At a Glance
Attending a local church is a part of the Christian routine. During the week, we work at our ordinary jobs; and on Sundays, we go to service, sing songs, and listen to a sermon. Maybe we will even serve in kids ministry or attend a Bible study. But the church is supposed to be more than that. It is not a place, but a people. It is a community, the family of God, and his representatives to the world. It is not just “church” that we attend on Sunday; we are still the church on Monday and every day of the week. It is not only the pastors that make up the church, but the lay people. What we do is what the church does. Join us today as we discuss the purpose of the church and how we can fulfill our purpose as the Body and Bride of Christ.
What You'll Hear
Chapter 1: The Story of the DNA (0:56)
- Many of our leaders started out working at Food for the Hungry.
- So many people think the church is only for spiritual matters, and that it need not concern itself with the poor and suffering.
- Disciple Nations Alliance was born to help churches realize that the Good News of Jesus dramatically impacts every area of life and culture; it is not limited to a merely “spiritual” sphere.
- The church is the embassy of God’s kingdom.
Chapter 2: What is the Church? (11:37)
- The community of believers that spans around the entire world
- Followers of Jesus
- A local gathering
- Not just a building
Chapter 3: God’s Plan (21:24)
- God works through people.
- In the Old Testament, He worked through the Jewish nation.
- Now with the New Covenant, the church is the representative of God to the world.
- But as the world hated Jesus, it will also hate us no matter how “nice” we try to be.
Chapter 4: Christ Incarnated (33:09)
- Jesus is God incarnated, God made visible.
- We are to make Jesus visible to the world.
- The ancient Roman church incarnated Christ when they tended to people during the plague, risking themselves to show God’s love.
Chapter 5: The Role of the Church (45:18)
- The church is not just worship songs and sermons without community.
- Satan will not overcome the church.
- The Sunday church gathering equips us to be the Monday church when we are scattered in the community.
- Consider God’s calling for you within your vocational sphere, without simply following the patterns of the world in your workplace.
Chapter 6: Participating in the Church (1:12:16)
- Young people are not attending their local churches as much.
- A consumer mentality has come into churches.
- Engaging in true and meaningful community within a local church is essential.
Using the link above, you can read the transcript, listen along, and adjust the speed of the podcast while you listen.
God has raised up the church to represent Him and the Kingdom of God in the community.
Darrow (6:59)
Go Deeper
LifeWork
A Book by Darrow Miller
The purpose of this book is to help Christians begin to reconnect their lives and their work to the advancement of God’s Kingdom. A key for achieving this is developing a biblical worldview that enables us to understand our work in terms of calling and vocation, and thus live our lives in a way that more consistently glorifies God.
The Unique Role of the Local Church in Developing a Flourishing Community
A Paper by Dwight Vogt
This paper is addressed to those who have a heart to bring hope and healing to broken communities and believe that the local church has an important role to play in this endeavor. It is particularly aimed at those who work cross-culturally to alleviate chronic poverty and bring development change to communities.
Monday Church
Free Online Course from Disciple Nations Alliance
The Church is not a building or a Sunday-morning activity; it is the Body of Christ on mission in every sphere of society, every day of the week. Monday Church explores the greatest tool God has given you to impact the world: your work. God intends for your daily work to be for the service of man, the blessing of the nations, and the glory of God.
Monday Church provides a biblical framework for each of us to establish a meaningful, integrated understanding of our life and work. Whatever your work or vocation, God calls you to a new way of living — fully in His presence and for His glory.
Watch videos, read articles, take quizzes, and more at your own pace or in a group to learn how the Bible impacts your work.
The Rise of Christianity
A Book by Rodney Stark
Published in 1997 and written by a then-secular authority on the sociology of religion, Stark paints a picture of how the obscure, marginal Jesus Movement became the dominant religious force in the Western World in a few centuries. One endorsement reads, “Stark finds that Christians prospered the old-fashioned way: by providing a better, happier and more secure way of life.” Later in life, Stark became a Christian.
Quotes
“The church is to be God’s NGO.” Scott (5:34)
“God has raised up the church to represent him and the Kingdom of God in the community.” Darrow (6:59)
“It is a biblical worldview that creates the framework for individuals, communities, and even nations to come out of poverty, and it is the lack of a biblical worldview that creates barriers to people coming out of poverty.” Darrow (7:33)
“We are God’s ambassadors, and in every community where there is a local church, there is to be an embassy of the Kingdom of God.” (Darrow 9:34)
“And Christ had a lot of friends, but everybody wasn’t his friend. I wrestle with those things all the time, just trying to figure out, how do you love people who don’t want to be loved by you? And how do you share with them a message that they may not even want to hear? But Christ is my mentor. He’s the one that shows me what that looks like and what that means.” Shawn (32:35)
“In the same way that Jesus came in flesh as a representative of God, the Father, the triune God, then we are to do the same with Jesus himself. We’re to make him visible in the communities where we live.” Scott (34:31)
“Stark’s own studies led him to study more about the church and Christianity. And towards the end of his life, he went from an atheist to a theist, and from a non-Christian to a Christian, because of the testimony. But what did he discover in early Christians? It was a better set of ideas that were incarnated through the lives of the Christians in a broken world.” Darrow (37:43)
“Historians have looked at the early church, and what they did during these ancient Roman plagues. And they said, these Christians gave the world its humanity. They recognized the people who were thrown out as human beings, and they treated them as human beings.” Darrow (41:11)
“How are we, in the context that we live in today, representing the reality of the full humanity of the people around us… that really is our purpose. To incarnate, manifest, and reflect Christ in a broken world.” Scott (42:04)
“The church knows how to make nice Christians, but doesn’t know how to make dangerous Christians.” Tish, quoted by Darrow (50:59)
“What does it really mean to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ as a businessman?” Scott (57:41)
“It’s not like businesses just run, right? Somebody’s going to be defining what it means to be a business, how we do business, and if it’s not the church, it’s going to be the fallen world.” Scott (1:04:51)
“I think right now, the emphasis is on the full-time leaders of the church. They’re the ones that have the really critical role to play in the work of the church. And the people that aren’t in full-time Christian ministry, the lay people, play supporting roles. And we need to turn that completely around and see the people in the pews, the people that are part of the church, are really on the front line. And the people that are ministers, the leaders of the church, are really in the supporting role to help them to do the work that God’s called them to do.” Scott (1:11:15)
