Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 3: ”There’s Plenty Good Room” • 77

do so many Bible-believing churches appear so dead, so lifeless, so segregated, frankly, so mean and judgmental ?

This experience of the shalom of God’s eternal Kingdom takes place in the midst of vicious spiritual warfare (Eph. 6.10-18), where our external, internal and infernal enemies (i.e., the world, the flesh, and the devil respectively) resist the reign of God in every respect (1 Pet. 5.8). We herald the Good News of God’s reign ( evangelion ) in the Gospel while we fight the good fight of faith, resisting the devil and defying the world powers seeking to render us neutral and helpless. We are invited to participate in the life of the “Already/Not Yet” Kingdom, and we must struggle until the prize is ours (Phil. 3.11-14). We are meant to be the Church militant today. Soon, we will become the Church triumphant . But we won’t attain it without a fight. The church is central to God’s plan, and therefore important to my own life and identity. I cannot become what I am meant to be without her. She has a huge part to play, both in God’s plan and me fulfilling my purpose in Christ. I cannot become God’s man without her. Do you think it is possible to understand who you are and what you are called to do if you ignore the biblical teaching on the Church, and its place and ministry in the world? I don’t think so. Every follower of Christ must begin to wrestle with the meaning of his or her life against the backdrop of what God is doing in the world to gather a people to himself. Can I ignore my place in her, the Church, and still understand my place and part in God’s plan, the Kingdom? Get Your Pretense On: The Church Is Your Mother – and Your Home

No, I cannot. God’s call to me for personal salvation and ministry involves demonstration of the life of the Kingdom