Plants in the Garden of the Lord (7)

How fair is your love,
My sister, my spouse!
How much better than wine is your love,
And the scent of your perfumes
Than all spices! Song of Solomon 4.10

A problem of vision
Many churches today suffer from a lack of vision.

Or perhaps I should say they suffer from having too small a vision.

Consider the way churches advertise themselves in the papers or on their outside marquis: “The Family Church” or “The Place for You” or “Growing Together in the Lord.” These are just a few of the many church slogans I’ve seen over the years, which are meant to declare to any who may be interested just what this church stands for and hopes to achieve.

Now having a church where families are welcome, people can find a place to grow and serve, and new friendships can be forged is not a bad thing. It’s just that these aren’t sufficient to describe the vision of the Church which the Lord Himself holds out for His Bride. His vision for the Church is much more compelling – and more alluring – than all of these mottos rolled together.

As the Lord sees His Bride, she is both a sign and outpost of the Kingdom of God.

An Old Testament image
The New Testament is not reluctant to identify the Church with Israel, Jerusalem, and Zion from the Old Testament (cf. Heb. 12.22-24). Thus the New Testament teaches us to draw on those passages in the Old Testament that can help us in discovering the Lord’s vision for the Church.

Take, for example, Psalm 48.1, 2. Here the Church is described as beautiful in elevation and the joy of the whole earth. Jesus picked up on the idea of the Church being elevated as a desirable habitation in Matthew 5. He said His followers would be a city set on a hill. He intended, moreover, that the beauty of the Lord should shine forth from the Church so that all the world could see the glory of God and give Him praise and thanks (Matt. 5.13-16). So it seems that part of our vision for the Church should be that we strive to become a place of beauty before the eyes of our neighbors.

In Jesus’ view of the Kingdom, the Church is central (cf. Matt. 16.18). We need to learn what it means for our churches to sign the Kingdom – to advertise and display its presence – and to be outposts for it in our communities – communities that bring beauty and joy to their neighbors.

Looking beyond ourselves
Something is beautiful when it brings us delight, and not just once, but over and over. Our churches will be beautiful in the eyes of our communities when we offer them things that bring them joy, wellbeing, personal enrichment, and peace in their souls. In times past, and in many cases still today, churches used their facilities to serve the needs of the local community. They offered themselves in service to the poor and needy, the downcast and troubled, and to those beset by crisis or emergency. You can be sure that people will delight in our churches and find them beautiful when, in a variety of ways, we make it a point to bring help and hope to our neighbors.

Joy couples readily with delight. Are the people in your community happy that your church is located there? To what can they point in order to tell a new neighbor that this is a church that has the needs and interests of the community in mind? When was the last time your church did anything for the sake of bringing joy into your community?

We need bigger visions for our churches – Kingdom visions. We need to see our churches as cities on a hill, where the Word of God is taught and embraced, all the individual plants in our garden are flourishing and bearing fruit, and the benefits and blessings of the living Christ are wafting throughout our community, leading many to seek the Lord and His garden (cf. Mic. 4.1-8).

As the garden of the Lord, local churches, together with the churches in the community, must consider what will be required for them to be flowing fountains and wells of beauty and joy to their community. Each community will differ, and no church will want to compromise its Kingdom calling just to satisfy the whims of unsaved neighbors. But there is still much that churches can do – if only they had the vision for it – to extend a hand of truth and love, gloved in beauty and joy, to help their communities know more of the reality of the living Christ.

The garden of the Lord, and all the plants in that garden, hold the seeds of hope for the life of the world. Let us work to unlock these blessings, undam the waters of life, and unseal the springs of hope for the people to whom God has sent us.

For reflection
1.  What is your church’s vision for its ministry?

2.  What does it mean to say that the church is a sign and outpost of the Kingdom of God?

3.  “But there is still much that churches can do – if only they had the vision for it – to extend a hand of truth and love, gloved in beauty and joy, to help their communities know more of the reality of the living Christ.” What’s one thing your church might do in this regard?

Next steps: What is your church’s vision, and how do leaders use that vision for bringing the fruit and fragrance of Christ to your community? Ask some church leaders about this.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 5 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “Plants in the Garden of the Lord” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.