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Re-Visioning Local Congregations As Being the Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World

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Re-Visioning Local Congregations As Being the Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World 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.
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