"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must e treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God". (NIV- Lev19:33-34)
Today's church is surrounded by a plurality of races, languages, custom, cultures, colors and religions. A pluralistic society is one in which diverse ethnic, racial, religious and social groups live and maintain an independent participation in and development of their culture within the confines of a common civilization.
The purpose of the church is that of reaching people of all nationality which is the great commission of our Lord. We as a church must rise above color of a man's skin, is language and accept him as an equal brother in the church that reveals the love of Christ. God's purpose throughout all human history is that forming a new people of all ethnicities, culture and nationalities under Christ's sovereignty. The instrument God uses are us of all cultures working together for this one purpose, thereby uniting and enriching the church.
To be the effective church in a pluralistic society means that we rise above the nationalism, the ethnicity, the language and cultural church separates and that we deliberately incorporate people of divest ethnicities into our fellowship- "Be a church to the world".
The call to evangelise is a command. Having accepted Jesus as Lord, the disciples had brought themselves under His rule and obligated to do whatever He asked. If we truly love the Lord, we should carry out His call to evangelise. Therefore, if a church is to be faithful to the Lord and bring joy to His heart, it must be engaged in bringing the Gospel to all people. It is no more an option but a must for a church to evangelise to everyone.
God Bless...
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9 comments:
What do you mean by "To be the effective church in a pluralistic society means that we rise above the nationalism, the ethnicity, the language and cultural church separates and that we deliberately incorporate people of divest ethnicities into our fellowship- "Be a church to the world"."? Do you mean to be all things to all men?
Bro, tq for your comment. It is not "to be all things to all men" but not to be looking inwards, that is fullfilling our lord's commission (Act1:8b). God Bless.
Hi,
I noticed that you wrote,"To be the effective church in a pluralistic society means that we rise above the nationalism, the ethnicity, the language and cultural church separates and that we deliberately incorporate people of divest ethnicities into our fellowship- "Be a church to the world".
I am wondering whether is churches today not rising above nationalism? Can you give details of how Malaysian local churches lacks in this sense?
How also can we "incorporate people of divest ethnicities into our fellowship" when Malaysian churches are grouped into English language Service, Bahasa Language Service, Chinese Language Service, Tamil Language Service and all sort of language services? Is having a multilingual service under one roof at a specific time together with all other ethnic considered as "incorporating people of divest ethnicities into our fellowship"?
Yeah, I too found confusion as what Nardia pointed out. In your opinion, should the church reflected Heaven where multi ethnicity worship under a single worship service. Will spliting the local church into different language services put salt to the ethic cut?
Or, we should split it up to be effective in communication, and putting the biblical picture aside?
Dun you think that "To be the effective church in a pluralistic society means that we rise above the nationalism, the ethnicity, the language and cultural church separates and that we deliberately incorporate people of divest ethnicities into our fellowship" - THIS IS JUST A WONDERFUL STATEMENT BY MANY CHURCHES?.......
the issue here of the church should not be just this statement but what should be done to achieve this statement.. That statement of urs sounds tooo idealistic and perfect.. DOnt you know that we wil not be perfect til the day Christ appears where evry tongue and tribe will kneel side by side declaring HE IS LORD. AS for now we will never reach that perfect idealistic statement of yours in our carnal nature.
So why focus on an idealistic statement which will only be achieve then when He returns.. why dont speak of what the church should focus on in order to grow and mature in unity....
Look at the epistles Paul never just wrote wonderful statments of unity. He dealt with the doctrinal issues, he dealt with their attitudes and other issues in order to help the church then to grow spiritually which eventually puts them on the gradual trail towards unity among the body of Christ.
Please dialogue about this matter....
P.S. maybe you should re post this post.. it does not seem relevant..
to nadia..
tq you for your comment. i said 'we' meaning the church in general. i am talking about a ming set and how we need to overcome it, inorder to fulfill our Lord's commission to us. GB.
to laksa mee....
dear laksa, i regret to say that i truly do not comprehend your comment. would you be so kind as to explain what your confusion. GB
to wall-e...
I am sorry but i beg to defer. I am not being idolistic but realistic as my focus is on Act1:8b which is being "Church to the World". The theme of our church is "Church to the World" which goes to say we are walking the talk! and is not just a wonderful statment as you put in your comment..
GB..
ok.. maybe my confusion is after all a confusion.
The church should reflect the heavenly kingdom right? It should be above the language and ethnicity barrier right?
If that is the case, isn't that churches today which design their services according to the homogeneous such as youth service, BM service, English service, Adult service and so on is the opposite of the reflection of the church? Shouldn't the church design to accommodate every ethnic groups?
Thanks for sharing
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