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Summary Of Looking To The Bible By Van Gelder

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Summary Of Looking To The Bible By Van Gelder
Looking to the Bible: the original identity of the Church as being missionary by nature
According to Van Gelder, the nature of the Biblical church is based heavily on the sense that it is a social community rather than a collection of individuals. Similar to the reality of the Trinity, this social community is now living in reconciled relationship with God and with one another. The author shows this new community with four main and distinct characteristics. 1) The church as a people of God “live by a different power and a different politic in the world”; 2) It is a community that is “the body of Christ whose members live in complementary relationship with one another”; 3) The Church is a “communion of saints living as a new type of humanity …show more content…
Thus, thinking the church as being missionary by nature represents the major role for the Church in North America before to consider is ministry and organizational life. By following Van Gelder book, the missional understanding is fundamental because is directly tied to the character of God. In fact, the acts of God’s Creation, Redemption through Christ, and work of Consummation to bring all Creation to God’s intention of completion reveals the missionary character of God. Therefore, ‘mission’ is not an activity among others into the structure of the church, but rather the fundamental piece that brings the body of Christ closer to its original identity. Nowadays, Christians must re-think the Church as being missional in nature. According to Van Gelder, the church, as the people of God in the world, participate “fully in the Son’s redemptive work as the Spirit creates, leads, and teaches the church to live as the distinctive people of God. With this understanding, mission shifts from naming a function of the church to describing the essential nature. This has direct implications for all aspects of the church’s ministry. It shifts our 3 understanding of both missiology and ecclesiology. It reshapes our understanding of the nature, ministry, and organization of the church”. It is thanks to this missional nature that the apostolic orientation of the church is reveled. Any ministry, development, function, and practice of the church must show the apostolic mandate “to be sent out on a mission” in order to spread the Good News. The Church is here to announce the Kingdom of God and to make disciples in any time, culture, tribe, and
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