The Heart Matters

Rethinking the Church - James Emery White

In the Preface of Rethinking the Church by James Emery White, the message of this book is summed up in the following quote:

“Rethinking” is a good translation for the word repentance, for to repent means to change our way of thinking. It is literally “after thought.” Jim is helping us to rethink evangelism, discipleship, ministry, worship, community, and the structure of the church. ~ Leighton Ford

Agreed, repentance necessitates a change of mind or is a way to rethink where we place our priorities or questions why we do what we do, but godly repentance goes even deeper than a mere change of mind, it involves a change of heart – from a hard heart (which is set upon self will) to a soft heart (which is humbled and is willing to follow God’s will with zeal). Possibly, the “church” of today has lost her connectivity to the main power source and the authority of Christ, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Her bond to Christ is weakened by attachment to tradition, to institutionalized structure, and to rigid scholastic adherence to bible knowledge at the expense of knowing the person and mission of the living Jesus Christ.

With this in mind, not only must our thinking be transformed by the renewing our minds, but also our hard hearts must be changed from stone to flesh and this change comes not from our own force of will, but rather from clinging dependence upon the transforming power of the Holy Spirit who reveals the person and mission of Christ to us.

At Pentecost, the power of the Spirit was first unleashed onto the world through those who had been called out from a ritualistic and and impersonal method of relating to God. Those empowered by the Spirit turned from religion to relationship; thus, embracing and reveling in this relationship, the early church was born. This assembly of believers knew its purpose and was mindful of its mission, but does today’s church understand her role? Perhaps now is the time to look back and to evaluate where we stand as compared to the early church. Perhaps the current church needs to turn back – to repent – and to be as the Holy Spirit first instructed.

Though this change is a work of the Spirit, we as individuals and as a church need to consider what is the purpose and mission of the church, especially in light of the apparent “church flight” which Barna’s statistics demonstrate. Or to put it another way, what was and is Jesus’ purpose and mission? As people called from religion to a relationship with Christ, what is the work of the church? James White puts the work of the church in savvy business terms and looks to examples found in scripture to identify what the ultimate goal of the church is. A passage that expresses the purpose of the church is Acts 2:42-47:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

White uses this passage to break down five activities that purposed the early church. In Acts, the church busied herself with learning the “apostles’ teaching,” which White identifies as the activity if discipleship. Also,“fellowship” is the purpose known as community. The “breaking of bread,” coupled with prayer, praise, and meeting in temple courts, refers to acts of worship. Meeting the needs of everyone is identified as ministry or acts of service. Lastly, that “the Lord added to their number daily” indicates that the early church participated in evangelism.

As for the mission of the church, we need to understand the objective for practicing the aforementioned activities. For without a clear, stated mission there is no direction. The mission of the church as established by Christ is found in Matthew 28:18-20:

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Here Christ commissions His followers to go out to all people and to make believers out of them and to train these believers in His teachings. Without understanding the mission of the church, it is possible to have a group practicing the activities of the church without having a personal relationship with Christ. Thus, it is important that a church understands why they are doing, what they are doing, and why they are doing it in such and such a way among a particular group of people.

In short a group of people may consider itself a church and not even have a relationship with Christ, who established the church. Perhaps equally as bad, it is possible for a church to function more like Christian social club that has no other direction than to maintain the group in number and form, with its effort focused inward, rather than outward as was suggested by being a “light on a hill.”

This paper will (attempt to) set forth what the author identifies as the purpose of each activity within the context of the mission and relationship, and then will address how effective our church NeoXenos Christian Fellowship is at fulfilling each purpose including where we, as a church succeed or fail at each activity and what changes or “rethinking,” or dare I say repentance, we may need to implement in order to best fulfill the goal set before us by Christ, who is the head of the church. (By no means am I an expert in this area, the emphasis ought to be on attempt.)

Below are links where each purpose of the church is “rethought.”