Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), who after serving as a missionary in India for many years returned to Britain, only to find that he needed to be a missionary there as well. Newbigin was convinced that the most effective way a secular, pluralistic culture can be reached with the gospel is through the local congregation. "The only hermenuetic of the gospel,” he wrote, “is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it." He means that the local church, like the one you are a part of, should be "interpreting" the gospel and its significance for the world. Newbigin mentions six practical things this might mean for the church: (For a fuller explanation, see Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel In A Pluralist Society [Eerdmans, 1989], 227-233)
1. The church is a community of praise. In a culture that worships sex, money and power, we praise the true Lord.
2. The church is a community of truth. We are constantly bombarded by ideas and slogans and stories that are deeply contradictory of the Christian gospel. Our community should continuously be reminding ourselves about the true story of God and the world, being careful not to believe the wrong story about either.
3. The church is a community for others. In the words of William Temple, the church is the only organization that exists for those who are not members of it. Our neighbors and surrounding community should see us as a people who exist for their good, their peace, and their blessing, so that even if they disagree with us they are deeply thankful for our presence.
4. The church is a community of priests. We should come together every Sunday in order to release one another into the secular business of the world, equipping one another to be "priests" of the Kingdom in our places of school and work.
5. The church is a community of mutual responsibility. We should not just be promoting change, but we should actually be a new social order, in which sex, money and power are used in ways that are deeply counter-cultural and simultaneously used for the sake of blessing to others rather than self-satisfaction.
6. The church is a community of Hope. Our community is very odd, seeing that our hope is not in capitalism, not in the free market, not in a strong military, not in personal success and achievement, but rather our hope is in a crucified man. This should have a dramatic impact on the way we live in the world.
Let me challenge you: help your Christ Community become one like this.
