THE BEING CHURCH

A church can oftentimes take on the identity of the leaders or the people in the congregation, but the true identity of any church rests in its creator. God made everything on the face of the earth and gave birth to the Church. When a church discovers that their true identity is found in God, they are driven by a purpose to do things that represent God positively. Depending on the identity of the church, it will either lead to unity or division. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1 ESV) 

The identity of the Church is found in the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who in the beginning created everything and made humanity in their image. Humanity was to image God to the rest of the world. Theologian Michael Heiser in His book What Does God Want? says, “Imaging God means being God’s representation on earth.” Our identity comes from our creator and our responsibility comes out of that identity as well. Christ is the perfect image of God and shares His image with His Church, which gives her the responsibility to image God to the rest of the world. If the Church is imaging God, then she will do the things of Christ, which will show her acting according to the responsibility given to her by God.

When the identity of the church is centered around the triune God and imaging God to the world, the church experiences unity. The Church and Christ are considered one flesh like a marriage between a husband and wife, which is referred to in Ephesians 5:31-32. As one flesh, the bride and the groom experience perfect love and ultimate unity. If the church is united around anything other than Christ, division starts to get a stronghold in the life of the church. In their book Exploring Ecclesiology, Brad Harper and Paul Metzger say, “Lack of unity in the body means that the church is not complete” Division shows that the church is having identity issues.

Our being leads to our doing, but not the other way around. The Church began by Christ and we are formed from our identity in Him. If a “church” begins from what they do “for Christ,” that shows they are having an identity crisis, and are being shaped more by pharisee-like thought, than what Christ desires for the Church. When the Church is united around Christ, we are showing the world that Christ was sent to love the world (John 17:21-23). A being church is united around Christ and each other like the triune God has unity in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

"Church, Let's be a Being Church!"