June 30, 1999

LIFE & WORK:
Only God can transform
people into a church
___ Matthew 16:17-19; 1 Peter 2:4-10
___By Brett Younger
___Lake Shore Baptist Church, Waco
___If asked how the church began, some would imagine a group of men in suits gathered around a long oak table. Peter turns the page on a flip chart and says: "I've listed what I think are the keys to an effective organization:
___ Dynamic small groups.
___ Dynamic programs.
___ Dynamic financial resources.
___ Dynamic parking and facilities.
___"I want us to keep these four in mind as we hear the reports from the committees on procedures and job descriptions."
___Our plans for the church can sound like plans for the Kiwanis Club. We ask questions like: "How can we get more people to attend our church instead of other churches?" We're less likely to ask: "How can we be the church God wants us to be?" We start to think the church is our business.
___Peter knew better. When Jesus told him "on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (Matthew 16:18), Peter could tell Jesus wasn't talking about bylaws and budgets. So when Peter writes to Christians in Asia Minor, he draws a portrait of the church that looks less like an institution and more like God's family.
___First, Peter presents us with a series of pictures of who we are and who we are meant to be. The church is made up of living stones: "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). The key to understanding this strange picture is in verse four: Christ is the living stone, not a musty monument, but the living foundation of the church. As living stones, the church bears a family resemblance to Jesus: we share in his rejection by the world and his acceptance by God. Peter doesn't mention a building committee, but instead writes that God is the architect of the spiritual house.
___In verse nine, the writer offers a montage of images of the church:
___ "You are a chosen people." The early church was filled with displaced, unwanted people. Imagine the joy they felt when they realized God loved them.
___ "A royal priesthood." An argument can be made that a comma should be placed between "royal" and "priesthood." We are a royal palace and a priesthood. The church is a royal palace because God is in residence. The community is a priesthood with access to God.
___ "A holy nation." We tend to think of ourselves as individuals rather than as a unified people. Like the ancient Israelites, the church becomes a nation in its exodus story. God's people are joined by the freedom found in God's grace.
___ "People belonging to God." The church doesn't belong to her members, but to God. Clarence Jordan's Cotton Patch translation of verse 10 reads: "The former nobodies are now God's somebodies; the outcasts are now included in the family." Religious organizations can operate in the black and fill the building on Sundays, but only God can make us the church.

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