belong

Why does the Church of God Movement exist today?

There’s no more important question for us to answer, and answer well, because how we answer this one question will define how we go forward from here. Jonathan began the process of putting together a purpose statement for the movement, and I appreciate his willingness to press into the fact that identifying a purpose will necessarily require us to speak about what makes us distinct from other church denominations or movements.

But nowadays distinctives scare us.

I don’t know if we’re afraid of offending people, or we’re afraid that by saying we are distinct from other groups in the church sounds like we’re dividing the body of Christ, but the idea makes a lot of people squeamish. Distinctives don’t have to divide us however. In fact, the body metaphor itself helps us see where distinctives are good. I want the parts of the various systems of my body to be distinct from one another. If they’re not then I have a serious problem. The key is that all the parts and systems must be working together for a singular goal, the overall health and growth of the body at large. To that end, its important for us to ask this second question as we seek to identify our purpose for the next chapter of the Church of God.

What is the unique contribution that the Movement makes to the Kingdom in the world today?

In the early days of the Church of God, there were a number of smaller movements and denominations forming around us that seemed to be concerned with a shared vision for God’s people to return to a life of holiness. Each of these groups had nuanced definitions of holiness and how to practice it faithfully, but they all believed that God’s people had been sullied by becoming too worldly and needed to return to the teachings of scripture. In the beginning of the Church of God, the belief was that chief among the ways the church had lost her way was to become fractured and split, divided by tribe and creed, rather than united around one Lord. Holiness became intimately tied to the unity found in the life of the church.

Today there are new movements taking place in the world, especially in the west, as people try to figure out what it means to be the church in an ever changing world. Interestingly enough, many involved with these new movements share roots with the Church of God. There seems to be an interesting coming together of Wesleyan and Anabaptist theology centered around questions of the church in the world, and it is in the midst of this new movement of God that I believe the Church of God Movement could enter into the conversation with something to say.¹

A Holiness Voice

While many of the people in these new movements are seeking to follow God, especially through following more closely the teachings of Jesus found in Scripture, there seems to be a need for a voice to remind people that we are not only called to follow Jesus, but to be transformed by the Spirit into holiness people. Following Jesus is of course central to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, but it becomes an exercise in exhaustion and futility if not done by the power of the Spirit alive in the believer and in the church.

The Church of God has, historically, held to the belief that God’s call to be holy was not a suggestion but something he intended for his people, and that somehow through the work of Spirit he made this a reality in their hearts and lives. In the midst of a wide-spread conversation about the church, The Church of God could join our Wesleyan and Anabaptist sisters and brothers and remind them of this call to holiness by God’s grace.

A Unity Focus

Returning again to the idea that one of the key expressions of holiness is the unity of the Church, we find ourselves in the midst of a world that is both tired of denominationalism, and yet possibly more fiercely divided by it than ever. The polarization that drives our politics, our entertainment, and even our shopping habits, has found its way into the church and we now long to build the fences around our tribe and defend it to the death. The early Church of God was right in believing that such division spoils any call to holiness, and we ought to be a movement today that is calling the church back to that unity in Christ.

We can’t, however, do so by calling people out to be a part of our unique sect. Instead, we must become the people who are bringing others together. We must begin to work with churches down the street and in our city to bring the love of Christ and the transforming power of the Spirit to the lives of those who do not know Him. We ought to be the first people who say to others in the church, let’s do this together. Our congregations ought to be partnering in the cities and in the country to do more than they can do alone. We must repent of the fear of cooperation and begin to join hands with others in the body to work together in the world.

But what about the lost?

There seems to be a sense that a purpose that focuses on calling for unity and holiness in God’s people isn’t a faithful fulfillment of great commission. I disagree. It is certainly the case that the church ought to be reaching and discipling people who are not yet a part of the kingdom. But we have a tendency to imagine that what Christ came to do was to save individuals, and that shapes our understanding of how we fulfill the call to multiply the church. But Christ also came to make a new, unified people out of those who were once divided. Paul says that it is this one, united, new people, living together under the rule of Jesus, that is the demonstration of God’s wisdom and grace in the world (see Eph. 3).

If that is the case, then it is important that the church at large, be it Church of God, Nazarene, Anabaptist, Calvinist, Catholic, Orthodox, be called back together, and I believe that is one of the greatest ways the Church of God can serve the Lord in the coming years. If we can become a people who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, extend our hands to every blood washed branch of the kingdom, and seek to work in a spirit of unity to come together, then we will be fulfilling our role in the body, and making the reconciling work of Jesus known in the world.

It’s no small task, and it might be that we are just one small piece to the puzzle (to introduce a new metaphor this late in the post), but by God’s grace I believe we can be that piece. We can’t, however, if we set aside our historic identity out of a fear of being uniquely who we are as the Church of God.

^{1. *I get this impression because of the energy I’ve seen around groups like Missio Alliance, and the groups connected to them. There is always the chance, given the way the internet works, that this movement is something less than I imagine it, but I don’t think so.↩}