Viewpoint

You are Fit for Purpose

The front page of the Church Sunday bulletin that carried the following caption to show who was who in the organisation was bang on the money: ‘Ministers of the Church - the congregation!’

While a church like Highfields employs a number of Staff, we are not employing them to do all the work. We are in fact paying them to involve the whole congregation in the work of the church. So the role of "preparing God's people for works of service" (Eph 4: 12) is a priority task of those who have been set aside "full time" as we say.

But we're all full time Christian workers. It's just that for some of us our full-time work is in the hospital as a nurse or in the classroom as a teacher. So, in theory, more Staff should mean more volunteers for the narrow task of the local church not less; more people in mission, teaching, leadership and the like. And more people better equipped for their full-time job as a Christian professional or student.

The NT model of the Church as a body stresses the interdependence of all, not the dominance of a few. We each have different tasks, but all those tasks matter if we are going to grow up into Christ the Head. So, find your place in the body and start functioning - our spiritual health depends upon it!

Peter Baker

We’ve called it Fit for Purpose because we’re wanting to ensure that in Christ we know what we’re about and what we’re aiming to achieve.

Discipleship ...
is one of those Bible concepts
which allows room for multi level
interpretation,

so the idea of discipline is clearly at the linguistic root. A disciple is someone who submits to the discipline of his or her master as they are trained in right thinking and living. It’s that feature which is brought out in this evening’s passage from Ephesians with its military language of being dressed for battle.

But discipleship is also a word about relationship. In fact this is the model at the heart of Jesus’ teaching methods. Jesus invites us to follow him as his disciples: we get to know him, observe him, and imitate him. All this was implied by the command “Follow me” which Christ gave to the twelve. And for three years these apprentices were coached by Jesus as they lived in community together. They were slow to learn, mind you, as we see in this morning’s passage from John’s gospel.

Here are a bunch of unreconstructed individuals for whom the role of a servant was not one they wanted to adopt. So Jesus has to teach what the life of a disciple of his looks like, by example, as he washes their feet.

Bonhoeffer captures the essence of the servant-hearted disciple when he comments, “when Christ calls a man, he calls him come and die!” The Church needs such ‘Jesus people’. For all genuine ministry is service and all service flows from a life of discipleship, which is surrendered to Christ, the one who came not to be served but to give his life as a ransom for many.

Peter Baker

We’ve called it Fit for Purpose because we’re wanting to ensure that in Christ we know what we’re about and what we’re aiming to achieve.

Highfields - is it a building?!
Is it a business?!  Is it a social club?
No, it’s a Church!...

...not defined by its architecture, organizational structure nor by the quality of its music, but by its relationships. We, the people, are the Church. So whenever the Church is described in the Bible, it’s in terms of the people of God living together as a community or as a body growing towards maturity. A dynamic, fluid, Spirit-filled, truth-centred, cross-shaped organism whose heart beats with the love of Christ.

Models of Church may vary. I’ve happily worshipped in a Buffalo hut in Pakistan, in a cinema in the UK, in a McDonalds in Manila and even within ear shot of an army firing range in Iron Curtain Romania!

What makes Church, Church, is the centrality of Christ in His Word and the experience of Christ by His Spirit. There are a 1000 and one ways to flesh that out but only one true Church - united in the one hope, one Lord , one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

Let me leave you with one question: What do YOU feel about the Church? The answer should be more to do with what you feel about Christ and the gospel rather than what you feel about the curious and diverse people who make up the congregation of Highfields!