Transforming the Church

“Simply stated, the local congregation that would adopt the ‘principles and absolutes’ of the New Testament, with the natural outcome of being and producing children of light, has only to follow Jesus’ parting instructions: ‘As you go throughout the world, make apprentices to me from all kinds of people, immerse them in Trinitarian reality, and teach them to do everything I have commanded you’ (Matthew 28:19-20, PAR). These instructions are bookended by categorical statements about the plentiful resources for this undertaking: ‘I have been given say over everything in heaven and earth’ and ‘Look, I’m with you every moment, until the work is done’ (verses 18,20, PAR).” - Dallas Willard, excerpted from Renovation of the Heart

Countless illustrations have been given to describe the local assembly of believers known as the church. In Dallas Willard’s teachings, this assembled group of people doesn’t look like a country club full of the who's who, or a stadium packed with raving fans who in no real way participate in the work. Instead, the church is like a hospital, full of those in various stages of healing and recuperation, but all present for the same purpose: “to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

Dallas’s point is that the church should be wholly consumed with seeing its members transformed into the image of Christ. The desired direction of the Church “would be one that makes spiritual formation in Christlikeness the exclusive primary goal of the local congregation.” 

How do churches recover this primary goal? How do they become these kinds of hospitals for the hurting? By reclaiming and committing themselves to the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28—by making apprentices of Jesus, immersing them in Trinitarian reality, and seeing these disciples transformed inwardly. In committing to these actions, the Church can return to its true purpose, and light can begin to extinguish darkness.

Reflection

Am I consumed personally with being transformed into the image of Christ? If so, how I am contributing to that development in others?

Prayer

Father, you promised to build your Church on the bedrock of Christ. Continue to build your church today as we seek to faithfully live out the Great Commission by going, obeying, and teaching.