Soma School 2 | Who is the Church with Jesus?

2013 SOMA SCHOOL PHOENIX – What is Church? | PASTOR JEff Vanderstelt

This is the 2nd post of a 6-part series reflecting on sessions taught by Jeff Vanderstelt from Soma Tacoma, Chris Gonzalez and Mark Durben from Missio Dei Communities, Brent Thomas from Church of the Cross, and Michael Goheen from the Newbigin House and the Surge Network at Soma School Phoenix in 2013. 

Here is a link to the previous post:

• Soma School Notes 1 | Who is God and What is His Story?

  

In discussing growing up into who the church is called to be, Jeff Vanderstelt often mentions the words "Gospel Fluency." If you would like to delve deeper into how the good news of Jesus shapes every area of life, check out the five video links with Jeff below provided by the Austin Stone Institute:

• Gospel Fluency – Part 1
• Gospel Fluency – Part 2
• Gospel Fluency – Part 3
• Gospel Fluency – Part 4
• Gospel Fluency – Part 5 

If you want to hear more details about what I thought, feel free to drop me a line.

Jeff Vanderstelt | Thursday, November 7
Ephesians 3:7-12, 5:1-2; 1 Peter 2:9-10 – What is the Church?

What's the first thing that comes to mind when someone asks you, "What is church?" Is it:

• A building
• A 75-minute event or a 2-4 hour event (depending on what your background is)
• Religious services
• An institution

Or is it "us"? Why doesn't any follower of Jesus say "I don't like that church because 'we are' ..."? Are we calling people to ownership of who we are? Are we saying, "We're not a good church because we're not becoming more like Jesus. We're not loving and sacrificing more." In order to take responsibility of our identity, shouldn't we instead ask "Who is the church?"

A world without God says, "What I do defines me." We see this in Genesis. Adam and Eve can become like God after they do what? Eat the fruit, then you'll be like God. But God had already identified them as made in His image. 

A church who rests in God says, "Who we are defines what we do." We are defined as God's church by who He is and what He has done in human history. Once we know Him, then we can know who we are and what we are to do.

These thoughts can be categorized like this:

• Theology: Who God is
• Christology: What He has done as Jesus in human history
• Ecclesiology: Who the church is
• Missiology: What the church is called to do in the world with God

The behavior of the church (i.e. missiology) is shaped by what we believe about the first three (theology, christology, ecclesiology). When we understand who God is and who we are in Christ, then we will understand who we are supposed to be in the world as we share with others who God is and what He has done, as well as what He is doing in us and with us.

• Who is God? Father, Son, and Spirit
• What has He done? He is the One who gives Himself to serve us even unto death so that we may have life
• Who are we? We are children in the family of God because the Son has made the way for us
• What do we do? We love each other by sharing who God is and what He's done for us and others by the power of the Spirit

But we need to realize that all of us, Christian or not, are unbelievers in some shape or form. We all have areas of unbelief in which we live based on a lack of faith in who God is and what He's done for us in Jesus. So the church calls each other as well as our communities to turn to the only God again and again, because only He knows who we are, and He loves us and can change us.

"Teaching people how to confess unbelief is the key to behavior change. We want people to repent. But it doesn't happen first through behavior change. Repentance is first recognizing who or what our god is when we choose to turn away from God. We need to see the true God in Jesus Christ in order to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him and others."

There are three kinds of repentance (i.e. turning from a false god to the true God): repentance from ignorance, repentance from unbelief, and repentance from rebellion. When in ignorance, unbelief, or rebellion, we turn to something or someone that is not God, we are attempting to fill our life from something that will end up being an empty well. And when that god does not satisfy, we begin to control, manipulate, and make it something that can never live up to our need.

In every area of life, the church follows Jesus together, encouraging each other to turn (i.e. repent) to the God who is a:

• Loving God: How do we know? The cross. (He took the punishment and cleansed us by His blood.)
• Powerful God: How do we know? The resurrection. (He defeated sin and death and the powers of evil so we can be part of His new creation.)
• Present God: How do we know? The Holy Spirit. (He has made us new by dwelling in us and with us so that we can live for Him.)

God gives us each other – the church – to help in the process of becoming more like Jesus (i.e. sanctification), by leading us in how to take every (not just some) thought captive in light of who God is and what He has done. He wants us to know who we are and what He wants us to be obedient to. Paul says:

"For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we" (2 Corinthians 10:4-7).

We are Christ's. According to what the Scriptures tell us, we are not alone, we are loved, and we are more than conquerors together. This is how we have peace as the church given away for the sake of the world. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then we need to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood that leads each other to a fear of God that is greater than the problems we're dealing with when we settle for lesser gods to give our lives meaning and fulfillment. 

We cannot skip the identity (i.e. indicative) to get to the action (i.e. imperative). It's because of who God is (identity) and knowing His Son by His Spirit that we know we are His beloved children (identity) – His church – that can now love one another (action) and sacrifice our lives for the sake of others of knowing Jesus. We are a family (Father) of missionary (Spirit) servants (Son) who serve others like Jesus serves us.

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:1-2).

Next post: Soma School Notes 3 | Who are Jesus' Disciples and How Do They Follow Him?

– Sully

Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect.