Planted by Water

This is one of the best books that I have read concerning the nature of the church. It is so right to say that the Church must be understood in the light of the Kingdom and God’s ultimate and eternal plan  - or ‘the cosmic design’ as Snyder calls it. You can safely ignore some of the wrong-headed applications. For example, having clearly demonstrated that the church is a charismatic and organic community, he goes on to defend institutionalism too much; it is true that we have to have structures and forms for life, but we must be constantly alert to them ‘taking over’ and squeezing the life out. The church must be a living, charismatic, Spirit-filled and Spirit-governed community. He also defends parachurch organisations and ecumenism too readily.

However these are minor things in relation to the whole book which clearly  sees the Church as part of God’s restoration plan. It is not enough to try to re-model a New Testament, primitive church - restoration is not just about this; it is about all things, in heaven and on earth, being brought together under the headship of  Christ (Eph.1:10). That means the coming of the Kingdom through the agency of the Church and such a Kingdom-consciousness deals with the polarisation between evangelism and social action. It recovers what has been called the cultural mandate - that is our mandate to extend God’s rule into all areas of life and human activity - and allows us to see the gospel  and the church as agents of transformation in the world, without losing sight of the centrality of personal conversion. People must be born again to enter this Kingdom but the Kingdom is more than  personal salvation. As Snyder puts it, ‘personal salvation is the centre of God’s plan, but it is not the circumference.’

An excellent section on the tendency to identify false enemies and how this can lead us astray. As I consider some of the ways in which Christians are engaging with the world today, I think this is very relevant and I’ll try to write a posting about it tomorrow. He also has some interesting things to say about the structures and the growth of the church.

Some Quotes:

Personal salvation is the center of God’s plan but it is not the circumference of the plan.

Personal redemption fits into an overall cosmic design 

We begin to understand the Church and its mission as we see the Church as part of God’s plan and purpose for the whole creation

The church is more than God’s agent  of evangelism or social change; it is, in submission to Chrcist, the agent of God’s entire cosmic purpose. 

In the history of theology the Church as the assembled community of the faithful has been too often neglected in favour of the Church as institution  (Quoting Hans Kung)

Too often the church has been seen more as a  mere collection of saved souls than  a community of interacting personalities 

Authentic Christian living is life in Christian community. 

The central  battleground in the struggle between the Kingdom and Satan’s counterfeit is people’s minds and hearts

The growth of the Kingdom can never be manipulated by human techniques; it is always, invariably, true to the very nature of the King. It operates only and exclusively on the basis of the pattern of truth and life revealed in Jesus Christ. 

A church not structured in harmony with biblical principle will never achieve the quality of growth and the authenticity of discipleship which God intends 

The body of Christ does not need a new suit of clothes. It does not need to have something added. It needs only to be unbound and let go.
Jesus Christ is life! The Church, his body and bride, is life! We need to return to God’s Word and let it speak to us concerning the Church and its place in God’s cosmic design.