What is the Nature and Mission of the Church

THE NATURE AND MISSION OF THE CHURCH
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(February 07, 2012)
The Nature and Mission of the Church
Introduction
The church exists because of the word of God. The Father himself who loved the world so much that he brought his only son to save people in the world started the church. Thus, the Church itself is God’s Word creation and that of the Holy Spirit. God owns the church. It is a gift by God and, hence, it cannot on its own. It can be taken as missionary, brought to serve. It is a tool of the Spirit and the Word. This is because it acts as a witness of God’s kingdom. The church is grounded and anchored by God’s Word (Truedale & Mitchell, 2007). This has been manifested in different ways. One, it is God’s Word made flesh. Jesus Christ was incarnate. He was born, crucified and rose to heaven. Consequently, it is the word as talked about in the history of God with his people. Additionally, there is a record of the existence of the church in both the Old and the New Testament.
It is the word as listened in witness, action and preaching to the church. The Church is also the communion to the people of which on the basis of their encounter with the Word, remain in a surviving relationship with God. This is the God who speaks to them and demands for their sincere response. It is the Faithfull’s’ communion. This is normally the similar vocation of all Christians. Additionally, the faithful normally exemplifies by their response towards Mary to the annunciation angel. This is illustrated in the book Luke 1:38. As a result, Mary remains a symbol of the Church (Boone, 2011).
For this reason, the Church is God’s word. This word of God refers to the gospel that as an existing voice nourishes and creates the Church in all ages. The divine Word is normally witnessed and heard through the scripture (Kimbal, 2003). The Word of God which calls upon faith was brought about by the activities of the Holy Spirit. This is according to the book of Corinthians 12:3. According to this scripture, the Holy Spirit and the Word is one and the same thing. The two cannot be separated. Based on the Faithfull’s communion, the Church; hence, refers to the Holy Spirit’s creature. This was the same case as Christ’s life; the Holy Spirit was active from the time Jesus Christ’s conception by the mystery of paschal. This is the case up to now after the rising of the Lord. The Holy Spirit combines individuals into Christ’s body. This is normally through baptism and faith. It strengthens and enlivens them as Christ’s body sustained and maintained in the Last Supper of the Lord. This leads them towards the complete accomplishment of their vocation (Albert & Richard 1991).
On the theological basis, the Church is one. One the contrary, the historical churches despite all the advances in ecumenism continue to remain a divided lot on various issues of significance. This has hindered their witness to God and interfered with their credibility and effectiveness of dealing with today’s witness and mission. Among these divine matters, there exists no central one except the comprehension of the Church itself. This includes its mission, identification, structure and authority (Parker, 1974). The existing differences have almost instant consequences. An example is the recognition of the churches for one another. This is on the basis of their capacity to perform similar mission of worshipping together and pursuing a common service or diakonia. This is on the basis of dealing with complicated controversial matters in recognition of ministries of one another. Additionally, the various churches should have an agreement on women’s ordination question.
In the book Cords of Love, what is new or what was initially called the Christian West, is a conviction believed by a lot of people that no individual religion have the truth that the Faithfull’s of other denominations have to embrace. On the contrary, each religion’s truth is relative to the community which finds satisfaction in it. The book addresses various Christianity themes. It describes the Gospel of God in a simple manner McKenna, 1999). The author insists that the gospel concerns the salvation of a person with the plan of God to unify all creatures on earth and in heaven. All these things should be unified in Christ.
He describes the shriveling of the gospel as a decaying orange. According to him, God’s gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom. This is a world wide, cosmic, personally and transforming order. The relationship of people with God is significant. On the contrary, it is not the sole concern of the Gospel (Parker, 1974). God wishes to restore people to a good relationship with Himself. This is because people are part and parcel of His project to restore people. It is the plan of God to renew all creation on earth. However, people lose the large picture; the message...