A friend sent me a video the other day and I flat out loved it. It?s from a series called Future of the Church and it features a conversation with one of my favorite thinkers/writers/preachers, Glenn Packiam.
I enjoyed the entire video, but there?s a specific part that begins around the 5:30 mark that I want to draw your attention to. The interviewer asks, ?How can we reach more people as the body of Christ?? Packiam responds:?
?It seems like that?s always the question we?re always thinking about: How can we reach more people? We?ve had a few decades now of asking that question and shaping ministry around that question. How do we reach more people? And it?s not a bad question. I don?t want to say that the church is not about mission. We are. We are on mission with Jesus. We are here to announce the kingdom of God, to announce Jesus is Lord, and to live as if he is Lord in all of that.?
?But I think sometimes that question can skew our identity as the church. Because the church is not in itself the marketing arm for Jesus. We are not Jesus?s sales and marketing team. We are the family of God. We are the people of God.?
?And so I think if we?re going to ask that question ? How do we reach more people? ? we need to at the very least set it alongside another question, which is, How do we become the people of God? How do we be formed? Formation is just as important as mission.?
I don?t know about you, but I need to be reminded of things like this from time to time. I need to be reminded of who we are and what we?re called to do in this crazy community called the church.?
Here?s the full video:?
