Marginal Christianity

The Church Can Help But is Not Essential to My Growth No!           No! has to said loud and clear to this diminishment and denial of the church’s necessity for Christian growth. The church is vital and essential for Christian growth. The early church leader Tertullian knew this and went so far as to call the church “our mother.” She is the womb in which Christians grow to maturity. That’s the short answer to this “If You Think . . .” statement. However, a good deal more needs to be said filling out this response. What is the Church ? It’s an understatement to say we need a fresh image that captures what church is about that has been lost or obscured and rendered in an idiom that recaptures the sharp edge of its calling. In America, I contend, that image is the church as God's “Subversive Counter-Revolutionary Movement” (SCRM). After Genesis 3 the nature and shape of God's people has been a community sent by God to subvert the a...

21  But now God’s righteousness has been revealed apart from the Law, which is confirmed by the Law and the Prophets. 22  God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. 23  All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, 24  but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. 25  Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, 26  during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that he is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous. 27  What happens to our bragging? It’s thrown out. With which law? With what we have accomplished under the Law? 28  No, not at all, but through the law of faith...