Two Images For Shifting Ecclesiology
by Rev. Mark E. Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader
The Bible provides a rich image for God’s Church, the Body of Christ. The membership language Paul uses immediately makes sense, illuminating our understanding for what it means to be church together.
Even so, sometimes those of us who are part of the church for years become tone deaf to the meaning and guidance available in this image. Sometimes, additional images can break us out of malaise, calling us toward more robust expressions of church.
That’s what these two images do for me. Let’s explore them, considering how they might shift our ecclesiology, were we to look through them at being church together. Imagine with me how our church experience would shift were we to align our actions, attitudes, and expectations with either of these images.
God’s Love Laboratory
Or, God’s Love Lab, for short.
The Action – This is a container, so to speak, within which we learn to love one another. Through being church and doing the work of the church, we engage with others in this body of Christ, bringing our rough edges and spiritually unrefined aspects of who we are to the surface. This provides a laboratory in which we have the opportunity to lay aside sin and that which clings but is unhelpful, while learning new ways to relate and engage our siblings in Christ.
The Outcomes – Loving like Jesus, remaining engaged when personal discomfort rises, and developing transformation-oriented expectations (expecting to be challenged as part of the spiritual growth process).
Church Evaluation – How do we know when our church is being successful; or better yet, effective? When looking through this lens, churches are successful when their people are more loving versions of themselves than they were the year before. When there is no change in our ability to love, or perhaps we are less able to love like Jesus, then perhaps our church is ineffective.
The Jesus Dojo
Mark Scandrette introduced me to this image many years ago, remaining burned into my brain.
The Action – This wording brings to mind a martial arts training center where those involved train toward practicing the Way taught in that Dojo. The action here is to embody the Way, training and working to demonstrate this way of being in the world. Clearly, this image is formational and action-focused.
The Outcomes – What do we expect when training, when working to refine who we are? We accept the discomfort that comes with training, while celebrating the progress of ourselves and others in our training community. We look for ways to reinforce each other’s progress, while encouraging one another to persevere when things grow challenging. The bonds created during this kind of training tremendously enrich our lives.
Church Evaluation – When we embody the Way of Jesus more fully than we did this time last year, then our church is being effective in its mission. The proof of effectiveness is in the lived lives of participants in the Jesus Dojo.
Are you imagining the possibilities yet? Clearly, the images we use to guide our understandings of church shape our experience. Imagine how much conflict would go away, while covenant relationship would increase. We regularly hear how churches want to build connection among their people, especially since the pandemic. Using these images to shape our church experience yields that fruit. How many other ways would our churches grow more robust through exploring and employing either of the above?
May we exercise the courage necessary to become invigorated bodies of Christ wherein we learn to love like Jesus while reflecting his Way, reflecting God’s light in the darkness this Advent season.