Some thoughts on Kingdom Impact and Church

I am reading Reggie McNeal's book "Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church." And it is timely in light of the Impact Ministries we want to develop at Community of Joy... where we encourage teams of people to see needs and meet needs as expressions of God's love and avenues for developing and deepening relationships.

Here are some quotes that support this move...

"In a kingdom oriented worldview, the target of God's redemptive love is the world, not the church ("For God so loved the WORLD," Jesus said; not for God so loved the church). This means that God is always at work in the world, not just in the church, prosecuting his redemptive mission. His efforts are not shrink-wrapped down to church activity, nor is he hamstrung in his progress by waiting for the church to join him in what he is doing."

"A Kingdom oriented approach seeks to leverage the gospel into people's lives right where they live, work, and play. The church is wherever followers of Jesus are. People don't go to church, they are the church. They don't bring people to church, the bring the church to people." This idea goes right along with our idea that the body of people is the church not the building. The building is our Ministry Center not church!

"When the Church thinks it's the destination, it also confuses the scorecard. It thinks that if people are hovering around and in the church, the church is winning. The truth is, when that's the case, the church is really keeping people from where they want to go, form their real destination. That destination is life.... the church is the connector, linking people to the kingdom life that God has for them. Substituting church activity as the preferred life expression is as weird as believing that airports are more interesting than the destination they serve."