A church that reflects the beauty of Christ through our unity in diversity. (9/2/18 Outdoor service)

 

ATTN: I took a 3 week vacation and during that time, we went to 3 different churches. One church we went to, the usher took one look at our family and asked us if we were looking for a Korean church that meets in that same building. We said “no”, and they seemed surprised. But we had a nice time worshipping and fellowshiping with that small congregation. I enjoy visiting other churches and seeing how local bodies of Christ gather to worship Christ. Each church has its own version of the grand vision that God gave to all His children – and that is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

And while traveling and not really being able to turn my mind off our church family, this sentence came to me as the purpose behind our As One Community Church: A church that reflects the beauty of Christ through our unity in diversity.

 

1. A church that reflects the beauty of Christ.

First and foremost, every church and every individual Christian must be about Jesus. God is for you is true. But it’s not true that God is about you. God is about God. And we are about God. We cannot be about ourselves for we are not the greatest beings in heaven. We are not what the world was created for.

ILL: I used to think God created the sun and the moon and the stars and whales and dogs all for us to enjoy. But He didn’t. Col 1:16, “all things were created through him and for him.” This world exists for God and so do we. And as a byproduct, it is when we are about God that our hearts are most filled with meaning, purpose, love, and pleasure.

We are a church that reflects that beauty of Christ. And I believe the beauty of Christ shines brighter the darker the world is perceived to be. In other words, we get to know how truly beautiful Christ is when we realize how sinful and ugly we really are.

ILL: Another church we went to. It was a mainline church that existed for 200 years. Very conservative in its worship but very liberal in its message. A young girl studying to be a minister went up and said we need to spread the message to remind everyone that they are the children of God and that we should treat each other with love and respect. The world will be a better place if they will just realize that God loves them and believes in them. No mention of sin or repentance.

How is jesus beautiful to the jews who were witnessing little boys and girls hanging on a public gallow? We just need to remind the Nazis that they are loved by God and encourage them to be kind?

How is jesus beautiful to a woman cheated on by her husband and was beaten in front of her children? Just tell them to chill and learn that they’ve been made in the image of God?

No. We tell them that Jesus died the most horrifying death possible because that’s our sin that he’s nailing to the cross. That’s how ugly we are and how formidable our sin is. Christ’s beauty shines as it destroys the ugliness of sin in us and in the world.  

APP: I came away with a conviction that we must be a church about Jesus. To display Him as the supreme value over everything else, including ourselves.

2. How do we reflect the beauty of Christ in our church? By going after unity in diversity.

There is what we perceive as beauty when things come together – a beautifully orchestrated music, a piece of art, or a beautiful stained glass window made up of millions of pieces. Or a ragtag group of people come together as one under Christ. When things come together and they are in their appropriate place, we associate that with beauty. So, paradoxically, unity requires diversity. Unity when everyone looks and feels the same in’t much of unity. A gray wall is perfectly uniform, but no one thinks it’s beautiful. But when people from different cultures, demographics, racial make-up come together, there is certain beauty in it. It makes Jesus look good because it is around Him that we are rallying around to become one.

John 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

How will the world know that Jesus is from God and He loves them? When we love one another and become one with one another as one.

APP: When I went away for 3 weeks, I was asking God for a fresh vision. But what God gave is not a different vision, but a renewed sense of the same vision. Listen, I know there are difficulties getting along with people different from us. There are difficulties getting along with people who are like us! Sometimes the civil war is the fiercest. However, we have one commander in chief, one master, one Lord, and one God in Jesus Christ. We are put on this earth to reflect the beauty of Christ individually and collectively. And it is when our church comes together as one both body and soul that Jesus is made more beautiful to the world.

An outdoor service like this one gives us an opportunity to do that. So, as we enjoy the beauty of nature around us, would you make Jesus more beautiful by getting to know and loving each other?