A Vision for the Church
I was born going to church. Many Sundays and Wednesdays were given to singing, listening to a sermon, and sometimes falling asleep or drifting off in thought. My vision for the Church—sad to say—for most of my life was duty and inconvenience. There were many mornings spent either in frustration about attending a church service or trying to convince my parents that we didn’t need to go.
Some might argue that this is the case with any unregenerate heart, and that could certainly have been the case. However, there remains the potential that the churches I attended growing up either did not know how to communicate a biblical vision for the Church or they had an incomplete vision themselves. The net result was a lot of years of my life lived with a low view of God’s glorious institution that He died to create and will return to save.
It wasn’t until finding and setting roots in a church in North Texas that a biblical vision for the Church came into my view. For me, it was a combination of the preaching, the praying, and the discipleship I received that brought what has become a biblical vision for the Church.
Come to find out, the Bible has a lot to say about the Church, and even provides metaphors that help us understand this God-ordained institution better. What we see in God’s Word is that the Church is like a body, a bride, a family, a house, and a temple. We will explore each of these illustrations in more detail.
— December 23, 2021