If you could capture in one sentence, “What is the purpose of the Church of God Movement?” what would it be?
Over the last half century there may be no question more important, with greater impact on the Church of God Movement, than this one. How we define our purpose carries implications for what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. With this one sentence comes a telos (end, purpose or goal) for the rest of the movement. A purpose statement is a powerful thing; it guides and directs where you go and how you get there. It informs why we exist and why our existence matters.
Well, now I feel completely inadequate to answer the question… Oh well, we press on.
There are probably as many answers that could be given, as there are people to give them; and they all depend on how we interpret the scope of the question. What is our purpose simply as a church? What is our purpose as one Christian tribe among many others? I think we could more easily articulate our purpose simply as a church. Matthew 28 pretty much gives us the purpose of the church, to make disciples. However, that doesn’t really seem to get at the heart of our purpose. Don’t get me wrong; making disciples is definitely part of our purpose. But that could be said of any Christian church, congregation, or believer. I think that to ask about the specific purpose of the Church of God Movement is to seek an answer that says something intentional about who we are. Is there something we have, in way of theology, ecclesiology or something else, that would be missing if we weren’t here? For me, that is at the heart of the “purpose” of the Church of God Movement – to bring something uniquely “us” to the world and Church at large. Otherwise, why continue to exist at all? Why not just dissolve into the Wesleyan or Methodist Church? If we are going to exist as a distinct group of believers, within Christianity, we need a reason for existing beyond just making disciples or making healthy churches. It does not have be something that other tribes would reject or disagree with; nor even does it have to be something no other church does. It could be that our purpose is unique because of the way our practice and theology blend together. Other churches, for example, could all adhere to the same threads, but the pattern we create with those threads would be unique to us.
One more thing, before we try to put this sentence together:
As I mentioned at the beginning, the Church of God has been struggling with this question for a long time. Therefore, this is not the first time we have attempted to give an answer. I think it is also fair to say that some very good answers have already been given. Dr. Barry Callen, in his publication The Top Ten; Why Daniel S. Warner Is Still Relevant for You and Your Church, says that almost 30 years ago, the Church of God wrote a mission statement for itself. It effectively read that the purpose of the Church of God Movement is:
- To proclaim the love of God, through Jesus Christ, to all persons;
- To enable persons throughout all the world to experience redemptive love in its fullest meaning though the sanctifying power of the Gospel and know Jesus Christ as Savior, Master, and Lord;
- To call persons to holiness and discipleship;
- To equip persons to be servants of Christ in the world;
- To live as citizens of the Kingdom of God here and now, work for justice, mercy and peace, and abide in the Christian hope;
- To build up the whole body of Christ in unity.
In his book on the Vision for the Church of God at the Crossroads, Dr. Gil Stafford wrote that the Church of God is “called by God to live out, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what it means to be an expression of God’s one universal church, in harmony with New Testament emphases.” The “New Testament emphases” are a reference to the seven biblical themes of a God-pleasing church, which our previous blogging series has covered (a gospel, Bible, born-again, holiness, unity, kingdom of God, missionary church).
I absolutely LOVE both of these statements. I believe they both articulate the purpose of the existence of the Church of God Movement and give us a unique identity by uniquely weaving common Christian markers together. If there is a critique to give either of them, it is this: the first is rather long and makes for a very cumbersome sentence, and it fails to include a reference to being a people of the Book; and the second requires a familiarity with Dr. Stafford’s New Testament emphases. Could it be possible to create a purpose statement, while being as succinct as Dr. Stafford’s sentence, would also be as inherently explanatory as the mission statement? If it were, I doubt I could come up with such a sentence on my own. However, I would be willing to make an attempt as a starting point, if we could work together to manufacture a better one. Shall we do this together? Here we go…
The purpose of the Church of God Movement is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, in word and deed, by living as citizens of the kingdom of God, embodying the love, grace, and peace, through which we participate in the reforming of persons into the likeness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Good thoughts, Jonathan. I like that you put this conversation in context – this question is one that Church of God people have actively wrestled with in recent history. And our continued lack of cohesion around an answer is a sign that we need to do a better job of communicating with each other about who we are and why we exist.
This task of summarizing the purpose of the CHOG movement in one sentence – a task given to all CHOG people by our General Director Jim Lyon and by the Ministries Council – is important and yet overly ambitious. I think it’s too complicated to boil down any denomination’s purpose into one sentence. Unless it’s a really long sentence, something important will be left out or cut out. But try we must. (Do or do not; there is no try.)
So what are the important things that we can’t do without as the Church of God? You’ve done a great job of summarizing those things. One item that I don’t see in your summary statement, though, is the idea of unity – unity within the Church of God and unity among all believers, both of which we have not really done a great job with throughout our history. (But hey, who said we have already accomplished our purpose?)
Other important pieces to pick up are justice and the role of the Holy Spirit. So I would modify your statement like this:
“The purpose of the Church of God Movement is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, in word and deed, by living as citizens of the kingdom of God who embody love, grace, peace, and justice, through which we participate in the Spirit’s work of reforming and uniting persons into the likeness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
First, Jonathan, what an absolutely wonderful presentation of the problem at hand. You’ve done a wonderful job of articulating why the Church of God must be able to answer this question with respect to our unique role in the wider body of Christ.
I agree with David, that the historic emphasis on unity is missing from the statement above, and I wonder if I could rearrange the pieces a bit and add another thought as well.
First the thought, we have historically considered ourselves to be a reformation movement, but there seems to be a desire to move away from the reformation aspect of our identity. I’ve spoken to others who have seen this as a weakness in the Church of God, a lack of seeking to make disciples baked in to our DNA. I wonder if that’s the case though. According to Ephesians 3, the unity of the church is the very sign to the cosmos that God’s wisdom to work via a crucified and risen Messiah was legit. If that’s the case, then the unity of the church is at the very heart of what it means to proclaim the gospel to the world. It then seems proper for there to be some in the body whose role it is to tend to that unity and call people to return to it when needed. (I will address this more fully next week in my post meant to answer the second question, “What is the unique contribution that the Movement makes to the Kingdom in the world today?”)
To that end, I would offer the following:
“The purpose of the Church of God Movement is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, in word and deed, by living as citizens of the kingdom of God in the power of the Holy Spirit and by calling the church to be united as one body living lives of love, grace, peace, justice, and reconciliation, and who invite others to become disciples and thereby be transformed into the likeness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Goodness, this sentence is getting rather long.
David and Joe- Thanks for the affirmation, and if I’ve done nothing else outside of framing the question in a way that makes it compelling to answer then I’ll be happy.
I would agree with you both, the nature of a one sentence answer seems quite constricting. It is already looking quite verbose, and I’ve noticed that we have no reference to Scripture in it yet. David Is probably right in that it may be impossible to whittle down any denomination’s purpose into one sentence; but if we try, we most certainly have to figure out the most important pieces that CANNOT be excluded, while maybe leaving out things that can be assumed. Just stirring the pot.
[…] 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 […]
Jonathan, great article. Thankyou. It has provoked much thought for me.
What is the purpose of the Church of God Movement? It is something that we are all struggling with. Particularly for us in Asia, trying to relate to one another and also to the Church of God in Anderson.
Who can write the purpose of a movement? Who is qualified to do so? Is a movement discovered or imagined? I believe that this movement is a call of God. The men who started the Church of God in Meghalaya, India were convicted of God towards a vision of Holiness and Service. This vision does not belong to any group or denomination. God alone is qualified to write the purpose of this movement but we have a problem. He chooses to remain vague. He also has chosen to share this vision with many who do not align themselves to the Church of God. Even now this vision is changing and growing to fit the context it is being lived out in.
The Church of God has very aptly clarified, i think, God’s vision in naming the tri-purpose of the movement, namely Holiness, Unity and Service. This seems to be a clarion call to which many churches are aligning in myriad ways, and thus finding themselves, inspite of not carrying the ‘Church of God’ brand, very much in the movement.
I, therefore, propose we ask a different question, a question that will provoke people to align with God’s initiative rather than our own. For example, What is the purpose of my Church, Denomination or Congregation (given my context) in light of the Vision of the Movement that God has call us into? How we answer such a question will help to bring clarity to the whole that eludes us, the movement that is so much larger than us.
[…] to address the more pressing question: why do we exist as a Movement? Jonathan posted about the purpose of the Church of God movement and Joe shared in response to query about the Church of God’s unique contribution to the Kingdom. […]
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[…] questions asked by the leaders of our movement. Jonathan started us off by framing an answer to the purpose of the Church of God movement. Joe andDavid each gave us a response to the Church of God’s unique contribution to the Kingdom. […]