Is The Church Relevant to Society Today?

Is The Church Relevant to Society Today?

First, what does church mean? What is the church? What is it meant to be and do?

So many people think of the church as a religious building, where they go for weddings and funerals. Sometimes they might associate it with primary school, or maybe even high school. Where they had to sit through a boring church service once a term, or even once a week. Well I also went to a church of England primary and yes the services were long and really boring. But that isn’t what church is.

The word church comes from the Greek word meaning ‘thing belonging to the Lord’ also the word meaning ‘assembly’, so if you put them together it’s ‘an assembly of things belonging to the L0rd’. When the bible uses the word church, it never means a religious building. It’s talking about the community of believers locally or universally. The says many things about the church, in 1 Corinthians 12:12 it says,

1 Corinthians 12:12

‘¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.’

The church is meant to the a radical expression of the life and love of Jesus Christ and over the past 2000 years some churches have lost that. Letting the church become a machines to feed human desires. But I believe that the churches represented here are an expression of this. With Jesus as their head and showing this life and love through the way they lives their lives. In 1 Peter 2:9-10 it says,

1 Peter 2:9-10
‘⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

To understand if the church is relevant we must understand what God’s intention of the church is, that it to be a reflection of Jesus, his life, his love, his teaching. So real question is, if the church is this, it is relevant. To know this, he must look at Jesus, his life, his love, his teaching.

In Matthew 22 Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment, here is the story,

Matthew 22:34-40

‘³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" ³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."’

Jesus connects loving God and loving others together and they are both are great or important as each other. The church can’t just love God, they have to love others. They have to love with the love that God loves. The love of God is unconditional, accepting and forgiving. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you are or what you are doing, he still loves you. The church should love with this love.

When I look at the world I see a broken, dying, hurting world. I see a world crying out for love. Whether it’s the girls self harming in her room or the child without a mother because of HVI in Africa, they all just need love. Love is the answer is most of the world problems and if it isn’t the answer love would make the situations better to deal with. If the church will love with God’s love, then they can help sort out this broken, dying, hurting world.

In Isaiah 9 it’s says,

Isaiah 9:6-7

‘ ⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, ^a]">[a] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this’

These verses talks about the governments of the world being on Jesus’ shoulders, looking at him as a wonderful conselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. If the government were to look at Jesus and let these as their foundations, where would they go world. In verse 7 it’s says ‘establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness’. If government was to establish and uphold these two value of justice and righteousness don’t you think the nation and the world would be a better place. In Jesus there are the values that I believe society needs to be fixed. If politicians can come up with policies and laws that establish and uphold justice and righteousness, with love at where core. I believe we would be half way there to fixing this broken, dying, hurting world. If government was to look at the church as communities of believers who seek to love others beyond themselves who have some of the answers to this world’s problems. I do believe the real church as real relevance to society today. The problems I see in the world can be solved with the values of Jesus and his church.