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Churches are not the kingdom of God…but they are primary and inevitable expressions, outposts, and instrumentalities of the presence of the kingdom among us. They are “societies” of Jesus.
– Dallas Willard
Friends,
Thousands of years ago, St. Paul invited us to participate in the mysterious nature of the Church. Writing to the Corinthians, he penned,
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said goodbye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive…..The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
(1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 25-26 MSG)
A global revolution among men is building. Over 50 local Fires have been launched, and more are being lit. They all start with one man and one match.
Join me in Part 2 of this conversation with Bryan Byrd of Wild Courage and Jay Heck of Being Sons as we slowly and steadily capture afresh this New Testament vision of the Church.
For the Kingdom,
You can find out more at https://www.wildatheart.org/fires
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