘ teachings on the kingdom of God are coherent, clear, reasonable and easily accessible and readily applicable to a local Christian congregation whether in
Mililani, Hawaii, Seaview, Washington, or anywhere else. Before such a congregation can imagine itself as being and becoming the ―exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the world‖ it must first be presented with a clear and compelling description of what that kingdom is, why and how they should enter it and what might be expected of them once they have begun to establish residency therein.
This chapter will attempt to offer a model for doing just that. The model presents a series of six steps that will help individual members of a local congregation, and the congregation as a whole, understand their faith and life in terms of the kingdom of God.
This chapter will present the content contained in each step and the following chapter will
132 suggest various ways through which this content can be introduced. Although the kingdom of God is by no means a geographical location it is, nonetheless, a tangible, real space that we can enter or leave. This is how Jesus spoke of it and for the purpose of this paper we will do the same.
Step 1: Life Outside the Kingdom
One of the most striking contrasts between life in this world and life in the kingdom of God is the way a person‘s life is ordered. The fundamental rule of this world is found, most succinctly, perhaps, in the phrase, ―looking out for number one;‖ number one being, of course, oneself.
God has, of course, created people to be kings and queens, rulers of their own kingdoms. In the kingdom of the world each person grows up with two kingdoms of their own.1 The first kingdom is the ―self.‖ In this inner kingdom each person‘s soul takes shape. Everything a person does, reads, tastes, and sees, everything they experience in life, both good and bad, goes inside them and becomes a part of them. As they grow older they begin to have more control over this inner kingdom and begin to make their own decisions about what they will do there and what they will let in or keep out. As an adult they will now have full authority over this inner kingdom. Others might be able to control or damage or even kill their body but no one can touch their soul, their heart or their mind, unless they are given permission to do so.
1 For this insight I am indebted to Dallas Willard who so cogently introduced to me the concept of our being naturally endowed by God as rulers of our own personal kingdom and ―queendom,‖ I have taken the liberty to refine this idea by distinguishing between our ―inner kingdom,‖ our ―outer kingdom,‖ and our ―sphere of influence. 133 The second kingdom a person rules is where they wield authority and control in the world around them. They might find their authority to be as humble as choosing what to eat for breakfast or as powerful as controlling a major corporation. Extending beyond this kingdom is an even larger realm where they are able to assert influence. The outer- kingdom realms always, of course, include other people.
A typical way for a person to integrate their two kingdoms is to affirm a mutual love, commitment or responsibility with the ―others‖ in their outer kingdom, including their sphere of influence. Most often the core of such relationships is made up of the members of the person‘s family along with a select group of friends. The Greek word that best describes this relationship is that of philos, which refers to a natural or mutually- affirmed relationship of love between two or more people. At its deepest level philos includes a person‘s willingness and obligation to lay down their life, if necessary, for their friend or family member. It is this type of love that Jesus describes when he says, ―If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?‖ (Matthew 5:46). And also in John 15:13, ―Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.‖2
Such covenant relationships form the functional foundation of social life in the natural world, whether family, clan, club, society or nation. Gangs, fraternities, sororities,
Boy Scouts, military organizations, and organized crime are all held together by philos.
2 Although the biblical Greek in both of these passages is agape (rather than philos) the sense in which the word is used is perfectly consistent with the classical meaning of the world philos. The deeper, biblical meaning of the word agape goes far beyond that of philos. Agape love is revealed by Jesus‘ death on the cross where he not only died for those who loved him (as is true for philos) but for those who did not. ―But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) This agape love is, as will be shown in Part 2 of this Chapter, the core principal of the kingdom of God. 134 Commonly held spiritual and religious values may also from a part of philos relationships. Philos (or philia, most commonly translated as ―friend‖ or ―friendship‖) formed the core principle of Greek social and ethical philosophy.3 It was the highest form of love envisioned by the Greeks and Romans.4 For Jesus and the kingdom of God, however, it was not enough. This is because philos ultimately places the interests of self at the center of all relationships. Although the intersection of self and others forms a type of cross it is not a cross that reconciles the brokenness and sin that separates the self from
God and from others with whom the self shares neither mutual friendship nor affection.
The essential nature of sin, according to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Book of
Confessions and Book of Order concerns idolatry.5 Idolatry is, of course, placing anything other than God in the ruling center of any area of our existence. When self takes
God‘s place as the ruling center of all relationships sin is present. Such was the original sin of Adam and Eve and, subsequently, all the brokenness in relationships between our self and God and our self and others has been directly descended from that same sin.
3 See Aristotle‘s Nicomachean Ethics where philia is defined as "wanting for someone what one thinks good, for his sake and not for one's own, and being inclined, so far as one can, to do such things for him" (1380b36–1381a2). As examples Aristotle references lovers, close friends, political realms, social and business relations, parents and children, shipmates, soldiers, members of a religious group, tribes, a shopkeeper and people who trade there. A key qualification for a philia relationship is, however, ―that the friend is also fond of us." (1126b21). Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1934).
4 The betrayal of Julius Caesar by his friends Cassius, Brutus and others represented the greatest possible violation of philia, the covenant relationship that held the social fabric of the Greek and Roman world together. This unforgivable violation was also committed by Jesus‘ disciples when they betrayed, abandoned, and denied even knowing him. Dante, in his Inferno, accordingly places Judas head-first in the mouth of Satan‘s center head in the lowest circle of hell along with Brutus and Cassius (who are feet-first) in the mouths of Satan‘s other two heads to the right and left. Dante Alighieri, Inferno, (New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002), Canto XXXIV.
5 Book of Order, G-2.0500(4) as per Scots Confession, 3.05, 3.14, 3.25; Heidelberg, 4.094, 4.095; Shorter Catechism, 7.215; Larger Catechism, 7.218, 7.300.
135 Life in the kingdom of God, on the other hand, requires us to place God back into the ruling center of our lives. As Dallas Willard puts it, this restores us to our proper place within ―the effective will of God.‖6 This is, essentially, the radical existential leap that a person takes when they step across the border from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God.
Step 2: Entering the Kingdom “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The simple sense of Jesus‘ teaching about the kingdom of God is that it is, or is like, a kingdom. This means that, like any kingdom, the kingdom of God will have a sovereign ruler who exercises absolute authority over everything and everyone within that kingdom. There will be some who live within that kingdom as loyal subjects and citizens and there will be those who live there as expatriates of another kingdom. There will also be those who will travel through seeking business opportunities or simply visiting as tourists. Outside its borders, of course, many more people will be living in other kingdoms as citizens subject to other authorities, other laws and different cultures.
When Jesus talked about the kingdom of God he invited people to consider whether or not they might want to cross the border, so to speak, and see if they might like to live there permanently. In a sense Jesus was saying, ―O taste and see how gracious the Lord is. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him‖ (Psalm 34:8).
If we take Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God seriously as being an actual realm it is not too difficult to imagine it as a nation set among the nations of this world as a sort
6 ―Now God‘s own ‗kingdom,‘ or ‗rule,‘ is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom.‖ Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 25. 136 of non-geographic reality. As such it will indeed have a border which can be crossed and people can be either ―in‖ the kingdom or ―outside‖ of it. When people long for a ―better country‖ (Hebrews 11:15) and follow Jesus he expects them to leave their old way of life behind and move to a new way of life in a new country that he has prepared for them. He calls this country the kingdom of God. Here they must learn a new way of life under a new set of customs based on the laws of love.
As has been pointed out earlier in this chapter, in the kingdom of this world people tend to place themselves in the center of all relationships. They claim to be the sovereign ruler of their inner kingdom of self and their outer kingdom which includes others. When Jesus calls to them to move with him into his kingdom, however, they face the choice either to become a first-generation immigrant to a new way of life in God‘s kingdom or to stay where they are. This is what Jesus meant when he said that all people must be ―born again.‖ No one ever is born into the kingdom of God straight out of his or her mother‘s womb. At some point in their lives each person must, emboldened by God‘s grace, choose whether or not to live there and surrender the authority over their personal kingdoms to God.
According to Jesus the kingdom of God is close ―at hand‖ in much the same way as if his hearers were already living close to its border. Along any international border there is a coming and going of trade, commerce, language and culture. No doubt people living outside the kingdom of God have already been exposed to a great deal of the culture of God‘s kingdom already. Some of how life is lived in the kingdom of God has found its way into the kingdoms of this world. Here, at least in the United States, most people have been exposed to fragments of God‘s kingdom-culture in their own families,
137 schools, social relationships, literature and even in the entertainment media. More particularly, they may have experienced something of the kingdom of God through their contacts with a local Christian congregation‘s worship, Sunday school, mission outreach and fellowship or, perhaps, through participation in a Christian summer camp, vacation
Bible school or a youth program of some kind. Perhaps they have even read about God‘s kingdom in the Bible where they found it described in some detail by the Old Testament prophets and, in the New Testament, by Jesus himself along with his followers. Although most people seem more or less content with life on the worldly side of the border there are some who want to taste and see the kingdom of God in its fullness, in its own setting.
Consistent with the central purpose of this paper, the most common point of entry for such people into the kingdom of God is the front door to a local congregation.
At first glance, life on the other side of that door, just across the border in the kingdom of God, does not appear to be very different from what was just left behind. Just as the culture of the kingdom of God is strongly present on the other side, so also is the culture of the world strongly present in a local congregation. Many who have become naturalized citizens of the kingdom of God may appear to be maintaining a dual citizenship, serving two masters, so to speak, one on each side of the border. Other followers of Jesus appear to have not really moved into the kingdom of God at all. They are still living in the world they were born into. They live as though they were tourists, enjoying the good things that God has to offer and then, after a time, returning home to the ways of the world. They may be willing to partner with God but not willing to surrender their personal kingdoms to God completely.
138 William Lobdell, longtime religion writer for the Los Angeles Times, published a book he called, Losing My Religion.7 Lobdell became a convert to Christianity but, after exploring the scandals and misbehavior and frauds and hypocrisy of Christians and
Christian leaders through the eyes of a journalist he found that he could no longer believe. He ―lost his faith.‖ One of the things that proved to be the last straw was the fact that, when it came to the statistical rates of divorce, adultery, child abuse, fraud and the like, he could find no difference between Christians and non-Christians. In his experience, whether or not a person claimed to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior made absolutely no difference in the way they lived out their life.
The great G.K. Chesterton, who not only kept his faith but eloquently defended it, said more or less the same thing this way: ―The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.‖8 In other words, far too many
Christians still live in this world and treat the kingdom of God like a vacation destination.
They are, to put it another way, ―In the kingdom of God but not of it‖ (John 117:11, 14).
At some point there comes a time when a decision must be made as to whether to take up permanent residence in the kingdom of God or not. If the decision is made to take up permanent residence, a person will, like Moses and his son Gershom, feel like a
―stranger in a strange land‖ (Exodus 2:22 KJV). They will feel, or ought to feel, somewhat confused and uncertain. In spite of this, perhaps because of this, they will only become successful and prosperous in their new country if they adapt to its ways, leave their past behind and bravely exchange their visa for a residence card, their residence
7 William Lobdell, Losing My Religion (New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009).
8 G. K, Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World (Charleston, South Carolina. Forgotten Books, 2010), 39. 139 card for a green card and, at last, exchange their green card for full citizenship in God‘s kingdom and a new passport.
When Jesus invites people to join him in serving God they will be wise to offer him the crowns to their kingdoms. After all, he is the King of kings and the kingdoms of this world are supposed to become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. It is he who is supposed to reign forever and ever. As each person surrenders their small sovereign powers to the Lordship of Christ they join, so to speak, the elders of Revelation in laying their crowns before him (Revelation 4:10). In this way each person moves the kingdom of God a further step toward that day when ―every knee shall bow‘ and the
‗kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ‖
(Philippians 2:10-11). Having given all that they are and possess back to the One who has called them into his kingdom, they find that all that and more is returned to them. This is so they might continue to rule and wield authority in their personal kingdoms, but now no longer for themselves but on behalf of the One who is the ―King of kings and Lord of lords‖ (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16).
Living in God‘s kingdom requires them to live by God‘s standards grounded on
God‘s law and personal example of love. In God‘s kingdom, most often through a local church, people learn God‘s laws of love. They hear what Jesus has to say about what life in God‘s kingdom ought to be like. They read in scripture what the new life should look like as it replaces what their old life was like before they moved from their old kingdom to God‘s kingdom. In this way the local congregation is often a sort of spiritual Ellis
Island where new immigrants to God‘s kingdom are sorted out and prepared for
140 assimilation. As a borderland community the local congregation reflects the mix of old and new, of righteous and unrighteous, of sinner and saint.
Even so, it is also evident, if a person takes the time to look more carefully, that even in the most dysfunctional congregation there is at least a vestigial understanding and desire that God‘s will ought to be done and that love for one another and for others beyond the congregational walls is, or ought to be, central to their existence. Lives, in fact, are being changed and transformed for the better in local congregations every day.
And mission and giving for the spiritual and physical well-being of others is abundantly plentiful even, at times, in congregations otherwise presenting something less than a perfect ―exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the world.‖
Jesus does not invite people to join him in the kingdom of God or in a local congregation because they are good. He invites them to join him in the kingdom of God so that they might become good. The whole point of following Jesus is not so that a person can get into heaven but so that the kingdom of heaven can get into them. There is a hope in the hearts of most who cross the border that living in the kingdom of God will change them into something different than they used to be. Kingdom living, they have been told, is supposed to help them become ‗imitators of God‖ (Ephesians 5:1) and to reshape them so that they ―have the same mind that was in Christ‖ (Philippians 2:5), and so that the ―old‖ part of them might become God‘s ―new‖ part of them. God‘s word tells them, ―Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will‖ (Romans 12:2).
141 When Jesus says, ―Come, follow me‖ and a person says ―Yes,‖ they are saying
―Yes‖ to a complete, extreme and total make-over. They are to be ―re-born‖ into people who are, like Jesus after his resurrection, similar but profoundly different from what they were before. When Jesus says, ―Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand‖ (Matthew
4:17) he is saying that before a person can enter the kingdom they must first repent and turn away from the ways of this fallen world and enter a new way of life in the new country that God has prepared just for them. God does not invite people to be tourists but full, naturalized citizens of that kingdom, living out their lives with the same mind as
Christ in full obedience to God‘s laws of love.
A local congregation must learn to see itself as being inside the border of God‘s kingdom. As such, the congregation is ―in‖ the kingdom of God, belongs to God, and submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ who reigns on the Father‘s behalf. Through Jesus the local congregation worships and serves God even as it belongs to God both in whole and in part. Those who belong to the local church, those who have been baptized into
Christ and who, as adults, have confessed him as their Lord and Savior, are to consider themselves to be naturalized citizens of God‘s kingdom.
Only by embracing the idea that they are within the kingdom of God, are part of the kingdom of God, belong to God, and are subject to God‘s sovereign rule in all things can a local congregation begin to be an ―exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.‖
Each individual in a congregation and all of them together must both learn and then teach others how to live and grow in a loving relationship with God and how to live and grow in loving relationships with others. This is no less than learning how to live in the
142 kingdom of God. This is what God requires of every local congregation. It is God‘s Great
Commission and it is, or ought to be, the mission of every church.
Taking this simple, literal approach to Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God offers a clear and compelling way to describe and explain to a local congregation the challenge of what it means to follow Jesus. The contrasts and conflicts between life in the kingdoms of this world and life in the kingdom of God are easily grasped and understood in ways that will be new and challenging, even to those who have spent a lifetime of faithful service to Christ in a local church.
The next sections of this chapter will try to spell out what it means for us to live out the various areas of kingdom life that God has prepared for us. We are, after all, not there yet, but we‘re on our way. In a sense we have only just crossed the border where a lot of the old kingdom continues to intermix with the new. If we let him, Jesus will lead us deeper into the kingdom and show us how to live and prosper in our new home.
Step 3: The Love of God “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
When a person becomes a naturalized citizen of a new country they are generally required to demonstrate a working knowledge of the laws of the land, the form of government, those in positions of authority, what duties are required of them and what rights and privileges they may have. According to Jesus the primary requirement for life in the kingdom of God is to ―love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind‖ (Mark 12:30). Knowing this is, or ought to be, the first prerequisite for life in the kingdom of God. Such love assumes that a relationship with God can, in fact, exist.
143 Because of sin, no one can ever, by their own efforts alone, enter into such a relationship with God. Yet even though they cannot reach God, God has reached down to them in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.
When a person has confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior and been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit they receive the assurance that their sins are forgiven and they see that Jesus has knocked down the once-impassible wall that had previously stood between them and God. Now Jesus calls them to follow him into a new way of life in the kingdom of God where they will, through him, enjoy a personal, loving relationship with God. They do not actually step out of this world, of course, because the kingdom of God is actually right here, hidden where only people who are looking for it will find it. And, as this paper proposes, the place where most people look for it first will be a local congregation; most likely the very place they would have been baptized and received into the kingdom of God in the first place.
When a person decides to change their citizenship permanently they must first of all give up living life the way they want. They must let Jesus, ―the one mediator between
God and man‖ (1 Timothy 2:5), replace their ―self‖ at the center of their life. In God‘s kingdom they need to start living by God‘s rule, which is to ―Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength‖ ((Deuteronomy 6:5). They must embrace the new reality that in this kingdom God rules with a fierce and uncompromising love. If they are to love God they must do so first and foremost in their inner kingdom where Jesus replaces their self in the ruling center.
They will find that many things that have been a part of their former life simply do not belong in God‘s kingdom. Things like hate, lust, anger, jealousy, gossip, slander
144 and dishonesty each need to be taken out and discarded one by one (Colossians 3:5-10).
God will help them with this but they must want to change badly enough to ask for it
(Psalm 51:10).
God, in fact, wants them to have everything they need to live a full and abundant life in the kingdom of God (Ezekiel 36:26). They are to be filled with what the Apostle
Paul calls the ―fruit of the Spirit‖ (Galatians 5:22-23). Such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are to take the place of the old ways that have been discarded. But this transformation does not always come easily and usually requires more than a lifetime to bring about. All this can be very confusing for someone new to a local congregation because they will quickly see that the kingdom of God is a very busy place with people running about and doing many things.
There will be a strong temptation for them to jump in and start doing things, too.
Many followers of Jesus never take the time to get their hearts and minds fully prepared for this new life. As a result they spend much of their kingdom lives joining others in being very busy and doing many good and admirable things while feeling as if they were somehow missing out on something very important. If you ask if they feel they are growing or changing spiritually they will probably say, ―No.‖ This is sad because
God has gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that no one misses out on anything; especially something as important as the spiritual transformation and rebirth that God has prepared for us. It is always wise when entering a new and very different way of life to spend a little time with some on the job training and not assume we have it all figured out as soon as we arrive.
145 To really enjoy life in God‘s kingdom every person needs to first build a strong relationship with God as they learn to be a good and productive citizen of the kingdom.
Here is how to do this: First, they must never forget that Jesus is the way that they can know God and have a personal relationship with God. Jesus said, ―No one comes to the
Father except through me‖ (John 14:6). He also said, ―I and the Father are one‖ (John
10:30). He even went so far as to say, ―He who has seen me has seen the Father‖ (John
14:9). So, if a person wants to know God, they will need to know him through knowing
Jesus.
Second, a relationship with God is kept alive by four things. Two of them God provides but each person is responsible for the other two. First of all God provides grace, which is the love and forgiveness that have been given to all humanity free of charge.
Jesus paid the price of this when he died on the cross and rose to life three days later. The second thing that God does is to pour his Holy Spirit into the world where it is now present for all. The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son. Jesus said that he would be with us always, until the end of time. By the Holy
Spirit his is how he is present in the world today. This is how every person has been blessed with the opportunity to have a personal relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is a very great gift that makes life in God‘s kingdom possible. Each person will, of course, need to move their own self out of the center of their inner self to make room for the
Spirit of God.
The first thing a person needs to do every day is to repent. To repent means that they make up their mind over and over again to leave their old way of life, their old heart, and their old mind behind so that they can be completely reborn into the person God
146 created them to be: fully equipped and ready-to-live as an active, fruitful citizen in God‘s kingdom. The second thing a person needs to do is to have faith. To have faith means they have to choose to trust their entire self, their entire life—heart, mind, soul and strength— to God. They have to trust that God will keep his promises to them and will never leave them or forsake them. They need to hold fast to the forgiveness, salvation and eternal life that have been given to them. There will be times when their faith will feel less sure and strong than at other times. This is normal and should be expected. Over time, if they hold fast to their faith, God will give them enough strength to see them through whatever darkness and doubt they may have to face.
But how are people to come to know and love the Lord their God? As one might expect, God has provided a way for them to do this, too. God has given them a number of very special gifts to help them go step by step through the process of learning how to have ―the same mind that was in Christ‖ This is so that they will be able to think and act and see others the way that Jesus would if he were them.
Spiritual Disciplines
These gifts are sometimes called ―spiritual disciplines.‖ They are ways that God uses to reshape a person into becoming someone with the heart, mind and strength to know and do God‘s will on earth as it is in heaven. This paper will consider only five of the most important gifts or spiritual disciplines that a person can use in a local congregation.
The first gift from God is Scripture, sometimes called the ―Word of God‖ or ―The
Bible.‖ Apart from the Bible, a person will wind up serving a God that they do not know
147 and living a life that they will not understand. In other words, without knowledge of
Scripture they will be making things up as they go along through life. Instead of stepping into God‘s kingdom and living the abundant life for which Jesus sacrificed so much for them to enjoy, they will end up creating a kingdom that is every bit as messed up as they are.
The second gift from God is prayer. There are many different ways in which a person can experience prayer. But whatever form of prayer they practice, it will have been designed by God to bring the two of them into a closer and more personal relationship. Sharing their heart, mind and soul with God will teach them how to be honest about themselves with God . . . and also how to be honest with themselves.
Spending time with God in prayer will also give God an opportunity to speak his will into their heart, mind and soul in return. True prayer invites God to come into their life and begin ruling their life from the inside out. As someone once said, ―Seven days without prayer makes one weak.‖ Seven days with prayer, however, will make us strong in faith and in wisdom.
The third gift from God is worship. Worship reminds a person that God is God and they are not. Worship provides them with the opportunity to say ‗thank you‘ for all that has been done on their behalf and to offer praise to the one whose power and glory puts every other would-be god to shame. Worship gives a person the opportunity to be creative in how they celebrate and remember God‘s saving love for them. Music, poetry, dancing, drama, architecture and every other art imaginable can be used to express a person‘s feelings of love for the God who made them and who saved them from self- destructing from their sins. Sunday worship also helps remind them that time with God
148 must always be a first priority in their life. The value of worship and the other gifts of discipline that God has given multiply when they become a regular and routine part of a person‘s life.
The fourth gift from God is fasting. Through fasting a person learns to let go of the things that otherwise compete with God for control of their life. Fasting can help set them free from their preoccupation with food, entertainment, recreation, sexual urges, and even from bad habits to which they become addicted. Fasting helps lead them away from being dependent on worldly things and leads them towards becoming more dependent on the eternal things of God.
The fifth opportunity that God gives for spiritual growth is the gift of giving. God has shown in so many different ways that giving is part and parcel of who God is and what God does. After all, God is love and love by its very nature cannot be kept to oneself. Love always involves a relationship of some kind and, in such a relationship, love, and all that goes along with it, must be freely given as well as freely received.
Through giving a person learns how to love others as much or more than they love their self. Through giving a person discovers how to show compassion. Through giving they learn how to use everything in their life in ways that can help others discover the love that God has for them. Scripture tells us that, ―God loves a cheerful giver‖ (2 Corinthians
9:7). That is, of course, the sort of person that God wants to have living in his kingdom!
If a person is truly ―seeking first the kingdom of God‖ (Matthew 6:33) then these, and other spiritual disciplines, will be the primary means by which God will shape them into becoming the sort of person they were created to be. If they do not practice these disciplines in their life with scripture, worship and prayer being in the forefront, then they
149 will not grow to maturity as a follower of Jesus in the kingdom of God. When a person makes use of these gifts they will be like a concert pianist who practices their music day after day after day. As the great pianist Arthur Rubenstein is once said, ―When I don't practice for a month, the audience notices. When I don't practice for a week, my friends notice and when I don't practice for two days, my wife notices.‖9
Each of these spiritual disciplines is designed to lead a person into a deeper knowledge of God and a clearer understanding of God‘s will for them in God‘s kingdom.
God uses these disciplines to diminish the power of sin in a person‘s heart and mind so that they will become more inclined to think about and do the things that flow naturally out of love; being filled with‖ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:23). That is the sort of person God wants them to become.
A person‘s offering of the inner kingdom of their self to God, growing in their relationship with God and allowing the Holy Spirit to reshape their heart and mind can— and often does— take place in the collective context of a local congregation. The experience of these things is, however, always that of a particular individual. A congregation cannot grow in faith but its individual members can. A local congregation is at its best when it encourages these changes and provides opportunities for its members to experience and practice the spiritual disciplines in both shared and individual settings. If a local congregation is to be an ―exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world‖ then it must teach these things, provide opportunities for individuals to experience them and, through those experiences, enable them to grow closer to God and to the things of God.
9 René Lavand, Magic from the Soul (Pasadena, CA:, Mike Caveney‘s Magic Words, 1993), 61. 150 The local church has a key role to play in spiritually nurturing people to maturity in their loving relationships with God through Jesus Christ. As people surrender their inner kingdoms to the effective will of God they must ―throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with perseverance the race marked out for us‖ (Hebrews 12:1). In response to God‘s love for them, they will love God in return by nurturing the fruits of the Spirit that God has placed in their hearts. They will practice the spiritual disciplines that God has provided for them so that they might, like Jesus, grow
―in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people‖ (Luke 2:52). If they are serious about making life in the kingdom of God the first priority for their lives, then these things will bring about a wonderful change in them; a change that will be pleasing to God and to everyone who knows them. And, insofar as their inner kingdoms become joined with God‘s kingdom, their lives, and the life of their congregation, will be an
―exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.‖
Yet God‘s love for them and their love for God are given for a purpose even greater than for themselves. As was just mentioned, the spiritual discipline of giving is designed by God to lead people out of themselves and into new relationships with others.
This leads to the next part of the chapter and the second law of God, ―Love your neighbor as yourself.‖
Step 4 The Love of Neighbor “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 23:39)
In the kingdom of God and in the local congregation a person is bound to follow
God‘s twin laws of love. The first, ―love the Lord your God,‖ is fulfilled through their
151 inner, spiritual relationship with God as shown previously in Step 3. It was Jesus who said that the second law of love was ―like the first, ‗Love your neighbor as yourself‘‖
(Matthew 23:29). This is the law that governs each person‘s outer kingdom relationships in the kingdom of God. But what kind of love is this?
Jesus commanded his followers to ―love one another as I have loved you‖ (John
13:34) and 1 John 4:10 tells us how Jesus loved us. ―This is love, not that we loved God but that God love us and gave his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.‖ It was this sort of love that compelled God to reach down in Jesus and to break the barrier of sin that separated every person from God and from others. It is important to note that ―while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, the righteous for the unrighteous‖ (Romans 5:8).
Jesus loved all people even when they were still his enemies.
Jesus also taught his disciples to ―love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you‖ (Matthew 5:44). In these ways Jesus was challenging his followers to embrace a form of love that extended the idea of philos to those who did not love them in return. The love that God revealed to the world in Jesus Christ was clearly a greater and more inclusive form of love than could be captured in the word philos. As a result, early
Christians, perhaps led by the Apostle Paul, took an archaic, obscure and little used
Greek word for love, redefined it and promoted it to a new and higher purpose. The word was ―agape.‖ Agape love is the love that God has revealed himself to be: God who, in love, created the world so that humans might thrive and prosper in a love relationship with one another and with God. God‘s love is freely given and desires that love be freely returned. Although full of passion and offered freely, agape love is not ultimately
152 dependent upon either emotion or free will. It is a love that simply is. It is love which can be nothing else than love. It is rock solid. It is unchanging and unending. It is eternal.
God‘s agape love can be seen most perfectly in the life and person of Jesus
Christ. Scripture says that God sent his Son into the world because he loved the world and wanted the world to know his love and to love him (God) in return. The unlimited scope of God‘s love is shown in the incarnation, the temptation, and teachings, the miracles, the style of life, the suffering, the crucifixion and the death of Jesus. The great power of God‘s love is most perfectly revealed in Christ‘s resurrection from the dead.
God, who is love, is greater than death.
This is the kind of love that each person is to embrace in all of their relationships.
But such love does not come easily or naturally to people. This is why God requires them to love him first and foremost because it is only in their relationship with God that God can change the way they act and behave and think in their inner self. God wants each person to change from the inside out because it is what is inside them that will determine how they will get along with people on the outside of them.
People are not loving their neighbor when they feel they have to crush and defeat them in order to get their own way. In the kingdom of God this is very much frowned upon. The fruit of the Spirit become a new set of guidelines for their relationships with other people.
When a person enters the kingdom of God they become fully accountable to God for both the inner and the outer areas of their lives. Both realms are God‘s gift to them. It is up to each person to let God lead them in how they exercise their effective will over them. On judgment day these two little kingdoms will be the only thing that each person
153 will be held accountable for. And they must never forget: their outer kingdom will only be pleasing to God if their inner kingdom is in order.
Jesus‘ teachings had to do with both the inner kingdom of a person‘s soul and their outer kingdom where they interact with those who Jesus called their ―neighbors.‖
Beyond these two kingdoms where a person has control there is an even larger area of life where they wield influence. In the kingdom of God a person is responsible for what they do there, too. Theologian J .I. Packer has this to say about the kingdom of God. ―God‘s
Kingdom is not a place,‖ he says, ―but rather a relationship. It exists wherever people enthrone Jesus as lord of their lives.‖10 If a person is a citizen of the kingdom of God and
Jesus is at the center of their relationships then, if they see someone without a coat, they will not say, ―I wish you well, keep warm‖ (James 2:16). They will find a coat for them to wear.
In every area of influence when a person shows love, peace, patience and joy in their relationships they will make the world a better place for others and they will personally be an ―exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the world.‖ They will be like light that is put on a candlestick so that it helps others to see in the darkness. They will be like yeast that slowly transforms the dough that surrounds them. They will be like salt that brings out the very best flavor in others. This is what life in the kingdom of God is supposed to be all about.
In the kingdom of God it is not enough to love those who love a person in return.
Each person is required to cultivate a love that extends to those with whom they have nothing at all in common and who have no covenant commitment with them at all. And,
10 J. I. Packer, Growing In Christ (Wheaton, Ill, Crossways Books, 1994), 176. 154 unlike philos love, agape love can only be lived when Jesus, who ―loved us first,‖ is firmly in place at the center of every relationship they have in our outer kingdom.
Since, through Jesus, each person has joined their personal kingdoms to the kingdom of God, when they expand their outer kingdom and their areas of influence they are expanding and enlarging God‘s kingdom as well. Jesus has called each person into
God‘s kingdom for just this purpose: to be transformed on the inside so they can lead those they share life with in their outer kingdom and areas of influence towards Jesus so that they, too, might be transformed and join their kingdoms with the growing and expanding kingdom of God in the world.
As is true with a person‘s inner kingdom, the rule of God in their outer kingdom relationships is also, first and foremost, a personal, individual matter. Congregations do not love their neighbors. Its members, individually or collectively, love their neighbors. It should go without saying that if the individual members of a congregation are failing to
―love God‖ or ―love neighbor‖ then the congregation will not be either. As Ephesians
4:12 puts it so well, the leadership of every local congregation has been commissioned by
God ―to prepare God's people for works of service;‖ which is another way of saying, ―to prepare God‘s people for loving their neighbor.‖
In Step 5 we will discover that where a person‘s inner and outer kingdoms are joined with Christ they will find ourselves becoming part of something much bigger than they are. They will find that they have become part of a holy nation called the Church.
155 Step 5—The Church and the Kingdom of God “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27)
Although the ―love of God‖ and the ―love of neighbor‖ are the twin laws that govern life in the kingdom of God they primarily relate to the inner and outer kingdoms of the individual citizen. When a person enters the kingdom of God and becomes a naturalized citizen with Christ at the center of their life they turn their two personal kingdoms over to God‘s sovereign rule. Many followers of Jesus have gone this far in their journey of faith but, for some reason have chosen not to go any farther. What they miss out on is the next major challenge and blessing of the Christian life.
At the beginning of creation God declared that, ―It is not good for the man to be alone‖ (Genesis 2:18). In Psalm 68:6 we read that ―God sets the lonely in families.‖ And so it is with following Jesus. Where a person‘s personal relationship with God intersects with their personal relationship with people who, like them, have a personal relationship with God through Jesus, we encounter what the Bible and Jesus calls the ―Church.‖
To paraphrase Dallas Willard, when a person enters God‘s kingdom God begins changing them into the sort of person who is able to live there. The whole purpose of forgiveness, salvation and eternal life is for a person to enjoy life with others the way they were originally created to enjoy it. In this life, God has prepared a setting where they can learn what that sort of life is like and how they can learn how to live it out in relationship with others who are trying to do the same thing. As has been shown, the place where they are most likely to experience the Church in this way is in a local congregation.
156 The Church is wherever people gather together with other followers of Jesus to learn how to love one another as Christ as loved them. In addition to their private, personal times of spiritual discipline together they will, as a local congregation, share in the disciplines of the Christian life together. They will study scripture, they will pray, they will worship, they will fast and they will give of themselves together. They will correct, encourage and forgive one another when the old, sinful self, rises to the surface in their midst. They will rejoice when the fruit of the spirit permeates their life together.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control will be present in abundance.
In some ways, this way of life together is not unique in the world. As Jesus said, people who love and like each other in the world can already live like this. But what credit is it to someone who loves only the people who love them back? This is not how it is in the kingdom of God. It is not how it is supposed to be in a local congregation, either.
God has created the local congregation as a gathering of relatives, not necessarily as a gathering of friends. This means that, in the fellowship of the Church, people have to learn how to get along with and how to love people that they might not otherwise have chosen to spend time with. In the early Church there were people of every possible background, nationality and social status. These first Christians often had only one thing in common that brought them together: the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives. Few if any of the things that bring people together in the world were there to bring them together. As Paul wrote to the early Church fellowship in Ephesus,
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were
157 called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:3-6).
The kingdom of God, and the local congregation where people most often experience it, is not like a social club where people pick and choose who their friends are.
It is a complete misunderstanding of what the Church is all about when people go from congregation to congregation trying to find one filled with people who look like them, think like them, talk like them, do the same things they like to do and who vote the same way that they do. When people like that get along with one another God and Jesus say,
―So what? Even pagans can do that.‖ No, the local congregation, insofar as it is the
―exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world‖ is like a family, a nation or a kingdom where everyone has to find a way to just get along. The congregation of Mililani
Presbyterian Church in Hawaii, described in the first chapter of this paper, is a good example of how this is supposed to work. Since so many members were born in different countries, grew up speaking different languages and were shaped by different cultures, aside from being in Hawaii there is little that they have in common except for their love of God, their commitment to Jesus, and their desire to love one another as Jesus loves them
That, of course, is one of the primary purposes and callings of the Church. For as is found in Ephesians 2:17-19, ‗(Christ) came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the
Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ‗
158 Although the saints at Mililani Presbyterian Church have stumbled from time to time they have, for the most part, hung in there together. And, even when it was not particularly easy, they have found a way to love one another and keep in fellowship together. That, as much as anything else they may ever do together, is a tangible victory for the kingdom of God over the world and an ―exhibition of the kingdom‖ for others to see. Social, cultural, racial, economic, and language differences struggle to divide and separate people from one another. Yet people look around and, in local congregations see, or ought to see, people of diverse and conflicting backgrounds loving one another as
Christ loved them. When people see this they should be overwhelmed and overjoyed by
God‘s power and majesty at work in their local community here and now.
God has brought people together in local congregations to be a light to the world.
As followers of Jesus Christ they have been called together where their lives intersect to show the world what the kingdom of God is like. When people join together for worship, prayer, study, or for taking this love and life outside themselves into the world, they are living out the sort of life that far too many other people are only hoping and dreaming for.
In the local congregation this dream is as near to them as the kingdom of God. The local congregation is, in fact, a real presence of the kingdom of God in midst of the world. In a local Christian congregation the kingdom of God is always at hand every day of the week. Perhaps people should join Jesus in saying. ―Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. Come join us in our local congregation. Enter the kingdom and give it a try.‖
Romans 12:1ff says that people are supposed to think of themselves as being closely tied together and completely dependent upon one another as if they were a living body with every part working on behalf of the best interests of the whole. They are to ―be
159 devoted to one another in brotherly love‖ and to ―honor one another above themselves.‖
They are to ―be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.‖ They are to
―share with God's people who in need‖ and ―practice hospitality.‖ They are to ―bless those who persecute‖ them, ―rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another‖ and ―as far as it depends on [them], live at peace with everyone.‖
In 1 Peter 2 followers of Jesus are declared to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, so that they may declare the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once, they were not a people, but now they are the people of God. Peter goes on to urge Jesus‘ followers to live as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against their soul and to live such good lives among the unbelievers that, though they be accused of doing wrong, others may see their good deeds and end up glorifying God themselves.
Jesus taught that people are to be accountable to one another for what they say and what they do (Matthew 5:23-24; 18:15). Even if someone has returned to their sins
Jesus commanded the local congregation to treat them the way that he treated every tax collector and sinner he ever met (Matthew 18:17). Which means, of course, that even at a person‘s sinful worst, the local congregation is called to love them as Christ loved those tax collectors. And people learn from Jesus that, where their lives intersect with other followers, they will, without fail, experience the presence of Jesus in their midst and the tangible presence of the kingdom of God (Matthew 18:20).
Best of all, this is not just about Presbyterian congregations in Mililani, Hawaii, or
Seaview, Washington. It is about the whole Church taken all together: Roman Catholic,
160 Orthodox, Protestant, independent, Pentecostal, and all the rest. Followers of Jesus are truly one in the Spirit because they are one in the Lord. When they have a disagreement with one another, whether in the local congregation or between denominations, followers of Jesus must work through it as a family matter. They may find it best to separate for a time to prevent the distraction of constant conflict but, even in their separation, they are duty-bound and commanded by Jesus to continue to love one another and to embrace each other as best they can as brothers and sisters; as blood relatives and fellow citizens of God‘s kingdom for the sake of Jesus.
Every local congregation is, in fact, an Ellis Island for the kingdom of God. It is a place where followers of Jesus become trained and assimilated. It is where, together, they practice for life in heaven until they either get it right or until Jesus comes to make them right. And they practice this life together not only for their own benefit but so that the world, by seeing how they love one another, might catch a small glimpse of the kingdom of God.
If a local congregation reaches a point where everybody likes each other, holds the same political opinions, enjoys the same sort of entertainment and looks and talks and acts the same then they have, more than likely, ceased being the kingdom of God in the world and have become a social club, bound together by philos instead of agape. It is in the local congregation that people are to learn how to get along with people who are not like them. As Dallas Willard puts it, ―Why do you go to church? Well, you need some enemies to love and you‘re sure to find some there.‖11
11 Dallas Willard, Lecture, Honolulu ‘07 Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 29, 2007.
161 The local church is where God puts the followers of Jesus to the test. Are they able to love their neighbors or not? To sincerely love one another as Christ has loved them takes stubborn, collective commitment and perseverance to pull off. In the kingdom of God many, if not most, people have little in common with each other except the love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord. But this is, or ought to be, more than enough. As Paul taught so clearly in his letter to the Ephesians, diversity always separates people from each other (Ephesians 2:11-22). It is only the things of God that can bridge the chasms that divide us into little enclaves of special interests. To repeat Paul‘s appeal in Ephesians
4:2-6,
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
In the local church, as in the kingdom of God, it is these things that create unity in the midst of diversity. When people in a local congregation begin loving one another as
Christ loved them then the local congregation will become an ―exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the world.‖
Where followers of Jesus‘ lives intersect with one another where their love of
God joins their love of neighbor they begin to be transformed into people who will feel comfortable and at home in the kingdom of God. In God‘s kingdom, most often in a local congregation, they learn that they hold everything they possess in common for Christ and
162 for one another.12 God holds them responsible for providing for the needs of everyone else who belongs to Christ.
Many local congregations set aside funds for that purpose. When someone has a need greater than the fund can handle then everyone will pool their resources in support of that need. If this is what followers of Jesus would expect in the kingdom of God then they should expect nothing less than this in a local congregation. As is found in 1 John
3:17, ―If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.‖ This is how the abundant life is led in the kingdom of God. If people do not like living this way here on earth or refuse to put this into practice in a local congregation then it is doubtful that they will be very happy living in heaven, either. God, in his mercy, has prepared a place for people who do not want to live like this. It is a place where everyone can live life any way that they want apart from
God. The Bible calls this place hell. Heaven is only populated by people who want to be there.
Part 6—The Kingdom of God and the World “Go into all the world . . .” (Mark 16:15)
God has called followers of Jesus together as the Church for a purpose even greater than this. As the Church, living the kingdom life together, Jesus commands his followers to ―go into all the world‖ and to ―make disciples of all nations.‖ They are to
―baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit‖ and to
12 See Acts 2:44, ―All the believers were together and had everything in common.‖ 163 ―teach them to obey all that Jesus has commanded‖ (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus wants his followers to know that the kingdom of God is far bigger than the Church. The Church is only the part of the kingdom that the world sees. There are many other people in every corner of the world who belong to Christ who have a deep yearning for the kingdom of
God but have not yet discovered that this new and abundant life can only be found in following Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
One reason that many have not yet discovered Jesus is that the good news of the gospel has not yet been proclaimed to them. Even the Apostle Paul, writing 2,000 years ago, knew how important this was. In Romans 10:14-15 he wrote,
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
So the Church sends evangelists and missionaries out into the world to tell the good news. But even this is not enough.
Sadly, more often than not, the real problem in telling the world about God‘s saving love in Jesus Christ is that the Christians most people have met and the local congregations they have seen or visited have not looked very much like the kingdom of
God. And so off they go looking for Jesus and God‘s kingdom somewhere else. Jesus commands that his followers not only be the kingdom of God for one another but that they be the kingdom of God for the world as well. Members of a local congregation strengthen, encourage, and support one another as each of them lives out their kingdom life in their own individual kingdoms. It is there, in the places where they live each and every day that they can best show their friends and families what life in the kingdom of
164 God is like. This is the primary area of witness and evangelism to which each follower of
Jesus has been called. It is the duty of every one of them to live their lives as a personal testimony to the power of Jesus Christ to change a person into someone who loves in deed as well as in word.
When the outer kingdoms of the members of a local congregation are joined together they will cover a large part of their community. When this includes places where church members have friends, members of their extended families and places where they own property, hold financial investments, work or attend school the combined area grows dramatically. When this includes places where children are sponsored through
Compassion International, World Vision or other organizations and where church members have gone on mission trips they discover that the area where the congregation has direct personal authority and influence in the world for Christ and for the kingdom of
God has grown from being local to being international.
Every congregation is called by God to serve the needs of their own members first of all and to encourage, train and support them in living out their kingdom life with their family at home, friends at work, at school and wherever else their authority and influence may be. But the local congregation is also called to expand their combined realm of influence in as many ways and in as many places, both locally and globally, as their spiritual gifts and physical resources will allow. As disciples of Jesus and as members of local congregations people are called to proclaim the truth about God‘s saving love. They are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, defend the widows and orphans and promote justice that leads to forgiveness, reconciliation and peace in the world.
165 Following Jesus will lead people out of the kingdoms of this world into the frontiers of the kingdom of God. Here, as they grow in a new and loving relationship with
God, they will find that God will begin to change them into the sort of people who are able to live out the will of God in that kingdom. Following Jesus will lead them into living out this life in both their personal lives and in their relationships with others.
Following Jesus will lead them to join with others in living out this life together as the
Church. And, last of all, following Jesus will lead them, together as the Church, to live out the kingdom life in every corner of the world.13 God commands the followers of Jesus to do this in every way that they can manage with the gifts and resources that God has given to them.
All followers of Jesus are citizens of God‘s kingdom, joined to other believers by the common Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives. They are inwardly spiritual in their loving relationship with God. They are outwardly physical in their love for others. They are local and they are global. They are jugglers, being obedient to all that Jesus has commanded them to do both as individuals and as the Church. Sometimes, as they try to do it all, they will drop the ball in one or more of these areas of kingdom life to which
God has called them. This is to be expected since, after all, they are still only jugglers-in- training. But once in a while, by God‘s grace and with their love for one another working together in unity, they find that they are, perhaps for only a short time, able to juggle the whole of the kingdom life at one and the same time. At such a moment each disciple of
Jesus, in a love-knit relationship with God, with others, with the local congregation and the world, becomes part of one action, interwoven, separate yet inseparable.
13This paragraph represents a summary of the Six Steps articulated earlier in this Chapter. 166 When that happens, a local congregation becomes the exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world. And God blesses them by giving them so much joy and satisfaction that they hunger and thirst for doing it again and again. And so they shall; in this life imperfectly, but, in the life to come, inspired and empowered by the Lord of the kingdom himself, they shall find that they have become the people they have yearned to be. And they, along with all who belong to God and who seek his kingdom, will dwell in the kingdom of God together forever. By God‘s mercy and grace, it all begins here and now.
167
CHAPTER 7
INTRODUCING THE MODEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD INTO THE LIFE AND MISSION OF THE CONGREGATION
Jesus‘ vision of the kingdom of God can be introduced to a local congregation in a wide variety of ways. As has been shown throughout this paper, the reason for this is simple: Since the kingdom is Jesus‘ own personal image for his Church it should follow that it would be easy to adapt it to illustrate virtually every area of a congregation‘s life and ministry.
Worship and Preaching
The image of the kingdom of God is present in most Christian congregations every Sunday through the sharing of the Lord‘s Prayer. The phrase, ―Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,‖ is known to everyone and offers a good place to start when introducing the kingdom model during worship. There are also hymns that carry this theme in vivid and powerful ways. Some, such as ―Thy Kingdom Come, O
168 Lord,‖1 are older and may not be in most contemporary hymnals. Others, however, such as ―Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God,‖2 are well-known and easily accessible.
Scripture, of course, will always be the most direct way to introduce the image of the kingdom of God to a congregation during worship. Scripture, especially when drawn from the parables of Jesus, when accompanying a sermon series on the subject will be the primary way of illustrating how the local congregation can begin to re-imagine themselves as being the exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world. In Presbyterian
Church, U.S.A congregations the theme can also be introduced in a sermon series based on the ―Great Ends of the Church‖ taken from the Book of Order.3 The final ―great end,‖
(―the exhibition of the kingdom of Heaven to the world‖) on which this paper is based, can be used as a springboard for a continuing series of sermons applying that image to the local congregation.
The model proposed in Chapter Seven of this paper is designed, in part, to be used as an outline for a sermon series. Indeed, the author of this paper has done this on three different occasions in two different congregations. Most effective has been to begin the series with a sermon on the subject of the ―kingdom of God‖ itself. It is important to vividly describe what the kingdom of God might look like if a congregation, or the entire world, lived out the teachings of Jesus in their daily lives. The series would then continue with the six steps of the model itself, each step being presented on consecutive Sundays.
1 Frederick Lucian Hosmer, Words, 1905. Sung most frequently to the tune, ―St. Cecilia,‖ written by Leighton Hayne in 1863.
2 Karen Lafferty, words and music © Maranatha! Music, 1986.
3 Book of Order (Louisville, KY: The Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 2008), G-1.0200.
169 Sermon titles could be something like these: ―Life in the Kingdoms of This World,‖
―Entering the Kingdom of God,‖ ―You, Yourself and God,‖ ―You, Yourself and Others,‖
―You, Yourself and the Church,‖ and ―You, Yourself and the World.‖
In many ways a sermon series such as this will provide an opportunity to summarize the whole of the Christian faith and life including the biblical plan of salvation. Most important, however, it can be used to introduce the congregation to re- think who they are as individual disciples of Jesus and, together, how they should present themselves to one another and to the world as a local congregation in such a way that they might become an exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.
New Member Class Curriculum
Another effective way in which this model has been used is as an outline for new member classes for adults or confirmation classes for youth. The step-by-step nature of introducing the image of the kingdom of God covers the central themes of the Christian faith and life. These themes include sin, salvation, personal confession of faith, the spiritual disciplines, personal relationships, the corporate life of the Church and the Great
Commission that sends us back out into our community and the world beyond.
The image of citizenship is one that is easily grasped by most people. Similarly, the concept of the kingdom of God as a living reality, in which we live out God‘s will both individually and collectively, is also readily understood. The image of the kingdom of God also enables young people, especially, to make a conceptual connection between what God is calling them to be as a person and what God is calling them to be in relation to others.
170 A “Kingdom Covenant” for Members
The Kingdom of God model for the local church can also be adapted as a covenant document for the members of a congregation. The congregational leaders can covenant to provide opportunities for the congregation to experience and engage in the five core spiritual disciplines of worship, scripture, prayer, fasting and giving. The congregation as a whole or as individuals can then covenant to embrace these disciplines as being essential to maintaining and deepening their spiritual growth in faith and life.
In the second part of the covenant the congregational leaders can promise to provide resources to help members live out the kingdom life in their relationships with others. Marriage enrichment, parenting classes, AA and Narcotics Anonymous groups, couples groups, singles groups, youth fellowship groups, men‘s and women‘s groups, home fellowship groups, prayer groups and inter-generationally inclusive congregational activities, spiritual retreats and the like would be presented as opportunities for members to strengthen and deepen their relationships with others in a way that reflects Jesus‘ vision of how life in the kingdom of God should be lived. In response the congregation as a whole or as individuals can covenant to actively participate in one or more of these groups not only for their own benefit but also for the benefit of others.
A third part of the covenant would include a collective covenant to live out that kingdom life both within and beyond the bounds of the local congregation. This would be achieved through participation and leadership in the congregation itself, in community volunteering, in the community mission programs of the congregation and in mission trips and other service opportunities. This part of the covenant affirms that following
171 Jesus will always lead his disciples to serve the needs of others both inside and outside the bounds of the church itself.
Such a covenant also makes it explicit that following Jesus into the kingdom of
God is a serious and consequential decision. Covenants remind those who follow Jesus must actually make an effort to become the sort of people who can live and prosper there.
It is only when the members of a congregation both collectively and individually are able to affirm the privileges and responsibilities of being kingdom disciples of Jesus that a congregation can intentionally become an exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.
Mission and Vision Statements
Mission and vision statements are frequently created to capture a congregation‘s image of who they are and what they are all about. When Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of
God is incorporated into such statements it can help shape the congregational culture into actually being and becoming an exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world. A mission statement might read, ―Living with Jesus in his kingdom here and now,‖ or
―Living for Jesus and for others as part of the kingdom of God in the world today.‖
Whereas mission statements describe the central purpose of a congregation, vision statements are more concerned with communicating a brief description of what a congregation looks like today and what God is calling them to become in the future. A vision statement that incorporates the image of the kingdom of God can also help shape the way a congregation views itself and where it is going and why. For example, a vision statement might include the phrase, ―By the grace of God, a loving community seeking to be the exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.‖ St. Bernard of Clairvaux once
172 said, ―What we love we shall grow to resemble.‖ If this is true then a congregation will not begin to resemble the kingdom of God until it learns to love, desire, and seek that kingdom in its own congregational faith and life. A mission or vision statement would be a good place to start.
Tool for Evangelism
For the purpose of evangelism the Kingdom of God model presented in this paper can be reduced to a series of simple drawings that can be easily written on a napkin in a restaurant or projected on a screen during a PowerPoint presentation. The ―Bridge‖ diagram used by Campus Crusade for Christ is one example of such an illustrative model and, in his recent book, True Story,4 James Choung introduced a new set of outreach illustrations which have been adopted by many as a new way to present the Christian gospel to college students.
The Kingdom of God model similarly provides an opportunity to present the gospel in a visually compelling manner. Consider the following illustrations based on the six steps of the model presented in the previous chapter:
Illustration 1, Figure 1, shows the basic human relationships in the kingdoms of
Illustration 1, Figures 1, 2, 3 & 4—Kingdom of God evangelism tool
4 James Choung, True Story (IVP Books, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2008).
173 the world and Figure 2 shows how they intersect and form a cross shape with the ―self‖ at the center of these relationships. Figure 3 shows how relationships with God and with others (other than with those we love and who love us) are difficult if not impossible because of sin. Figure 4 shows how God removes the barrier of sin and reaches down to us in Jesus, making a relationship with God possible. We receive this gift of a new relationship with God by faith when Jesus replaces our ―self‖ in the center of this relationship.
Illustration 2, Figures 5, 6,7 & 8—Kingdom of God evangelism tool
Illustration 2, Figure 5, shows how we are able to ―Love God‖ and grow in this relationship through the regular practice of the spiritual disciplines of worship, reading of scripture, prayer, fasting and giving. Figure 6 shows how Jesus, when he is allowed to replace our ―self‖ as the center of our lives, also removes the barrier of sin that separates us from one another. Through Jesus we are able to extend our love even to those who are neither members of our friends or family. We are able to even love those who do not love us at all. In this way we are able to ―Love our neighbor.‖
Figure 7 shows how the Church comes into being when our life, centered in Jesus, intersects with others whose lives are centered in Jesus. In the Church, most often experienced as a local congregation, we are able to experience and experiment with life
174 as it is supposed to be in the kingdom of God. This is the ―abundant life‖ (John 10:10) that Jesus talks about. This is where we ―do unto others as we would have them do to us‖
(Matthew 7:12). This is where we ―love one another as he has loved us‖ (John 13:34).
This is where we ―bear one another‘s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ‖ (Galatians
6:2). This is where we reach beyond the bounds of the congregation and love our neighbors with the same love that we so earnestly desire for ourselves. This is the life yearned for by people of all nations and all cultures; life in a setting where people live together in loving, caring, trusting, forgiving and peaceful relationships with one another, with God and with the whole of creation. Figure 8 shows how that kingdom life is carried out into the world from the Church and also how those who desire a kingdom life can be invited to enter into it. ―Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,‖ says
Jesus, ―for they shall be filled‖ (Matthew 5:6).
These illustrations use the familiar image of the cross to present the gospel. The ending illustrations take on the image of the Celtic cross, an image also familiar to many.
The focus of these illustrations is on the kingdom life itself; where it can be found and how it can be entered. This is a very useful approach since, as has been shown earlier, many, if not most non-Christians in the United States are attracted to the Christian faith and the local congregation not because of convincing apologetics or because of confessional doctrines but because of their hunger for the exact sort of life that Jesus described as being found in the kingdom of God. If a local congregation can be an authentic exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world then it will attract people of all kinds. If it cannot or will not pursue this in some way then all the clever illustrations of the Christian gospel, all the sermons, membership classes or beautifully-crafted covenant
175 documents will be to no avail. As Jesus put it, ―By their fruit you will know them‖
(Matthew 7:16). That fruit is, or ought to be, the primary export of a local congregation; each with a small sticker reading: ―Product of the Kingdom of God.‖
Assessment of Implementation
Most, but not all, of the suggestions in this chapter have been introduced and applied to the life and ministry of either Mililani Presbyterian Church in Hawaii or Ocean
Beach Presbyterian Church in Washington State. Although many individuals found it difficult to integrate the idea of the kingdom of God into their daily faith and life there were some who found that their view of themselves, the congregation, their relationship with God and with the world was significantly changed. Instead of asking, ―What would
Jesus do?‖ they began to ask, ―Is this consistent with what Jesus taught about the kingdom of God?‖ Conversations in small groups and Bible studies began to include the image of the kingdom of God as a central model for their lives and the life of the congregation.
Most congregations and their members hold to the old, well-established images and concepts of the church as being ―the Body of Christ‖ or a ―Family.‖ These concepts usually exist alongside the old, well-established understanding that the kingdom of God is somewhere yet to come or is the heaven we will go to after we die. Such images are so set in people‘s minds that a new model, even the one preferred by Jesus himself, can find it difficult take root and bear fruit in the life of a local congregation. Even when presented repeatedly over several years and in various venues the Kingdom of God model could not completely replace the other models and images of ―Church‖ or ―congregation‖
176 that had come before. Yet Jesus found that there were, among the people of his day, some who ―heard him gladly‖ (Mark 12:37) and there are still those today who respond with wonder and joy when the fullness of the kingdom of God is presented to them as the way of life that Jesus has called them to enter, here and now, today.
177 CONCLUSION
Ecclesiastes 12:13 tells us, ―Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of all humanity.‖ When we remember that the commandments of God are to ―love God‖ and
―love neighbor‖ then we can see that this verse does, in fact, convey ―the whole duty of all humanity‖ with as terse and concise a description of the kingdom of God as can be found in the whole of scripture. As far as this paper is concerned, ―now that all has been heard,‖ this verse can serve as a fitting ―conclusion of the matter.‖ Yet there remain one of two things to say before the paper comes to a full stop.
It is worth remembering that entering the life that has been prepared for us in the kingdom of God is not only the duty of men and women but their consummate joy as well. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Confession of Faith1 asks, ―What is the chief end of man?‖ And the answer is, ―Man‘s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.‖ To this Jesus might add, ―Beginning now, today!‖ This is the end to which
Christ calls us when he proclaims, ―Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand‖ (Mark
1:14).
We are invited by Jesus to enter the kingdom of God both as individuals and as the ecclesia, the ones God has ―gathered together‖, the Church. The experience of life in the kingdom of God is, or ought to be, most existentially experienced in the ecclesia of a local congregation. It is here where the ―good news of the kingdom‖ of God (Matthew
24:14) is most clearly proclaimed and most effectively heard. It is here in the local
1 Book of Confessions, ―Westminster Shorter Catechism‖ (Louisville, KY: The Office of General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. 2004). 7.001. 178 congregation that the good news of the kingdom of God is most often applied to the conflicts and challenges of our redeemed yet still-sinful human relationships. It is in the local congregation that the ―bane and blessing‖ of our humanity ―by the cross are sanctified.‖2 And it is in the local congregation that most of us will ―taste and see that the
Lord is good‖ (Psalm 34:8).
It is in the local congregation where God ―sets the lonely in families‖ (Psalm
68:6) and where the good news is ―preached to the poor‖ (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). It is in the local congregation where the lamp is placed on a stand so that ―the world might see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven‖ (Matthew 5:15-16). And it is in the local congregation where the poor in spirit are blessed, those who mourn are comforted, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, the merciful will be shown mercy, the pure in heart will see God, the peacemakers will be called sons of God and where those who are persecuted because of righteousness will receive the kingdom of heaven (The ―Beatitudes,‖ Matthew5:3-10).
These are all, of course, descriptions of the kingdom of God and, as is clearly the case, they are also descriptions of what Christ has called his Church, both local and global, to be and become. From the beginning this paper has proposed that ―Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God can provide a more comprehensive and effective model for the life and mission of Reformed Protestant congregations in Hawaii than other images and models that are more common and more widely used.‖ Indeed, this paper goes even further to assert that Jesus‘ image of the kingdom of God can provide a comprehensive and effective model for the life of every congregation regardless of its theological or
2 John Bowring, ―In the Cross of Christ I Glory,‖ 1825. 179 historical heritage and regardless of the national culture or geographic setting in which it lies.
Whether a congregation embraces the idea of being an exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world or not will, of course, neither hinder nor hasten the coming of that kingdom into the world. This is because, as we have seen, neither the local congregation nor the Church œcumene are the kingdom of God itself but only the most visible parts of that kingdom. The kingdom of God is wherever and in whomever Christ chooses to claim his sovereign lordship. Even so, it is clearly God‘s will that every local congregation be, in fact, ―an exhibition of the kingdom of God to the world.‖ And it has been the purpose of this paper to help encourage local congregations to embrace and own this image given to them by Jesus. It is, of course, also comforting to know that in every corner of the world and in most local congregations, God‘s kingdom has come and his will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. ―For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.‖3
3 Traditional emendation to Matthew 6:13 180 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alighieri, Dante. Inferno. New York: Modern Library, 2002.
Anderson, Ray S. An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. translated by H. Rackham, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934.
Augustine, Saint. The City of God. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009.
Avery, Richard, & Donald Marsh, The Avery and Marsh Songbook. Port Jarvis, NY: Proclamation Productions, Inc., 1972.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1956.
Book of Confessions. Louisville, KY: The Office of General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 2004.
Book of Order. Louisville, KY: The Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., 2008.
Bosch, David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991.
Bright, Bill. The Four Spiritual Laws. Wayne, NJ: New Life Publications 1993.
Bright, John. The Kingdom of God. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1981.
Buttrick, George Arthur. ed., The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. ―Kingdom of God, Of Heaven.‖ Vol. 3, Page 17ff, Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press, 1962.
Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975.
Campolo, Tony. The Kingdom of God is a Party. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Co., 1992.
Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass. Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing, 2001.
Chambers, Oswald, The Psychology of Redemption. London: Simpkin Marshall Ltd., 1947.
181
Chesterton, G. K. What’s Wrong with the World. Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 2010.
Choung, James. True Story. IVP Books, Downers Grove, IL: 2008.
Cordeiro, Wayne. Doing Church As a Team. Honolulu, HI: New Hope Publishers, 1998.
Daws, Gavin. Shoal of Time. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1974.
The Digest of the Principal Deliverances of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. comp. O. H., Milligan, Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Publication and Bible School Work, 1942,
Draper, Edythe. Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1992.
Dwight, Edwin W. Memoirs of Henry Obookiah. Honolulu, HI: Woman‘s Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands, 1990.
Evans, Tony. The Kingdom Agenda. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2006.
Federal Council of Churches. ―Social Creed of the Churches.‖ 1908, http://www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/1908-Social-Creed.pdf, (accessed March 23, 2011).
Fitch, David E. The Great Giveaway. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005.
Gibbs, Eddie and Ryan K. Bolger. Emerging Churches. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.
The Government of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. Pittsburg: United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1865.
Graham, Stephen A. ―The Totalitarian Kingdom of God: The Political Philosophy of E. Stanley Jones.‖ Church History, Volume: 69 Issue: 2, (June 1, 2000).
Guder, Darrell L. Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World. Louisville, KY: Witherspoon Press, 2007.
Guder, Darrell L., ed., The Missional Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998.
Halter, Hugh & Matt Smay. The Tangible Kingdom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
182 Hauerwas, Stanley. ―Following Jesus In America.‖ Christianity Today, October 2008.
______. Resident Aliens. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1989.
Hirsch, Alan. The Forgotten Ways. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006.
Jeremias, Joachim. The Parables of Jesus. London: SCM Press, 1955.
Jones, E. Stanley. Is the Kingdom of God Realism? Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1940.
______. The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1972.
Jones, Tony. The New Christians. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Kelber, Werner. The Kingdom In Mark. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974.
Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.
Kinnaman, David. Unchristian. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.
Ladd, George E. Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1952.
______. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959.
Lavand, René. Magic from the Soul. Pasadena, CA: Mike Caveney‘s Magic Words, 1993.
Lobdell, William. Losing My Religion. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
McKinley, Rick. This Beautiful Mess. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2006.
McLaren, Brian D. A New Kind of Christian. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.
______. The Secret Message of Jesus. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006.
McKnight, Scot. ―McLaren Emerging.‖ Christianity Today, September 2008.
Minutes of the 46th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. Pittsburgh, PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1904.
Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Philadelphia: 1914.
183
Moriarty, David G., et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. ―Geographic Patterns of Frequent Mental Distress: U.S. Adults, 1993–2001 and 2003–2006,‖ Volume 36 Issue 6, June 2009.
Muggeridge, Malcolm. Jesus: the Man who Lives. London: Collins, 1975.
Newbigin, Lesslie. ―Christ and the Cultures,‖ Scottish Journal of Theology 31 (1978).
Olson, David T. ―The American Church Research Project.‖ http://www.theamericanchurch.org/facts/9.htm, (accessed March 30, 2009).
Packer, J. I. Growing In Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossways Books, 1994.
Rauschenbusch, Walter. Christianity and the Social Crisis. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1907.
Richardson, Cyril C., ed., Early Church Fathers. New York: Touchstone, 1996.
Roberts, Bob. Glocalization. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.
Rogers, Jack B. & Robert E. Blade. ―The Great Ends of the Church: Two Perspectives.‖ Journal of Presbyterian History, Volume 76, Issue 3.
Rollins, Peter. How (Not) To Speak of God. Brewster, MA: Paraclete, 2006.
Sacks, Jonathan. The Koren Sacks Siddur: A Hebrew/English Prayerbook. Jerusalem: Koren Publishers, 2009.
Singleton, Jim and Quinn Fox. ―The Great Ends: Mission Statement for Every Presbyterian.‖ http://www.pfrenewal.org/missionally-minded/354-the-great-ends- mission-statement-for-every-presbyterian (accessed February 20, 2011).
Smith, Gary Scott. The Search for Social Salvation: Social Christianity and America, 1880-1925. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000.
State of Hawaii. 2000 State of Hawaii Data Book. Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
Steinfels, Peter. ―John H. Yoder, Notre Dame Theologian Is Dead at 70.‖ New York Times, (January 7, 1998).
Stier, Jim, & Richlyn Poor & Lisa Orvis. Eds, His Kingdom Come. Seattle, WA: YWAM Publishing, 2008.
184 Strong, Josiah. The New Era. New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893.
Thayer, Joseph Henry, tr. Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894.
Tertullian. Apology. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. The Worshipbook. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2000. http://www.censusscope.org/us/s15/chart_race.html, (accessed March 22, 2009).
U.S. Census Bureau. Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, Section 1.
Yoder, John H. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994.
Waetjen, Herman C. The Origin and Destiny of Humanness. Corta Madera, CA: Omega Press, 1976.
Wagner, Peter. Church Growth and the Whole Gospel. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981.
Warfield, B. B. Biblical Doctrines. New York: Oxford University Press, 1929,
Warren, Rick. The Purpose-Driven Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995.
Webber, Robert E. The Younger Evangelicals. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2002.
Wells, H.G. Outline of History. Garden City, NY: Garden City Books, 1949.
Willard, Dallas. Knowing Christ Today. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2009.
______. The Divine Conspiracy. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.
______. Lecture. June 5, 1997.
______. Lecture. Honolulu ‘07 Conference, Honolulu, HI, March 29, 2007.
______. Personal conversation with the author of this paper. June 5, 2007.
______. The Spirit of the Disciplines. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988.
185 The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. MGM Studios, Hollywood, CA, 1939.
Wright, N.T. Jesus and the Victory of God. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1997.
______. Surprised By Hope. New York: HarperOne, 2008.
186