No, I’m not talking about a cult. When I lived in east Texas, one of my neighbors was Garner Ted Armtrong whose father founded a cult, The Worldwide Church of God. He use to cuss like a sailor at us on the golf course and was finally caught making sexual advances to a massage therapist in Tyler and had to step down. You can read all about it on the above Wiki link But this is all a different story.
I’m talking about the church of Jesus Christ on the earth. Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Independent, all of them. The Holy Spirt is involved in all of these churches carrying out the will of God on the earth. Karkkainen, in his book, An Introduction to Ecclesiology is convinced of it. He mentions it numerous times around different denominational structures calling it, “Pneumatological Ecclesiology (p. 121). Pneumatology mean the study of the Holy Spirit. For example in discussing Wolfhart Pannenburg’s theology, “Creation, salvation, church and eschaton belong together. It is the same Holy Spirit of God who works united in all of these spheres: ‘the doctrine of the Sprit s an eschatological gift…aims at the eschatological consummation of salvation. (p. 121).
Again he mentions the pneumatological views of one of my favorite theologians, and one I will focus on in my doctoral dissertation, Jurgen Moltmann – “In trinitarian history the Holy Spirit mediates the eschatological future to us as the church lives between the history of Jesus and the anticipation of the coming kingdom; the Spirit serves the coming of the kingdom of the Son. In that sense, the church participates in the mission of the Spirit. But since the work of the Spirit is not confined to the church, the Spirit works everywhere in creation.”
I spoke at a church in the middle of Big Bend, Swaziland next to the Lasuftu river. It only consisted of six large branches holding up a tattered red plastic UNICEF shelter cover. As I spoke, I was overcome with the truth that these were my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was something the Spirit of God was doing in me and in them. Though different colors, from different countries, and from a different economic status, nevertheless we were family. It was a strange feeling but one of the most true feelings in my life. I spoke this and they stood up and shouted, agreed, came forward and hugged my. Then we began to pray. I made a commitment to those people and to this day we have a number of programs to help them come out of the deep poverty they are trapped in. This is the church.
This is Ecclesiology. “Being the church.” Loving my neighbor as myself, clothing my naked brother, feeding my hungry sister. This is what the Spirit of God is doing on the earth. We get to be a part of the greatest mission on the history of the world! Entering the kingdom of God’s Son and living out His purposes on the earth. In every person we touch, every check we write, every prayer we pray – it’s all for a might purpose.
Today is the first day of Advent. As the first candle is lit and light shines in the darkness, it is a reminder of the truth that we have a Savior. A Savior who was born in a manger, lived on this earth, gave his life for us, and sent the Holy Spirit to be with us until all things are complete. What an amazing God we serve who loves us so greatly and commissions us as His sons and daughters to go into the world, tell of His great love, and live it in front of all. This is the church!
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